Ngaoundéré Soy Project

The Ngaoundéré Soy Project was started by the previous Peace Corps volunteer in my village. The project had 12 female participants during its first year in 2014. When I arrived in the fall of 2014, these women were harvesting their soy. There were many problems during the first year of this project but in 2015, my work partners and I found a way to keep the project going. In 2015 we had 13 participants (both male and female) and this year for 2016, we have 11 participants.

The project is made up of classes that teach the participants how to grow soy, how to harvest it, how to transform it into soy milk & tofu, and how to start a business selling it. Each participant pays a fee to help with the costs of the project. They receive 10 kg of soy beans to plant on their ¼ hectare of land. After they plant at the end of June, a work partner and I visit each field to help with questions and evaluate the soy. At the end of the project, each participant that successfully grew soy receives a certificate. Each participant also has to give back 10 kg of soybeans that they harvested from their fields. These soybeans will be used for the participants in the next year’s project.

My work partners are from Cameroon government organizations and have become the leaders of this project. By teaching them how to manage and budget, they will take over this project when I leave.

Making soy milk

Overview of Soy Class

Some of the participants

making soy milk

Filtering the soy milk

Grilling the tofu

Sesame seeds for the bouille

Soy milk!

Heating the peanuts and corn so we can crush it and add it to the bouille

Tofu!

Grilled tofu and sauce

The Participants and teachers!

Business class on selling soy products

Planting demonstration for soy project participants

Participant's soy field

Participant's soy field and her workers

Participant and his soy field (he used herbicide on the weeds and then planted the soy so that the birds could not see the soy through the brown weeds

Participant working in his soy field

Participant and his family working in his soy field

Congratulating participants on a job well done!