OUR ACTIVITIES
Training on Sustainable Agriculture and Agriculture Professionals
We regularly carryout training on sustainable agriculture practices including; climate-smart farming, organic farming, crops rotation and diversity, planting cover crops, reducing or eliminating tillage, applying integrated pest management and adopting agroforestry practices. I.A.A helps farmers organize themselves into producer cooperatives, marketing and farmer groups and training group leaders on cooperative management and facilitating the registration of these groups and cooperatives with relevant government Ministries. We also provide professional training courses for youths in the area of crops production, agronomy, vet care services and livestock health to collaborating with the government to provide additional training support for agriculture extension officers and field agents to increase farmers’ access to knowledge and other resources.
Animal Welfare, Compassion and Health of Livestock
We carryout animal rescue and reforms through community sensitization and vaccination campaigning to providing basic animal health care (veterinary care), and vaccinating both street animal and owned animals. We raise awareness of animal welfare, care, and protection; by holding community sensitization meetings with the quarter and village councils, schools, community and religious groups, and municipal authorities to reduce animal suffering, improve health and provide shelter. We also organize mobile vaccination and vet care clinics and engage a mobile team of volunteers, in collaboration with relevant government ministry, who provide door-to-door services.
Vegan outreach and Advocacy
Livestock emits more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than all transportation and it has a higher global warming potential. Animal product also multiplies co2 due to extra transport and processing. Animal eat more food than they produce (GHGs). Grazing castle result in deforestation and triples the methane of feedlots. The most effective climate strategies include minimizing animal products.
Animal farming account for 70 % of biodiversity destruction. Loss of biodiversity undermines ecosystem ability to function effectively and efficiently and thus undermines nature’s ability to support a healthy environment. This is particularly important in which loss of biodiversity reduces nature’s resilience to change. Farmed animals and their feed require huge area of land. As a result of this more and more of the earth’s surface is being exhausted to satisfy consumer demand for animal product. As Agricultural Integrated Associates, We carryout community sensitization and advocacy to fight climate change through the promotion of veganism while also reaching out to grazers and non-vegans to discuss the implication of animal farming/consumption and how to feed everyone on earth by switching over to a less wasteful method of food production-crop farming/plant based diet rather than animal farming/meat consumption. The program safeguards planetary health by teaching people about the importance of veganism and benefits of being a vegan.
Micro Credit Enterprise for Peasant Women
We believe that poverty can be reduced by creating a steady business and to this, we empower women through micro business training and financing in the form of revolving loans. We use participatory approach and trainings are intensive, covering the following areas of a microbusiness common in rural areas: Steps in becoming a successful entrepreneur, Advantages and Disadvantages of micro business, How to prepare a simple business plan, Sources of business funding, Importance of savings in micro business, Venturing into business, what does it takes, Loan management, Record keeping and Costing.
Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis
We carryout HIV/AIDS awareness raising campaign, health sensitization on disease prevention strategies, NCDs and STDs for young people while also providing psychosocial support counseling to HIV/AIDS victims, HIV testing and facilitating access to antiretroviral drugs as well as palliative care services for patients in critical conditions.
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
We carryout community sensitization to create awareness about the dangers of child/early marriage. The organization empowers young people with knowledge and skills to take care of their bodies and sexuality as they mature into sexually healthy adults by educating them in menstrual hygiene management while also training vulnerable girls on how to make and use reusable menstrual pads as well as support them by distributing sanitary equipment.
Forest and Wildlife Conservation
We carryout forest ecology and wildlife conservation education through community sensitization and capacity building for forest actors and stakeholders. We also carryout policy advocacy on wildlife protection and conservation as well training for community members on science-based strategies to reduce human/wildlife conflict, destruction of wildlife habitat and loss of wildlife species including animals and plants, so that humans can live alongside wildlife.
Food collection, Processing and Distribution
We collect stable food crops from areas of plenty including; beans, maize, soybeans, potatoes, cassava, vegetables, honey; add value and distribute in areas of scarcity. We transform soybeans into powder; maize into flow; potatoes into chips; cassava into garri; honey into juice and wine and skin care products. This process reduces post-harvest losses and creates market for smallholder produces while improving food security.
Promotion of Child Rights and Welfare
We invest in social protection of children through the protection and promotion of the rights of the child. We work in line with the appropriate legal, institutional, and regulatory framework at the local level, through the constitution, and the criminal procedure code, and the ratification of various international legal instruments on the protection of the child, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), Convention 182 of the ILO on the immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. We collaborate with the community, public authorities, the judiciary and the legal department to protect children in difficult situations. These are children whose survival, development or liberty is threatened. Due to circumstances related to his/her birth or immediate environment, he/she is unable to receive adequate care and protection, and, as a result is exposed to all forms of abuses and exploitation. This intervention is aimed at orphans, refugee children, children living with disabilities, migrant children, IDPs, indigenous children and other vulnerable children; protecting them against all forms of violence and exploitation.
Promoting Food Security and Nutrition
We fight hunger and malnutrition at the household and community level through the planting of kitchen gardens, community gardens, school gardens and training of rural households on kitchen gardens techniques and adequate nutrition. We provide training and inputs for families to understand how to implement kitchen gardens. As kitchen gardens typically require more water, training and assistance is provided for small-scale irrigation techniques, and food aid for people experiencing hunger and acute malnutrition.
Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Restoration
We invest in frontline communities through training and support in biodiversity conservation and policy advocacy. Those who live with nature need support more than ever. At the very minimum, Indigenous people local communities (IPLCs) must become empowered, equal partners with government, scientists, NGOs, and the private sector to identify solutions through truly collaborative, informed learning – if sustainability is to be achieved in our lifetimes. IPLCs have been bearing many of the costs of nature conservation, even though they are not the main drivers of biodiversity loss. They are the most dependent on biodiversity rich habitats for their livelihoods and directly experience its loss, yet they are rarely heard on the global stage or included in formal decision-making. Beyond this, we recognize that the health of nature is a critical component of people’s health and food security, contributing to meet community needs, contributing to sustainable ecosystems and the services they provide, and serving as a benchmark for assessing potential vulnerabilities and entry points for pandemic sourcing and spread. We use holistic and just approaches to advocate for the engagement of frontline communities in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration, with the following objectives:
(1) Putting empowered IPLCs at the center of conservation project planning efforts;
(2) Moving multi-stakeholder collaboration from aspiration to reality as we strive for more integrated, learning-based approaches that achieve realized empowerment; and
(3) Addressing the intersections of ecosystems, human health and economic resilience.
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
We provide training on nature-based approaches to agriculture, renewable energy resources in agriculture, clean energy in cooking and advocates for effective measures in addressing the impacts of climate change on the environment, foster community engagement in afforestation and reforestation by carrying out tree planting exercises on public lands, degraded farms, watershed and forest areas. We teach people to go green by helping them grow gardens, teaching them how traveling by public transport can reduce green gas emission, how eating at home can reduce food waste and how using leaves and iron containers in food packaging can reduce plastic waste and pollution.
Environmental Education and Campaigning
We carryout environmental education with children of all ages, youths and community adults while organizing climate meetings to discuss the dangers of deforestation, use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides in agriculture and slash and burnt methods of farming. We use a participatory approach in training children and community members on tree nursery and planting, tending a nursery and seed collection. The organization also carryout plastic waste collection and recycling as well as marine protection and conservation in coastal areas; by teaching people on climate resilient fishing, construction of climate proofing fishing infrastructure as well the removal of discarded fishing nets from the rivers. To raise the profile of this work, we organize radio broadcasting programs on climate and environmental issues to reach a wider community (audience).
Women Empowerment and Youth Entrepreneurship
In 2019, the world experienced the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak that resulted in many businesses and institutions closing down, which made thousands of young people lost jobs and educational opportunities in Africa and the world at large. Lack of Vocational training services and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people has the devastating potential to create a severe economic impact. Young people have straggled with life since the COVID-19 outbreak and they need a hand that can support them through vocational training to equip them with constructive Knowledge and reliable Business Skills. The creative abilities and livelihood skills of young people also remain low because of limited exposure to skills development opportunities and lagging behind in entrepreneurship opportunities, information and support. We carryout short-term entrepreneurship training program for youths and women on; market gardening, horticulture production, environmental management, food production, homemade detergent, traditional embroidery, bakery production and support them with seed inputs, farm tools, material and financial resources as start-up support to enable them set up individual farms and enterprises to create jobs for themselves, increase food security or find useful employment in any of these domains in their respective communities.
Volunteering and Internship
We provide volunteer and internship opportunities to both nationals and international who wish to build volunteer experience, learn and share their knowledge with others. Students are equally welcomed to do research and improve their knowledge base and careers.
Disability Rights and Inclusion
We support persons living with disabilities by advocating for their rights and creating awareness about the need for disability inclusion while providing both formal and informal educational opportunities for children living with disabilities, with vocational training skills tailored to individual needs and support them with required resources to set up business enterprises to earn a living and be socially recognized. We also provide health and nutrition support, through voluntary diagnoses and treatment as well as the distribution of food items to improve nutrition and enhance their mental health, given that access to food and health services is part of their healing.
Agroforestry Training and the promotion of Tree Species
Through field activities, We carryout training on agroforestry techniques for commercial crops, focusing on Moringa tree planting, cocoa and coffee as cash crops. However, other economic trees like pear, Mangoes, Oranges, Papaw and large herbs like bananas and plantains remains the main focus in achieving food security and economic growth in different communities of Cameroon, to promote awareness among farmers of the value and importance of planting trees(Moringa) and the value of agroforestry for different purposes; how to raise and tend tree seedlings and ways of integrating trees into farming systems through the production and dissemination of public awareness materials. We promote agroforestry tree species for crop yield improvement and pests and diseases control in different African agricultural communities. We select areas in different climatic zones of Africa and identify agroforestry tree species and matched to site conditions in the selected zones. They are also matched to the different crops grown in those areas. Local communities are trained on agroforestry practices. List of suitable species is freely provided to the rural communities in local names. Initially, the local communities are freely provided with agroforestry species (e.g. tree seedlings) as a motivation in cultivating the attitude of tree growing in their farms. They are also trained on nursery techniques on tree raising to solve the problem of dependency for free tree seedlings. These species are selected on the basis of soil fertility improvement and pests and diseases control to achieve sustainable crop protection. Prior to the exercise, the we carry out an impact assessment to analyze the possible effects of introducing the new species to those areas (e.g., the potential of invasion/invasiveness). Therefore, this approach practically demonstrates how agroforestry systems enhance smallholders’ capacity to counter the risks of food insecurity in their ecological zones. The knowledge of agroforestry systems fabricates the smallholder farmers more in efficient water utilization, improved microclimate, enhanced soil productivity and nutrient cycling, control of pests and diseases and thus diverse and everlasting farm income.