Hope Alive Association Cameroon, HAACAM, joined humanitarian actors in Bamenda on Saturday, 29 August 2026, to commemorate World Humanitarian Day under the theme “Act for Humanity”, with the organisation using the occasion to reflect on the realities of humanitarian work and the impact of interventions reaching vulnerable communities.
The event provided an opportunity for humanitarian actors to recognise the efforts of workers who continue to serve communities despite the security and operational challenges associated with ongoing crisis in Cameroon.
For HAACAM, one of the interventions placed in the spotlight was its work promoting menstrual hygiene and sexual and reproductive health among women and girls in rural communities through its SYMA reusable sanitary pads.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Laison Sylvie, says the initiative was designed to go beyond the distribution of sanitary products by equipping girls with the knowledge and skills to make the pads themselves.
“We crafted a unique reusable sanitary pad that we are really known for,” Sylvie explains adding “It is a washable and reusable sanitary pad that has been used in the South West, the North and Far North regions, all the conflict affected regions in Cameroon.”
According to her, HAACAM takes the programme directly into rural communities, where girls are taught about their bodies and trained to make the sanitary pads for their own use.
“They make them for themselves, and they make them for their friends,” she says. “Some of them make and even sell in school to their friends.”
HAACAM estimates that more than 5,000 young girls have been directly reached through the reusable sanitary pad intervention.
The organisation sees the model as both a health and empowerment intervention, particularly in communities where access to menstrual hygiene products can be constrained by poverty, distance and crisis.
While the SYMA pads were among the activities highlighted during the commemoration, the humanitarian response of HAACAM extends into livelihoods, child protection and gender based violence case management.
The organisation has trained women, particularly internally displaced women, in different vocational skills and provided start up kits to help them rebuild livelihoods.
However, insecurity has affected the ability of organisation to sustain some of these activities.
The Executive Director says she has personally experienced the dangers associated with humanitarian field work, including being abducted several times while travelling to and from project locations.
She also recalls security incidents while travelling between the office of the organisation and her home when she lived around Mile 4 in Bamenda.
Those experiences contributed to the suspension of some vocational training activities.
The risks, however, have not ended the engagement of HAACAM with hard to reach communities.
The organisation is currently focusing much of its work in Donga Mantung Division
There, HAACAM is implementing mental health and reproductive health interventions while creating child and adolescent friendly spaces and providing case management for survivors of gender based violence.
Laison Sylvie and team in Ndu
Laison Sylvie says the organisation is also working to build community based support mechanisms because formal social services and development partners remain limited in some of these communities.
“Around Donga Mantung we have very few development partners that are active there, so the resources and the social services are really absent,” she says.
“We are trying to build a community mechanism that can support survivors and vulnerable persons.” she added
The organisation also provides child protection services, including daycare for beneficiaries and other working women who lack trusted caregivers for their children.
The objective is to provide a safer environment for children while allowing their mothers to work without having to leave them with people they may not trust.
The World Humanitarian Day commemoration offered HAACAM an opportunity not only to showcase its work but also to reflect on what it takes to deliver humanitarian assistance in conflict affected communities.
For organisations operating in such environments, humanitarian action can involve travelling through insecure areas, working with limited resources and responding to needs that often extend beyond immediate emergency assistance.
In 2025, HAACAM received the National Heroes Award for Most Community Based Organisation, recognition Laison Sylvie attributes to the direct engagement of her organisation with communities.
“We have a lot of community impact in the communities where we have worked,” she says.
By Bakah Derick for Hilltopvoices Web
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