Our mission
Heal through creation.
Grow through care.
Pass on through rigour.
In Yaounde, ETS ARTCONCEPT is building an Art Therapy Centre that uses Livestock Farming and Digital Technology as tools of mediation — a culturally rooted, accessible and rigorous response to the lack of mental health care.
I · Origins of the centre
A structural gap
in mental health care.
0.06
psychiatrists per 100,000 people
Cameroon — one of the most severe shortages in sub-Saharan Africa
< 2%
of public health spending
goes to mental health — Cameroon
Existing services are concentrated in Yaounde and Douala, out of reach financially and geographically for most of the population. Millions of people — especially children and teenagers — are left without support in the face of anxiety, trauma and social and emotional difficulties.
A response rooted in Cameroon's social and cultural reality
Mental health can and should be approached through tools of mediation that are culturally rooted, free of stigma and accessible. Cameroon has an exceptionally rich artistic and craft heritage — traditional Bamileke pottery, drumming from the forest peoples, oral storytelling from the tales of the Pygmy and Baka peoples, textile art and patterns of the Tikar peoples — whose ancestral therapeutic role has been documented scientifically. The centre continues this tradition while linking it with the findings of modern clinical art therapy.
A project built on its own resources and a personal commitment
The project relies on concrete resources brought together by its founder: an 8,058 m² plot on the heights of the Nkolbisson district in Yaounde, with existing buildings, an established farm (sheep, grasscutters, catfish, hybrid chickens) and a stock of art materials. These assets give the project a tangible foundation that goes beyond words.
Inspired by pioneering initiatives
The centre draws on examples that show art therapy works in an African context: the Afrogiveness Movement, which has supported more than 100,000 people in Central and West Africa; the LifeTimeProjects programmes in orphanages in Yaounde since 2017; and the ancestral tradition of Bamileke pottery as a source of psychosomatic well-being.
A word from the founder
“As a child, I suffered physical and emotional abuse, so rebuilding myself has always been at the centre of my life. Sport prepared me for it; art gave me the care I needed and led me towards healing.”
Today, I want to draw on this experience to give others clear, professional tools of mediation on a path of rebuilding and healing.
II · Our philosophy
An initiative
centred on people.
“Art is not a luxury. For those who cannot name what they feel, it is sometimes the only language left.”
People at the centre, creation as the path
Every human being carries creative abilities, and these abilities are in themselves a means of rebuilding that leads towards healing. Art therapy does not seek to produce artworks but to set a process free: the inner movement it reveals, the silent speech it allows, the dignity it restores.
Living things as therapeutic partners
Bringing livestock farming into the project is not an economic accident; it is a deliberate philosophical choice. Caring for an animal, watching the cycle of life, feeding: these simple acts ground people in reality, give structure to time, build empathy and restore a sense of personal effectiveness. Living things are a kind mirror for those who suffer.
Digital technology for equity and rigour
Leave no one behind: the computer centre becomes a driver of inclusion, a true school of second chances. As a therapeutic tool (digital art, photography), a tool for equity (access to knowledge, distance learning) and a tool for rigour (clinical follow-up, scientific publication), it links ancestral practices with the demands of research.
A community-based approach, free of stigma
The centre rejects the model of the closed clinic, reserved for severe cases and socially stigmatised. It is an open space, woven into the social fabric of Yaounde. People come to create, learn and take part — the therapeutic side is there, but it is not a label the beneficiary has to wear.
III · Founding values
Six values.
Every decision.
They shape the identity of the centre and guide every operational, clinical and institutional decision.
Dignity
Every beneficiary is welcomed with complete respect for their story, their culture and their suffering. No judgement, no ranking of suffering.
Accessibility
Psychological care is not a privilege. Fees adjusted to income, mobile outreach and our own resources to keep services running.
Cultural roots
Pottery, drumming, oral storytelling, textile art: forms of mediation chosen because they resonate with Cameroon's heritage and are legitimate locally.
Scientific rigour
Evidence-based practices, documented and measured, to contribute to research on art therapy in sub-Saharan Africa.
Empowerment
The centre does not create dependence: emotional independence for beneficiaries, professional independence for trained practitioners, financial independence for the institution.
Inclusive innovation
Art therapy, therapeutic farming and digital technology: a model never seen before in Cameroon, serving inclusion and replicable across the sub-region.
IV · Goals & roadmap
Five years to build
a model of reference.
Pupils, our first priority.
Phase 1 focuses on primary and secondary school pupils in Yaounde and lays the institutional, clinical and physical foundations of the centre.
- Renovation of the 8,058 m² site and a computer centre with 6 to 8 workstations
- Therapeutic farming unit up and running from month 6
- Programme A — Racines: weekly art therapy for 500 primary pupils (aged 6–11)
- Programme B — Émergences: forum theatre, photography and farming for 500 secondary pupils (aged 12–18)
- Programme C: 15 local practitioners certified in art therapy and 5 technicians in therapeutic agro-pastoralism
- Partnerships with the Ministry of Public Health (Minsanté), the Ministry of Higher Education (Minesup) and the Centre Jamot, and official recognition of the centre
- Impact study and first scientific publication
Everyone, every vulnerability.
Phase 2 opens the centre to the whole population, strengthens self-financing and makes the centre a reference for the sub-region.
- Programme D — Confluences: adults, families, burnout, grief
- Programme E — Résiliences: mobile outreach for internally displaced people and people with psychosocial disabilities
- Programme F — Horizons: participatory exhibitions, markets and talks to fight stigma
- Own income: farming, professional training, sale of artworks
- National e-learning platform and remote supervision of practitioners
- CAITÉ model published in Open Access and replicated in Douala and Bafoussam
Conclusion
A region's answer
to its own silences.
The silences of children who have no words to express their pain, of adults broken by life, of communities left alone by the health system and by society.
The centre offers an original synthesis grounded in what already exists: the power of the arts as a universal language, the calming presence of living things, and the rigour of digital technology as a tool of mediation in care, combined with clinical research. Neither an experiment nor wishful thinking: a response built on tangible, reproducible evidence, backed by real resources and strong partnerships.