Seminar: How to use Information Technology (IT) to improve your ministry

January 17, 2011 by hint Leave a Comment

Helps international (HINT) in collaboration with other Churches and Ministries is offering a seminar to show pastors and other gospel minister how to use the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve their ministries. If you are involved in ministry, but you reside out of Buea but are interested in the free website offer, contact us to let us know. We may still be able to provide you a website.

The seminar will be organized over three weekends in February: 10-12, 17-19, and 24-26. The time will be 4-7pm and the venue will be HINT’s IT Centre at Bonduma, Buea.

Highlights of the seminar will be Computers & The Internet, Social Media for Ministry, Online Communication, Using Search Engines, E-Sword and other Bible Software, Online Opportunities for Networking, among others.

Registration is CFA 2,000 and all participants will qualify for the following offers:

Heavily discounted computers
- P3/CRT (17”) Monitor for CFA 28,000
- P3/LCD (15”) Monitor for CFA 50,000
- P4/CRT (17”) Monitor for CFA 40,000
- P4/LCD (15”) Monitor for CFA 55,000
FREE Website for ONE Year (www.yourname.org). This includes Domain Name Registration, Hosting and Web Design. You pay only CFA 25,000 per year after that.

If you are involved in ministry and you are interested in the seminar, fill out the form below and submit before Tuesday February 8. Because of limited resources and space, only the first 36 registrants who pay their registration fee will be considered.

REGISTRATION FORM

How your donation will make a difference

February 22, 2009 by Genesis Leave a Comment

We have listed below some of the projects for which you can make specific online donations. Thank you for considering to help us.

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 still be able to get a good education. The children borrow the books at the begining of the year, use them and return to the library so other children can 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

You can donate online via PayPal or if you want to make a bank transfer, contact us for our account details in the UK or Cameroon. Learn more about our education projects. Thank you.

Help a poor youth gain IT Skills so that he/she can get a job and leap out of poverty.

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.

You can donate online via PayPal or if you want to make a bank transfer, contact us for our account details in the UK or Cameroon. Learn more about our ICT projects. Thank you.

Help a poor orphan, youth or widow with a loan or grant for a small business

HINT provides micro loans to unemployed youths so that they can start of grow their small businesses. These businesses provide employment that improves the socio-economic lives of the poor. Pictured here is Joshua who received a 50,000 FCFA (USD 105 or GBP 50) loan from HINT and started a cassava farm 2 years ago. He is now able to support himself and looks forward to supporting his family from his growing business.

Loans range from as small as 25,000 FCFA (USD 53 or GBP 25) to 100,000 FCFA (USD 200 or GBP 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.

You can donate online via PayPal or if you want to make a bank transfer, contact us for our account details in the UK or Cameroon. Learn more about our economic development projects.Thank you.

Support our efforts towards contributing to stopping HIV/AIDS by 2015.

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

HIV/AIDS in Cameroon in 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.

You can donate online via PayPal or if you want to make a bank transfer, contact us for our account details in the UK or Cameroon. Learn more about our health projects. Thank you.

Donate a computer to our Computers For Sustainabilty (CFS) Project.

HINT currently depends on spontaneous individuals and organisations of good will to donate to its work. None of these individuals of organisations have decided to support us on a long term basis. HINT does not have any permanent source of funds to support it charitable work. This is very delicate as we must continue with the projects we’ve started as well as expand to other communities.

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.

Summarily we will ship 400 refurbished Pentium Computers (minimum Pentum III) from the USA (or UK) to Cameroon. The computers will then be exchanged for cash. proceeds from the sales will enable us to continue to make other shipments while the proceeds will then be used 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 will cost us 20,000,000 CFA (XAF) (USD 41,797.28 or GBP 20,000) to ship 400 computers to Cameroon and sell them within a minimum of 6-8 months at the cost of 30,000,000 (USD 62,695.92 or GBP 30,000). 19,000,000 will be used to continue the business for the following year while 11,000,000 (USD 22,988.51) will then be used to support our projects annually.

So, we need 800 people (or less if you donate more than one computer) who will give USD 50 each by January 31, 2008. Join us in improving the lives of the poor through technology. Place your own stone on the foundation.

You can donate online via PayPal or if you want to make a bank transfer, contact us for our account details in the UK or Cameroon. Learn more about our ICT projects. Thank you.

Our partners for this project are:
Hope Outreach International Ministries (HOIM), Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
InterConection, Seattle, USA

Achieving Organisational Sustainability through IT

February 21, 2009 by Genesis Leave a Comment

1. Project Name: Computers for Sustainability (CFS)

2. The Problem:
We have relied on freewill donations, gifts and meager funds raised from our IT Centre to be able to run our non-profit organization called Helps International (HINT). However, shortage of funds has always been a huge hindrance to implementing our mission to improve the social and economic well-being and health of the poor and under privileged in our society through education, skill development and job creation. We have projects in the areas of IT training for underprivileged youths, educational support for orphans/underprivileged children; micro-loans for rural women; HIV/AIDS sensitization and information/training seminars. Most of the time, the progress of these projects has been hampered due to lack of funds. Over the years, these projects have expanded as the needs become enormous but there has not been a corresponding increase in the amount of funds needed to support these programs.

3. The Solution:
Therefore, instead of continue to rely on spontaneous donations from our partners (to whom we are very thankful for their generosity in the past), we will like to work with them (current partners) to establish a profitable social enterprise that will generate the funds needed to support our on-going projects and to initiate new ones. After research I have discovered that sale of computers and accessories is one of the most profitable businesses in the country now. Calculations have shown that the business will generate about 21,091,250 million CFA XAF (US$ 42,781) annually.

4. Implementation:
The business idea is to ship 400 refurbished Pentium 4 computers to Cameroon and sell. Some of the computers will also be used to set up 2 additional IT centers that will employ a number of people too.

5. Fundraising:
The fundraising strategy is to get 2753 people all around the world who will donate $25 each. This will raise US$ 68,831, the needed start-up capital for the business. This amount will cover cost of shipping, seaport clearing and setting up the sales centre in Buea, Cameroon. I will be launching an online appeal for donations as soon as all plans are made concrete. I will also be in the USA between May and August 2009 mainly to raise these funds. I hope to visit churches, organizations, individuals with whom we have a relationship and trust that all needed funds will be realized by October 2009. Shipping should take place in November/December 2009.

6. Logistics:
I should have asked for hardware donations but that would be difficult to assemble and ship. We will work with an organization such as interconnection.org in Seattle, USA that assembles and ships refurbished computers to the developing world. I am also researching the possibility of shipping from computeraid.org in the UK or from Dubai, wherever shipping cost will be minimal with high quality computers. Mr. Paul Fonkwo a Cameroonian based in CA who has been shipping PCs to Cameroon will be providing advice and help.

7. Accountability/Transparency:
All funds will be collected and managed by the following organization:

Hope Outreach International Ministries (HOIM)
10993 N Harrell’s Ferry Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70816
Phone: 225-272-5432
Fax: 225-272-6805
Email: hopeoutreach @ gmail.com
Website: http://www.hopeoutreachinternational.org/

HOIM is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and will manage all in-coming and out-going funds for this project and issue tax-deductible receipts to all donors. Financial records will be available to all donors at the end of the fundraising drive, and also upon request.

8. Business Ability:
I developed a Business Plan for a similar project while at Santa Clara University in 2006 while attending the Global Social benefit Incubator (GSBI). I received a full scholarship (US$ 25,000) to attend this highly prestigious and competitive business training opportunity because of the impact we were already making in the lives of young people in our community through IT. My desire for social and economic change especially among the youths and the need for our NGO to be financially sustainable are the main motivations for such project.

Implementation of this project will provide a permanent base of financial support for the work of HINT and we will not have to continually ask our friends and donors to support our work year-in year-out. I believe if you had to make a choice, you would rather teach someone how to fish than to give him fish. By supporting this project at this time, you are actually making provision for years to come.

9. Budget:
To see details of how the capital will be invested click here.

10. Conclusion:
I will greatly appreciate your suggestions, thoughts, advice, opinion or any kind of support on this project. Just use the form below to comment.

Thank you.

Genesis G. Tinshu
Executive Director/Helps International (HINT)
https://www.hintonline.org
Cell Phone: +237 76274131
Email: tinshu @ hintonline.org

Our Goals & Objectives

February 19, 2009 by Genesis Leave a Comment

1. To bridge the digital divide
a. Help school children get ICT exposure and skills through the School PCs Project
b. Help underprivileged youths within the community to gain ICT skills through Community IT Training Centres.

2. To give the poor and underprivileged a chance to be educated.
a. Provide for the educational needs of orphans and underprivileged children through Child Sponsorship
b. Set up Community Education Centres in needy communities to cater for the education needs of the poor and underprivileged.

3. To fight poverty and unemployment
a. Provide access to low-interest loans and business management training to the poor for through Africa Rural Investment Fund (ARIF).
b. Equip underprivileged and unemployed youths with marketable IT skills so help them find employment.

4. To improve the health of the underprivileged poor
a. Train HIV Educators who in turn will educate their communities, social groups and families on how to prevent HIV and other diseases.
b. Run medical outreaches to educate the general public on healthy living and disease prevention.

5. To help develop needy communities
a. Provide clean water where needed
b. Provide solar electricity where needed.

FFF 2008 raises US$ 1,830

December 17, 2008 by Genesis Leave a Comment

FFF 2008 raised US$ 1,830

Our lone annual fundraiser called Food For Funds (FFF) raised US$1,830 during the months of October/November 2008.

We wish to express our heart-felt gratitude to all our donors all of whom are US citizens who still gave despite the hash economic crisis that the USA and the entire worked is going through.

In keeping with our principle of transparency, we are grateful for the following donors:

Brian and Christe Dodds, Texas
John & Elizabeth Batton, Texas
Stuart Nice, California
Pastor Beverly Freeman, Texas
More names soon

US$ 1,830 will provide business training, HIV information/training and loans to about 18 deserving and hardworking women who are entrepreneurs. This effort will indirectly improve the lives of about 130 people, given the large average family size in Cameroon.

Donations are still being accepted. If you want to donate by check, online or other means, please follow this link: http://www.www.hintonline.org/category/how-you-can-help. Thank you.