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.

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.

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.