Support the Iyasa People: Revive a Culture, Empower a Future

But there is still hope.

The Iyasa Language and Culture Project is a community-led movement to breathe life back into the traditions, empower women and girls, and ensure the next generation grows up proud of who they are. With your support, we can archive ancient wisdom, teach the Iyasa language to children, and create safe spaces for girls to thrive.

We are raising $10,000 to revitalize this endangered culture, support women and children, and keep the voice of Iyasa alive.

The Challenges

The Iyasa community faces an existential crisis. Their ancestral lands are rapidly being eroded or taken by industrial projects. Climate change is damaging the coastal ecosystems that form the backbone of their traditions. Meanwhile, globalization and code-switching are silencing the Iyasa language. Fewer young people are learning it. Fewer elders are passing it on.

As cultural landmarks disappear and the language fades, so too does a unique worldview—one shaped by the rhythm of fishing nets, community rituals, and oral storytelling passed down for centuries.

If we don’t act now, this entire heritage may be lost in a single generation.

Why It Matters

The Iyasa language is not just a method of communication—it is the vessel of memory, identity, and belonging. Every story told, every song sung, every proverb shared is a thread in the community’s fabric. When we lose a language, we don’t just lose words—we lose wisdom, history, and a way of seeing the world.

Revitalizing Iyasa means:

• Giving children the right to grow up in their own culture

• Empowering women and girls to shape their future

• Protecting land-based knowledge and ecological practices vital to Cameroon’s biodiversity

• Strengthening the global fight for linguistic and cultural diversity

This is not just about one village. This is about protecting the heritage of humanity.

The Solution

With your help, the Iyasa Language and Culture Project will use the $10,000 raised to:

Launch Community Language Classes: Set up free Iyasa lessons after school and on weekends, supply learning materials, and provide stipends for fluent tutors so children and youth can speak their mother tongue with pride.

Archive Oral Heritage: Record and digitize elders’ stories, songs, proverbs, and ecological knowledge, then store them in an open-access online library and create printed readers for local schools.

Empower Women and Girls: Offer leadership workshops, scholarships, and anti-violence support groups that equip women and girls to become cultural custodians and confident community advocates.

Host Intergenerational Cultural Workshops: Organize storytelling circles, dance and craft sessions where elders teach ancestral practices, strengthening community bonds and identity.

Raise Awareness & Advocate Rights: Produce radio spots, social-media campaigns, and school outreach materials to celebrate the Iyasa language, while lobbying authorities for legal protection of Iyasa lands and culture.

This is just the beginning. Long-term, we aim to establish a permanent Iyasa Cultural and Language Center, integrate Iyasa courses into regional school curricula, and create a model of Indigenous language revitalization that other endangered communities across Africa can follow.