Empowering Displaced Youth in Cameroon
Bamenda, Cameroon
The Empowering Displaced Youth in Cameroon project focuses on crisis-affected youths from Bamenda I, Bamenda II, and Tubah municipalities in Cameroon’s North West region. Led by Community Action for Advancing Sustainable Development (CAASDEV), this project focuses on an area where over 1.6 million people have been displaced, and many health centers rely on kerosene lamps and diesel generators, posing safety risks and emitting harmful emissions. Vaccine and medicine shelf life is also severely limited due to unreliable refrigeration.
To solve this health challenge, CAASDEV is on a mission to train 30 local youth, aged 18-35, in solar energy skills to create green jobs. This will enable them to electrify three off-grid maternity centers, and install IoT-enabled solar cold storage units, extending vaccine shelf life from 1 to 365 days, ensuring care for over 8,000 women and children annually.
The need for this project arose from tragic firsthand experience and extensive community consultations. In early 2025, Elsie, a 19-year-old internally displaced single mother, lost her premature twins in a fire caused by an overheated kerosene lamp at an off-grid maternity center in Nkwen. This incident highlighted the dangers faced by women and children in energy-poor health facilities.
Following this, CAASDEV held focus groups with over 80 community members, including displaced youths, women’s groups, health workers, and local leaders. The community strongly requested clean energy solutions and youth empowerment through solar skills.
By addressing energy poverty, creating green jobs, improving healthcare, and reducing emissions, this project fosters social cohesion, economic resilience, and sustainable recovery in this conflict-affected region.
The Purpose Earth grant is crucial in supporting and empowering the project’s 30 designated youths as “solarpreneurs” through a 3-month TVET training in solar system design, installation, and maintenance. The grant will provide solar training kits, tools, and stipends for travel to ensure access for participants.
The grant also allows for the installation of solar systems in three off-grid maternity centers in Nkwen, Bambui, and Santa, replacing the need for hazardous kerosene and candle lighting options. The solar cold storage units powered by these new systems will ensure uninterrupted immunization for over 8,000 women and children annually.
Additionally, funding will enable the establishment and formalization of three youth-led solar cooperatives, fostering green job creation and entrepreneurship. Through partnerships, the project will provide mentorship and business support, promoting sustainable livelihoods. This grant advances SDGs on clean energy, gender equality, decent work, and health, catalyzing a just energy transition and resilience in crisis-affected communities.
“For our communities, this support is more than funding. It replaces hazardous lamps with safe solar power, secures vaccines for mothers and children, and empowers displaced youth to lead a just energy transition.”
– Ndze Noel Lifogha, Project Lead
The Eco Hub
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