The Far North Region of Cameroon has been confronted for several years with attacks by armed groups which lead to population movements and contribute to amplifying the pre-existing problems of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity.

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Since September 2017, this situation has caused several thousand internal displacement in the country and caused inflation of 30 to 60% on certain foodstuffs [1] . The four municipalities in the RESILAC project intervention zone, Dargala, Koza, Mindif and Mora, concentrate 56% of the population of this region living below the poverty line [2] .

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The most affected are young people and women. The economic difficulties that the latter encounter in the region (precarious labor market, limited natural resources for production, insufficient income) frequently lead to a state of psychological distress. This is often coupled with trauma related to the resurgence of insecurity, intra-family conflicts and gender-based violence. Thus, young people have great difficulty in drawing from within themselves the resources necessary for their economic reintegration [3] .

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The RESILAC project deploys new strategies on a daily basis to enable young people and women in Cameroon to draw from themselves the resources necessary to reintegrate themselves into the job market on a long-term basis.

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Regain confidence in the future

The psychological problems considerably affect the capacity and the will of the people affected to cooperate, to live together, to project themselves into the future in a confident and solid way. Post-traumatic stress disorder is considered "the main factor behind the persistence of mental disorders after conflict situations"[1]. 

Mental health programs are therefore necessary to enable individuals and populations to recover, to be more resilient and to embark on a project for the future with greater self-confidence.

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This is why RESILAC integrates psychosocial care into economic recovery activities, allowing young people who integrate the training-reintegration system to benefit from the Problem Management + (PM+) protocol. This is a protocol originally developed by the World Health Organization, which, through weekly individual sessions, of approximately 90 minutes, for five to seven weeks, supports individuals in the management of their psychological and subsistence problems, their family conflicts and traumas. Training of health workers from on-site medical centers also enables them to develop their skills in psychosocial care, in a region lacking mental health care.

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The individual results are very encouraging in the municipalities where this monitoring has been implemented.

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This is particularly the case for Maimouna, 29, mother of 2 children, resident of the village of Djamboutou (commune of Dargala). " I suffered from insomnia, lack of appetite, general fatigue and difficulty concentrating." Proven symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety were observed during his clinical evaluation. Maimouna was accompanied by the PM+ for 7 weeks, during which she learned “ several strategies for stress management and gradual resumption of activity” . In the middle of the course, she was able to identify an IGA selling food in a market. RESILAC assisted her in building her business plan and getting her business started. Since then, she says, “ I finally got back to sleep, and the anxiety of being alone all day long disappeared ”.

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