Community Vision Group (CVG) was founded in response to the growing educational and nutritional crisis, as well as dwindling livelihood conditions in Cameroon’s North West Region. As conflict escalated in 2016 and schools closed or struggled to operate, many children were out of school for over half a decade.
These children, mainly from poor socio-economic backgrounds, had limited interest in education, and the few that attended school were increasingly learning on empty stomachs. This is the ignition point for our school feeding program in Cameroon in 2022, targeting three (03) schools, with close to 1,000 pupils. We served one meal per child per week, and the catalytic effect was visible on school enrolment, attendance, dietary practices and local agricultural production. Communities after experiencing this transformative program voiced a common need:
“We need school meals for our children.”
What began as a small community-led initiative, inspired by the PhD research of the Founding President and Chief Executive (Dr Gilbert Miki), evolved into a structured Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) program providing locally sourced healthy, diverse and nutritious meals to children in North West Cameroon.
This started in his village – Fonfuka Bum, benefitting primary-aged children in CBC Fonfuka, CS Fonfuka, and CBC Konene. It later expanded to CS Konene, CBC Binka, CBC Kumbo and MBS Molyko, Buea. With just one meal per child per week, this impact was massive and this served as a deep motivation for continuity.
Today, CVG is recognized as one of Cameroon’s pioneering organizations leading the expansion of HGSF.
A society without classroom hunger in primary school children
Promoting inclusive systems that enable children to learn, grow, and thrive.
CVG exists to improve child wellbeing at school by providing healthy and nutritious meals, enabling children to reach their full potential, and strengthening community resilience
Our values underpin everything we do and are shared by all those involved in our vision and mission. These values are:
Over 2.5 million people in Cameroon faced acute food insecurity in 2025, many of them school-aged children who attend classes hungry.
Food insecurity persists, affecting over 2.5 million people in 2025 in regions of concern in Cameroon. In the Far North, North-West, and South-West regions, many households are facing acute food insecurity. In the North-West and South-West, armed violence has led to below-average harvests for several consecutive seasons. Families deplete food stocks earlier than in pre-crisis years and rely more heavily on volatile markets where food prices remain elevated.
As food insecurity worsens, millions of children—including primary-aged learners—go to school hungry. Poverty and declining livelihood conditions limit families’ ability to obtain enough food. Hunger impairs children’s ability to learn, reduces concentration, increases absenteeism, and contributes to high dropout rates, further affecting their educational pathways.
The FAO defines hunger as an uncomfortable or painful sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy and nutrients. This imbalance affects more than just nutrition—it has far-reaching consequences for children’s physical, mental, and socio-economic wellbeing. Chronic hunger and food poverty undermine growth, development, and long-term opportunities for affected children.
With this, CVG unlike most agencies focusing only on the first 1,000 days, CVG supports the next 7,000 days, ensuring school-aged children receive essential nutrients for learning, growth, and lifelong wellbeing.
With close to a decade of disrupted educational activities in the North West Region and other conflict-affected regions in Cameroon, children have lost the interest in school.
For nearly a decade, educational activities in the North West Region and other conflict-affected areas in Cameroon have been severely disrupted, causing many children to lose interest in school. According to UNICEF, more than 6,000 schools have been forced to close due to the crisis, affecting the education of over 800,000 children. In the North West Region alone, over 4,000 schools have closed, impacting approximately 500,000 children. These disruptions have resulted in major learning losses, with many children missing several years of schooling.
The crisis has disproportionately affected girls’ education, as they are more likely to drop out due to safety concerns and early marriage. UNICEF reports a 45% increase in teenage pregnancies in the region. These protection risks further limit girls’ ability to continue or return to school, deepening gender inequalities in education.
Some communities have opened community schools to reduce illiteracy among children, but many lack trained teachers, proper learning environments, and adequate equipment—reducing the overall quality of education. Meanwhile, conflict, insecurity, and economic hardship continue to push thousands of children out of school. Child labour has become an immediate consequence of prolonged school absences; recent statistics indicate that 39% of Cameroonian children aged 5–17 years are engaged in child labour.
CVG Nourish2Flourish School Feeding programme is not just about the food on the plate. It incentivises education, attracts the children back to school and generates limitless multi-sectoral benefits to the children.
North West ranked second poorest region after Far North in 2022 by the National Institute of Statistics
According to the National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon, the North West region was ranked the second poorest region after the Far North in 2022. The North West, affected by nearly a decade of Anglophone conflict, had a poverty rate of 66.8%. The North followed with 61.1%. In contrast, the South West region—also English-speaking and impacted by the crisis—recorded a much lower poverty rate of 20.4%, showing a 45.4% difference. This indicates that the North West is significantly more affected.
In the region, more than 70% of rural households depend on agriculture, yet conflict, climate shocks, and poor market access continue to undermine productivity and income. Conflict has reduced access to farms, destroyed assets, and limited extension services. Climate shocks and rising input costs further compound the crisis, making it increasingly difficult for households to sustain their livelihoods.
The consequences of disrupted livelihoods are severe. Households experience reduced income, high food insecurity, poor dietary diversity, increased malnutrition, low resilience, rising poverty, and greater difficulty meeting basic needs. Many families are increasingly unable to send children to school or provide adequate food due to the mounting economic pressure.
CVG’s local procurement mechanism within the Nourish2Flourish school feeding programme is a cutting-edge solution to these challenges!
Farmers continue to face low soil fertility, rising input costs, climate shocks, including erratic rainfall and drought, and limited market access. High post-harvest losses, crop losses linked to insecurity, and minimal extension or technical support have all contributed to high food insecurity across affected regions.
These constraints lead to low agricultural productivity and increased dependence on imported foods. As imported food prices rise, household vulnerability deepens. Because food availability remains low throughout the year and local markets are often unstable and expensive, families struggle to meet their nutrition needs.
Local markets are frequently inaccessible, making it even harder for households to obtain nutritious food. Children and women are disproportionately affected by food shortages and nutrient deficiencies, worsening their health and resilience.
These challenges have inspired CVG operations especially around Home-Grown School Feeding, a flagship initiative that seeks to nourish children and empower communities.
CVG works in some of the most vulnerable, conflict-affected, and hard-to-reach communities in the North West Region of Cameroon. This is a region heavily affected by conflict, displacement, and educational disruption, alongside an increasing rate of malnutrition and poor socio-economic conditions.
In this region, CVG Works in Mezam Division, Boyo Division and Donga-Mantung Division with plans to extend to Ngoketunjia, Menchum and Momo Divisions. The targeted Sub-Divisions for the early years of operations include Tubah Sub-Division, Ndu Sub-Division, Nkambe Sub-Division and Bum Sub-Division
These are rural, agrarian communities where food insecurity is high, household incomes are low, and access to social services has been severely disrupted.
