The last stage of our program consists of providing young people with different professional experiences. We offer them various activities such as the manufacture and sale of donuts or traditional juice, agriculture, or even masonry. They choose according to their interests. This step has two purposes: First, we want to allow them to acquire transferable professional skills such as punctuality, rigor at work or teamwork. For these young people, it is often their first work experience, so they have a lot of things to work on and this is an opportunity for them to do so if they want to. Some enthusiastically embrace this part of the program, but others drag their feet into it and it is usually the ones who end up returning to the streets.

After having worked on the inner wounds of our young people to ensure that no behavioral problem interferes with their reintegration, the next step is to offer them the knowledge necessary to fill specific gaps and allow them to believe in themselves and their abilities. We briefly assess the young people when they arrive with us to identify their training needs. And most of them need literacy above all else. So they start by learning the alphabet, the syllables, in short, the basics. After this base, we seek to place young people in different professional training courses according to their centers of interest. Daniella, for example, has started training in hairdressing, while waiting to resume her studies in September. One of the difficulties with this phase of acquiring knowledge is convincing the people who could train the young people of their will to change. Most don’t trust them and aren’t always willing to give them a chance. But we persevere all the same because we believe that these young people have a bright future ahead of them, if only they learn to believe in themselves and in all the promises of God concerning their lives and that society gives them a chance.

Today many people are prisoners, not of visible things that can be dealt with by physical interventions, but of obstacles that lie dormant inside them and harm the goals they set for themselves. They have difficulty finding a job and even when they find one, they have difficulty keeping it; they have difficulty having healthy interpersonal relationships; they have difficulty setting goals, having stability, knowing what they want in life and who they are. They act and make decisions automatically, spontaneously, telling themselves that their decisions and actions are based on some thought or logic, but they don’t realize that they are just reacting to events according to how they have been conditioned by their inner wounds, the significant events of their lives, the words spoken by people they love or loved and who accompanied them during their childhood, while they were developing and building their identity. Because of all of this, they are prisoners of an identity, a way of doing and a way of thinking that was never intended for them. This can often explain the aggressiveness of our youngsters, their inability to follow the rules or follow a certain routine.

The good news is that the truth of God’s word will and can set them free, revealing to them who they really are and what wonderful abilities and skills God has placed in their lives. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free, (John: 8.32). The beauty of this project is that God does not want to reveal this truth to them collectively, no, He has a specific, personal and intimate message for each of these lost and confused young people, who are feel lonely and abandoned; for each of these abandoned children. A personal word that shows that God knows, He knows everything about their pain, their challenges, their fears and the doubts and anxieties that invade them, on their couch, when they are alone with them. He knows all about this, but He also wants to reveal to them what He has in store for them, for their healing, fulfillment and fulfillment. And why have recourse to God to help these young people and children? Because the wound is internal and invisible, it cannot therefore be healed by Men who only have access to what they can touch and see.

Salomon is an 18-year-old boy who grew up with an alcoholic father, but was lucky enough to be taken in by his grandmother. On the other hand, this lack of structure and paternal authority led him to make bad choices and to allow himself to be influenced by other young people who wanted to live without constraint. He left his grandmother, dropped out of school and found himself on the streets. Today Solomon is a different young man. He dreams of financial autonomy, stability and sheet metal work. Salomon has a passion, working with his hands and making sheet metal products. And for that he is ready to work hard, accepting the constraints to which he refused to comply in the past.

Born in 2000, Mubarak left his guardian’s house in 2007, to live according to his own words, “as he wants”. This quest for independence will lead him to the streets of Yaoundé, where he will survive by doing the dishes and cleaning in the bars. Mubarak never had the opportunity to learn to read and write. And those long years on the street made him lose all interest in school. Today, Mubarak is a young adult of 21, who has only one dream: to find some stability in his life. He wants permanent housing, training that would qualify him for a profession and a job. His only obstacle, the mental barriers that make him believe that a return to school is difficult for him, if not impossible. It is on this point that we work with Mubarak, making him aware of all the gifts and talents he possesses. We teach our young people in general to discover their identity in Christ, to recognize all these skills that God has placed in them and to rely on words of faith to activate these skills in them.

Oumarou is a 24-year-old. He has had some very difficult times in his life; the first was the loss of his parents. Then, after being taken in by his aunt, she left the house without telling him when he was 17 and never came back. Unable to pay the rent, he ended up on the street. These pitfalls on his way did not diminish his determination; even in the street, he did not give up his dream of opening his own restaurant one day. Today, he looks to the future and looks forward to starting this culinary training that would allow him to take his wings.

Romaric is a 17-year-old teenager. A year ago, he left his mother living in a village in Bafoussam to go to Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, 254 km away. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the job he wanted and ended up on the street. He managed to survive by selling plastic bags in local markets.

Romaric has a dream, to have his carpentry workshop. In his village, he had the chance to start a practical training in carpentry and he fell in love with the craft. Since we picked him up in the shelter, he’s been working hard to save, to make his dream come true.

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