Helps International (HINT)

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NOW ACCEPTING VOLUNTEERS!

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VolunteerWorldWho wants to join us in Cameroon?

If you’re looking for a rewarding experience, a new adventure, an eye-opening summer, or an educational year, look no further than Helps International. We are currently (and always) accepting volunteers to manage a myriad of projects in health, education, IT, and microfinance. Our programs support the local community of Buea and its environs.

Buea, Cameroon is located in the Southwest Province, one of two Anglophone provinces in Cameroon. Francophone Douala is a mere hour by car, as is the seaside town of Limbe. Discover African culture, fall sleep beneath stunning sunsets, hike an active volcano, explore the metropolis of Douala, and enjoy the vibrant life of Cameroon! Most importantly, spend your summer (or two week vacation… or year….) working to build a better world.

HINT has recently partnered with VolunteerWorld, a German organization that sources volunteers from around the world to work with enterprises like ours who need the extra help. Check out their user-friendly new website: VolunteerWorld.

For more information on our volunteer positions, click below:

Microfinance Fund Manager
Health Outreach Program Coordinator
Summer Sports Camp Coordinator
IT Training and Support

Keep in mind that HINT always welcomes volunteers with new ideas. If you have an idea for a program that you would like to run other than those listed above, please contact us. We can also find placements with local organizations for volunteers who wish to work with orphanages, teach English, and more.

As always, if you would like to contact us, donate, or get involved, you can find us on: Twitter, Facebook, by email, or by contacting us online.

We wish you continued success in your social enterprises and endeavors in 2015! Together, we can improve our local (and global) communities.

HINT would like to announce a new partnership…

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Remember that time we promised that more changes were coming your way? Well, yet another of those changes has arrived! HINT is proud to announce that it has now entered into a partnership with the Frontier Market Scouts fellowship program!

The Frontier Market Scouts (FMS) fellowship offers professional training in social enterprise and impact investing to those seeking a career shift. Twice each year, FMS offers two week training programs in Monterey, CA, USA and in Amsterdam, NL with courses taught by leading professionals in the social impact space. Following successful completion of their training, fellows receive a certificate from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey. Recognized as a leader in international studies, MIIS’s academic programs are world-renowned for their academic rigor and professional impact. After certification, fellows spend 2 – 12 months working with a FMS partner organization in the social impact space.

HINT will be one of FMS’s social impact partners, bringing fellows to Cameroon to work in the social impact space. FMS fellows will join HINT’s microfinance program, called Kingdom Community Fund (KCF), as fund managers. This opportunity will provide valuable professional experience for FMS fellows in managing a microfinance fund and working in developing markets with small-business entrepreneurs. Alternatively, FMS fellows will be able to provide business training to KCF’s entrepreneurs and consistent management of the Kingdom Community Fund.

We look forward to sharing more with you about our HINT – FMS partnership in the coming months! Feel free to click on the link to FMS above to explore the FMS program. Perhaps HINT will see one of you in Cameroon as an FMS fellow in the future!

As always, if you would like to contact us, donate, or get involved, you can find us on: Twitter, Facebook, by email, or by contacting us online.

We wish you continued success in your social enterprises and endeavors in 2015! Together, we can improve our local (and global) communities.

HINT’s Online Makeover

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For those of you who have lately perused the informative yet outdated pages of HINT’s website, you will have noticed that some changes have taken place; “some” being the operative word here, as the entire website has, in fact, been redesigned and updated. No more clicking through endless pages to find what you’re looking for. The vast array of information on HINT’s programs and mission has been condensed, so that over half of the original web pages have been removed from the website. We hope that this streamlining of information will help you better navigate our website to discover how you can best support HINT. The theme of the website has been updated; no more extra-terrestrial green windows. The new orange background better reflects HINT’s logo and mission: orange has always been the color of HINT, signifying the warmth and excitement we bring to people’s lives in our social mission. We have also fixed broken links and missing pictures, hoping to project the same professional face to the world online that we present to our community in the real world. If you have any suggestions or comments on the changes, feel free to contact us.

As part of our initiative to reach a greater online audience, and to communicate better with that online audience, HINT has created a Twitter account! We have now joined the millions of others connected online in the instant news cycle. HINT professionals pride themselves on being well-informed professionals; now we can share that knowledge with others. Follow us to remain up-to-date on HINT’s projects, meaningful news related to our missions, and retweets about our partners’ activities. We look forward to connecting with you online.

In revitalizing our online presence, we have linked our Twitter and Facebook accounts and also posted feeds to these pages on our website. Our supporters can now remain up-to-date by whichever medium of communication they wish! Those of us at HINT are incredibly excited to connect with you – in person or online – in 2015.

As always, if you would like to contact us, donate, or get involved, you can find us on: Twitter, Facebook, by email, or by contacting us online.

We wish you continued success in your social enterprises and endeavors in 2015! Together, we can improve our local (and global) communities.

Change is in the air: Join HINT in all the excitement of 2015

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After some peace and quiet at HINT, we are now back in action with several changes coming your way in 2015! We have continued our works to help the poor and underprivileged, but are now pleased to announce that some exciting new changes are being incorporated into the programs.

The year started off well, with HINT welcoming its first volunteer in almost five years on March 1st. Jessa Coleman arrived off an overnight flight from Amsterdam, where she had been engaged in a fellowship in impact investing and social entrepreneurship. After a day to recuperate, she was bright-eyes, excited, and ready to apply the knowledge she had gained at her training to HINT’s programs and business model. Jessa will be with us for four months total, until July 1st. In that time, she has accepted a heavy burden of responsibility. Jessa agreed to work on several different aspects of HINT’s operations, including: updating HINT’s online and social media presence; revitalizing the Kingdom Community Fund; developing a sustainable business plan for HINT; and reaching out to new donors and partners.

Jessa has taken on the title of “Fund Manager” of the Kingdom Community Fund (KCF), HINT’s microfinance institution. She has been developing a more efficient management and accounting system for the fund while meeting the fund’s current clients. Under Jessa’s leadership, the fund is once again open to new clients (having been recently closed to new clients). Most excitingly, a savings scheme has been incorporated into the fund, such that KCF is no longer limited to offering only microcredit loans, but is now a full-blown microfinance service. Jessa has also begun hosting monthly business seminars with the fund’s members and is encouraging greater involvement in the non-solidarity groups. As a result of these ambitious changes, KCF now offers microcredit loans to local entrepreneurs in addition to savings schemes and small- and medium-enterprise (SME) business training.

Here at HINT we are incredibly excited for these positive additions to the Kingdom Community Fund. We look forward to sharing with you the other new changes that take place in the coming months. As always, if you would like to contact us, donate, or get involved, you can find us on: Twitter, Facebook, by email, or by contacting us online.

We wish you continued success in your social enterprises and endeavors in 2015! Together, we can improve our local (and global) communities.

Welcome, Jessa Coleman

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jessaHINT would like to welcome Jessa Coleman as its newest international volunteer!

The last time we welcomed volunteers was back in 2010 when we ran several different projects with up to 8 volunteers during one season.

Jessa has come at a time when HINT needs a complete overhaul in many different areas including especially our microcredit project where she has taken on the role of Fund Manager. Started far back in 2009, the program has undergone several challenges and we hope to work with Jessa to take KCF to it next level.

She joined HINT as a fellow with Frontier Market Scouts in March 2015.

Welcome Jessa and we look forward to working with you.

About HINT

Our mission is to improve the well-being of the underprivileged in our community through education, skill development, and job creation.

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