society | Helps International (HINT)

Genesis Tinshu receives Shining World Leadership Award

August 29, 2009 by hint Leave a Comment

Genesis Tinshu, Founder/Executive Director of Helps International (HINT) has received the Shining World Leadership Award from Supreme Master Ching Hai International Humanitarian Association in the USA.

The award was presented to him by Mr. Tom Vennum, an association member at their Arlington, Texas office on August 29, 2009.

The award honors the distinguished people, countries and organizations in our present day society that have made a positive difference on our planet through their noble actions. For the purpose of recognizing these caring actions, and in response to the reports about many positive developments in the world, Supreme Master Ching Hai founded the Shining World Leadership Award in March 2006. The pure crystal award represents the shining noble ideals of the honored individuals, nations and organizations whose pioneering work and selfless dedication have significantly contributed to the harmony and beauty of our planet.

The award came with a cash award of US$ 10,000. The funds will go to support our School PCs Project that is connecting thousands of school children to the internet through computer labs connected to the internet.

The award presentation was then aired on Supreme Master Television on January 20, 2010.

To watch the award as aired on TV, click this link.

To download the presentation (46MB), click this link.

To watch award photos, go here.

Heather Talbot Completes her first HIV Seminar

March 11, 2009 by Genesis Leave a Comment

[simage=811,288,y,right]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

Source: unaids.org

Part of our mission at HINT is to contribute to the global fight against HIV/AIDS. In this regard, Heather Talbot a volunteer from England ran her first “Training of Trainers Workshop” from Jan 15-18, 2007 with about 17 participants. 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. It costs us about US$ 400 to run a seminar for 25 educators and covers food, transportation, manuals, related material… Consider supporting these seminars. Her next seminar comes up from March 5-7 2007.

See photos of her seminar.

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 History

February 20, 2009 by Genesis Leave a Comment

In 1998, a young man shabbily dressed and looking very dirty approached Mr. Genesis Tinshu, founder of HINT. He almost ran for fear that the young man was insane and was trying to attack him. Then he noticed that the young man was showing him a piece of paper signed by a prominent law officer. According to the document, he had been released from prison. He was in need of financial assistance to re-unite with his family in a far distant city. Thank God, Mr. Genesis had some money on him that could buy some food and also help pay his way home. Genesis took him to a nearby bus station and saw him off.

Then Mr. Genesis began to wonder what would happen to him when he gets home. Would he be accepted? Would he adjust properly to life outside, after 7 years of imprisonment? How long would the little money he gave him last? Would he be able to live a sustainable life? Mr. Genesis hoped he could empower him to live a responsible life that will prevent future imprisonment.

Later that same year, Mr. Genesis went back to prison to visit and surprisingly he met the same young man and he was behind bars for a fresh crime. He ignored him when he called out to him the first time but felt deeply for him and wished he could help him.

Towards the middle of that same year, Mr. Genesis came to know two young ladies and both were students. They were being sexually exploited by married men in exchange for their education. Poverty had driven them this far. I felt for them and wished I could immediately help them out. If they could operate a self-reliant business, that will help to sustain them and free them from sexual molestation.

Helps International (HINT) Cameroon was then created in 2002 to improving on the social and economic well-being and health of the poor and underprivileged in the society through education, skills development and job creation.

If you would like to help you can read more on how you can help, or contact us.