“Abdu's Skills Create Better Living Conditions for His Community”

With frequent power cuts and alternations in the supply of electrical power, many household appliances in Adbu’s community often break down. Moving from his community to the central town for repairs cost the inhabitants even more. But today, Abdu Razac, an Electrician is changing that narrative.

Abdu lives in Mbveh – one of the 43 villages – that make Kumbo, in the Bui Division of the Northwest Region of Cameroon. ?Kumbo is about 110 km away from Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest Region.

Mbveh is one of the distinctive hilly settlements of Kumbo and serves as the commercial centre. Most of its inhabitants, including Abdu’s parents are peasant farmers. By his parents’ trade, money was not easy to come by. So, he didn’t go to school like many other children in his community – all he did was accompany his parents to the farm.

Abdu became ill in 2007 and was rushed to Banso Baptist Hospital – where he tested positive for HIV. Thanks to his status he was enrolled in one of the former Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programmes – which educated him to adhere to treatment and break all forms of stigma.

Despite his condition, he didn’t stop at anything to better his lot. Later in March 2022, Abdu’s love for electronics pushed him to take on a one-year vocational training in the electronics discipline

Barely a month after his training Abdu began leveraging his skills in repairing and maintaining electronic devices and appliances of the people in Mbveh. “I repair mobile phones, radio sets, and televisions,” says Abdu with a soldering iron in hand, about to replace a damaged chip of a mobile phone.

"With this solar panel, my activities have witnessed a boost. When there are prolonged power cuts people bring their phones for me to charge against a fee.

His startup is a timely response to his community – no doubt now and then people are bringing or collecting items from his workshop.

Noticing a boom in his startup, IDF ( The Intergrated Development Foundation) in April 2023, supported Abdu with a solar panel. IDF is a Sub-Recipient Implementing Partner of CoSMO (Consolidating Systems and Services for the Management of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Cameroon).

“With this solar panel, my activities have witnessed a boost. When there are prolonged power cuts people bring their phones for me to charge against a fee. Besides the fee I make from charging phones, my activities go uninterrupted – due to constant power from the solar panel,” says Abdu with a toothy smile.

This support is an intervention aimed at the socio-economic empowerment of adolescent children and their families. It’s in line with CoSMO’s goal of building resilient communities - especially for orphans and vulnerable children.

Abdu Razac, 16, is a native of Ngeptang.

This article is part of "CoSMO Insights" - a newsletter of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon. CoSMO is Consolidating Systems and Services for the Management of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Cameroon. It is a USAID-PEPFAR-funded project.