Foyer de l'Esperance - Incarnation Lutheran Church, Poway, CA

Imagine being a young girl and living on the streets in a third world country surviving by your wits and being forced to give your body in order to have a safe place to sleep. This is the plight for many girls around the world.

Since 2017, Incarnation Lutheran Church has partnered with the religious congregation of Our Lady of Compassion (Toulouse), under the direction of a Jesuit priest in Cameroon, at the Foyer de l’Esperance in Yaounde, Cameroon to change the plight of street girls and girls in crisis (ages 8-18). At the Foyer de l’Esperance, the girls have an opportunity to learn personal and vocational skills, and receive schooling, tutoring and counseling sessions. In addition, they participate in outings, drama and dance (an important component of Cameroon culture).

The program is run by nuns from the congregation of Our Lady of Compassion and a worker supported by Incarnation. Jocelyne Abe Meteke, is a native Cameroonian social worker. Jocelyne’s monthly stipend is paid through donations to Incarnation’s Cameroon Girls fund. Joint ventures between denominations in Cameroon are unusual and this partnership is a model for interfaith ministry.

The dream had long been for a dormitory facility that can house a larger number of girls overnight and expand the original day program. In May 2019 through generous donations, Incarnation was able to provide a financial gift of $4000 to the Foyer de l’Esperance which was used to construct the safety wall around the perimeter of the property for the new facility. The funding for the building came through the donations from Spain through the Roman Catholic Church. And the facility was completed and the girls moved in during the summer of 2022.

Please pray for this project and prayerfully consider making a donation to support the girls and our worker, Jocelyne Abe Meteke. Have questions or want more information, email us at hopecameroon@godamong.us.