About us

Benevolent Community Education and Rural Development Society - berdsco was founded in 1990

The company was established in 1990 by Mr. FORZI George NGU, a postgraduate student from the University of Manchester resident in his home country Cameroon to alleviate poverty among Cameroonians suffering from the effects of economic crisis that stroked the country in the mid-nineties.

Berdsco vision is to have a poverty free society where everyone can afford the basic necessity of life - food, shelter, clothing and access to quality health and education.

The aim of this is to empower the poor and marginalized persons in the society especially women so that they can be integrated into the mainstream of development. Having the goal to eradicate poverty and hunger among 5,000 marginalized populations annually”.

The target beneficiaries of Berdsco in it mission for poverty alleviation are those that live below the poverty line of Cameroon and Africa

In its philosophy, it ensures that women are seventy percent in project management. Specifically, for Cameroon, the country population is 28 million inhabitants and women account for 50.13 percent in 2021 according to World Bank. In the same sphere, they spent more than 8 hours a week in unpaid household task than their male counterparts. They face some challenges that weakens their health such as maternal rate of 782 per 100,000 live birth. Most of the bulk of the unemployed Cameroonians are women. About 55 percent of the Cameroon population lives below the poverty line.

This rises up to 51.5 % being women and 79.2 percent of them forms the bulk of the unemployed. In this category, 1.6 percent of them owns property in their names and 3 % of them owns property without title to it. Women in Cameroon account for 71.69 percent of workers in the informal agricultural sector, which is the main stay of the economy. This is similar to other African Countries. This means they work in a sector with dirtying of the hands.

Very few women are literate despite the Government efforts to curb down illiteracy in the Country. As a result of this, only 32.5 % of them have secondary education certificates and in they believe of African Extended Family System that a woman is an asset that they can make money out of them. The young girls just coming out of her adolescent is immediately dragged to a marriage union for money exchange. For this target beneficiaries, almost 6 persons leaves in a household under the sponsorship of a single woman who on the average gives birth to 6 children into her family.

If a person in the family has to go without food is the woman as she satisfies the husband and children first and eat last. Thus Berdsco targets income generating activities and small enterprise development for 60 percent women and men with the unemployed persons 40 percent that leaves below the poverty line of Cameroon”.