In Bertoua, with the Madjitoloum family: eleven people under one roof

Eleven people. Nine children. One roof far too small for them all.

In Bertoua, the Madjitoloum family lives in unsanitary, overcrowded housing. Food is scarce. So is drinking water. The children are not in school. There is no medical follow-up. And in this home, no bed, no bunk, no mattress: everyone sleeps on the floor, on mats.

November 2024: the visit

Our volunteers entered that overcrowded room. They saw what words struggle to say: children's eyes lined up in front of a curtain, a mother at the end of the row, and the weight of a precarity that leaves no room to grow.

I write to you from Belgium. It is our volunteers on the ground who sent this image and what it holds — not to pity, but to decide on a first gesture.

Food aid to hold on

Faced with the urgency of the empty plate, we distributed essential food supplies. This is not a destiny awakened. It is a safety net. A breath — so that, for a few weeks, hunger steps back in this house.

The report on this mission is here:

What we envisage next

Beyond food: schooling from the 2025/2026 academic year and teaching materials; health check-ups for the whole family; work to sanitize and secure the home, with delivery of bunks and mattresses; support for the parents toward an income-generating activity.

At Awaken Destiny, we do not only want to fill a plate. We want the children we meet to be able, one day, to sleep in a bed and learn in a school — and their parents to stand on their own.