Get Involved

Thank you so much for helping us here at HINT. There are many other ways to support our work beyond volunteering in the field. Several ways you can help are listed below. Above all contact us to let us know how you would like to help.

1. Fundraise

One way to be involved is to raise funds to support our projects. We have listed some of the different ways/ideas in which you can help raise funds right from where you are. Together we can make a difference.

Host an Event

In the past, friends of HINT have come together on October 16 (World Food Day) to eat, discuss ways of helping to end poverty in Africa, and make donations. Funds raised supported Helps International’s work in helping poor people come out of poverty in Cameroon. To host your own FFF event, contact HINT and indicate your willingness to organize an event through the Food for Funds website. We will help you organize the event from afar; when the event ends, donations will be deposited with HINT via PayPal or our UK bank account. This is one of the easiest ways to raise funds for some of our on-going project. Please contact us to let us know if you will participate in this year’s Food For Funds Fundraising Event(FFF).

Testimonial: In 2007, we raised close to $3,000 from 15 donors who gathered at Arlington, USA during the first ever Food For Funds event that we organised through the effort of one family: Brian and Christe Dodds. The funds were used to extend credit to 25 rural women organised in 4 credit groups in two rural communities in the the South West Province of Cameroon. You too can take a simple decision to participate in this year’s FFF and change lives.

Testimonial: In 2006, Michael and Margaret Astbury in England organised a Tea Evening and raised more than GBP 300 for our Community Education Library (CEL) Project. CEL kicked off in September 2007 and provided over 2,000 school textbooks to about 300 primary school children. Organizing an event is a great way to raise funds for the work we do as well as creating a general awareness about our work and raising more supporters.Contact us if you will want to organize an event to raise funds for one or more of our projects.

Run for Funds

Running for funds is a common way to raise money for causes that you support. Contact HINT to express your wish to run and we’ll help you disseminate material to potential donors and offer advice on races to look into. After the race, funds collected can be deposited with HINT via PayPal or our UK bank account.

Some well-known races are listed below:

3rd River Bank Run in the USA
London Marathon in London
ING Amsterdam Marathon in Amsterdam

2. Donate Goods

Goods can be transported to Cameroon with volunteers and friends of HINT visiting the country. Alternatively, we can ship goods in shipping containers. If you can help to donate any of these items (new or used), contact us to let us know and and we will arrange collection. Thank you for helping:

Computers
Laptops
Digital Cameras
Cell Phones
Computer Parts
Printers and Fax machines
Office Stationery
Scanners
Photocopy Machine
Clothes
Shoes
Toys
Wheelchairs
Medical Equipment
Educational Books For our Library
Sewing Machines
Carpentry Tools
Farming Tools
Public Address System (Microphones, speakers, amplifiers, etc)

We accept any kind of useful equipment. If we can’t use it, we will convert it into cash when it arrives Cameroon. The funds will then be used towards our charitable causes.

3. Contribute to our Emergency Helps Fund (EHF)

The Emergency Helps Fund was created to help provide financial and material assistance to people with limited financial resources facing urgent life-threatening situations.

The fund was created after HINT’s founder, Genesis Tinshu, witnessed 10-year old Anastasia die. Having been knocked down by a car, her family lacked the funds to rush her to Douala for a brain scan.

We rely on generous donations from passionate individuals, families, organizations and companies like you who value life. If you are able to contribute to this fund, please indicate that your donation is for the Emergency Helps Fund when donating online, or contact us today.

Your donation will help save lives and we invite you to participate in this endeavor.

4. Donate Funds

When you donate to HINT, we automatically allocate the funds to the project that is currently in the greatest need. Conversely, if you would like to contribute to a specific project, that is always welcome. We have listed below some of the projects for which you can make specific online donations. When making a donation, simply indicate for which project you would like the funds contributed.

Donate one or more textbooks to our Community Library Project

HINT has set up a library to help provide school textbooks to orphans and children from very poor families so that they can get a good education. The children borrow the books at the beginning of the year and return them to the library at the end of the school year so that other children may borrow. Over 100 children have been helped already.

4,000FCFA (US$ 9.02 or GBP 5.03) will buy 1 textbook for 1 child.
32,000FCFA (US$ 72.13 or GBP 77.17) will buy all 8 necessary textbooks for 1 child.
320,000FCFA (US$ 721.26 or GBP 402.26) will buy all 8 necessary textbooks for 10 children.

Help a youth gain IT skills

Help a poor youth gain IT skills so that he/she can get a job and leap out of poverty. More than 800 have been trained since 2005.

50,000FCFA (USD 105 or GBP 50) will train one unemployed youth.
500,000 FCFA (USD 1,051.81 or GBP 500) will train 10 unemployed youths.

Provide a small business to an entrepreneur in need

HINT provides microcredit loans to small business entrepreneurs through its Kingdom Community Fund microfinance project. These businesses provide employment that improves the socio-economic lives of the poor.

Loans range from as small as 50,000 FCFA (USD 85 or GBP 55) to 1,000,000 FCFA (USD 1,700 or GBP 1,100)

We do not only provide loans but also training as well so that our beneficiaries can better manage their businesses. Let us know if you can support many more entrepreneurs with a larger loan.

Learn more about the Kingdom Community Fund here and at the KCF website.

Support our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS

Part of our mission at HINT is to contribute to the global fight against HIV/AIDS. We do this by training HIV (Peer) Educators who will be able to educate their communities. The trainees represent different groups of people in the society and the idea is to help them run HIV sensitization seminars and campaigns among their own people.

HIV/AIDS in Cameroon (as of 2005)
Adults aged 15-49 with HIV/AIDS = 470,000
New HIV infections, 2006 and Adult HIV prevalence (%) = 5.4
Women age 15-49 with HIV/AIDS = 290,000
Children with HIV/AIDS = 43,000
AIDS orphans (ages 0-17) = 240,000
AIDS deaths = 46,000

It costs us about USD 400 to run a seminar for 25 educators and covers food, transportation, manuals, related material… Consider supporting these seminars.

Donate a computer to our Computers For Sustainability (CFS) Project

Computers for Sustainability (CFS) has been designed to help establish a permanent and sustainable base of funds for the work of Helps International (HINT) in Cameroon and the rest of Africa. We refurbished Pentium Computers (minimum Pentium III) from the USA or UK to Cameroon. The computers are then exchanged for cash. Proceeds from these sales enable us to continue to make other shipments and to support our charitable work. This way, you support us once and we do not have to keep asking for support from you, year-in-year-out. Your USD 50 or more can impact generations to come!

It costs us 20,000,000 CFA (XAF) (USD 34,000 or GBP 22,000) to ship 400 computers to Cameroon and sell them within a minimum of 6-8 months at the cost of 30,000,000 CFA (USD 51,000 or GBP 33,000). 19,000,000 CFA will be used to continue the business for the following year while 11,000,000 CFA will then be used to support our projects annually.

680 donations of $50 each (the approximate cost of one computer) would fund this entire project. Join us in improving the lives of the poor through technology. Place your own stone on the foundation.