Location
Bamenda, CAMEROON
Grantee
Ndum Charlotte Ayeah
Project
Girls for Green Plates
Ndum Charlotte Ayeah
Ndum Charlotte Ayeah is Team Lead of the Association of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Cameroon (AAGYW Cameroon), an organization built on the conviction that adolescent girls and young women are capable leaders in their households and communities. Working in Bamenda, in Cameroon’s conflict-affected Northwest Region, Charlotte saw young women navigating food insecurity, limited nutritional awareness, and the daily weight of crisis, often with no platform to speak, lead, or learn. She launched Girls for Green Plates to respond, combining nutrition education, peer learning, and community storytelling to encourage plant-forward diets as a pathway to better health, climate resilience, and food justice. The TPP grant was one of AAGYW Cameroon’s first, and Charlotte and her team are now building on it to expand their work in schools and communities.
What the seed grant made possible
85
adolescent girls, young women, and community members reached directly
3
structured sessions on nutrition, food justice, and community advocacy
60
volunteer hours contributed to the project
1
Green Plate Club launched to sustain the work locally
The project
- The grant brought Girls for Green Plates from concept to community, covering venue support, facilitator stipends, printed educational materials, transportation, and ingredients for live plant-based food demonstrations using produce from local markets.
- Between September 2025 and March 2026, three sessions moved participants from nutrition and plant-forward diets to food justice, sustainability, and storytelling, and finally to practical action and community advocacy.
- Peer education, storytelling circles, and community dialogue gave young women space to learn, connect, and lead conversations on wellbeing in their own communities.
- The grant also laid the groundwork for a Green Plate Club, which AAGYW Cameroon plans to expand alongside new school-based learning and community partnerships around nutrition and sustainable food.
Ndum Charlotte Ayeah and AAGYW Cameroon are helping adolescent girls and young women in Bamenda, in Cameroon’s conflict-affected Northwest Region, build healthier food habits and stronger voices. With TPP support, Girls for Green Plates reached 85 participants directly through three sessions that framed access to healthy, sustainable food as a community right, especially for those living through conflict and displacement. The team worked through insecurity, rising transport costs, and privacy concerns that required careful handling of photos and videos, and drew lessons on needs assessment, budgeting, and flexible timelines that will shape their next phase of work.