Overview

In spite of the efforts of the government of Cameroon and many non-governmental organizations to improve on the socio-economic conditions of women in Cameroon, disparities continue to exist in areas of education, political participation, health and land ownership to women. Cultural and traditional beliefs greatly influence on the life cycle of women; for example women have to bargain and compromise her education, health and social life in favor of her male sibling. Some even become wives of traditional doctors because they can’t afford the high cost of modern medical treatment. On the other hand, men don’t understand a lot of issues affecting women and how they can properly address these issues; a reason may simply be that a lot of focus has always been placed on the man and this has consolidated their position to continuously relegate the woman to secondary position.

The 17th and 169th UN sustainable development goals targets to realize the human rights of all to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; Sustainable Development Goal No 3 (to promote gender equality and empower women); the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which Cameroon is party to are all geared towards improving the quality of life of women.

This project aims at addressing all above mentioned issues through trainings, workshops, sensitization campaigns, seminars, capacity building to enable women speak out domestic issues affecting them; to get involved in the political life of their communities and to significantly drop gender based violence rate in village communities, schools and homes. This will instill a strong political will that in turn inspire confidence in women to take up leadership positions in their local councils. We expect to see an increase in the number of female councilors, mayors, parliamentarians and senators; we hope to see councils include gender friendly plans and policies into their budgets, monitoring instruments and the governance system.

The project aims to contribute in promoting Gender Equality and the Socio-Political Empowerment of Women.

Activities related to this project include:

  • Sensitization Campaign on gender based violence.
  • Create a small committee of women rights activists for undertaking prevention measures and providing assistance to women and young girls victims of all sorts of abuses, providing legal assistance and counseling.
  • Create He4 She clubs in secondary and primary schools in target communities
  • Educate women on WASH (distribution of sanitary pads and mentorship programs…)
  • Capacity building of female politicians and women leaders in target communities

Activities

  1. Conducting research to identify gaps that prevent women from claiming their rights
  2. Liaise with other organizations and institutions that work with gender issues.
  3. Training of four Community Promoters in villages
  4. Various workshops on land rights, civil status registration, self-confidence, gender issues, more women in politics…
  5. Celebration of the Women’s Day
  6. Community assemblies – meetings to sensitize community members on gender issues
  7. Advocating to bring about policy and practice changes with regards to land management and allocation, gender based violence, women’s access to justice, etc.

We are looking for vibrant interns to join our program to build a strong human rights culture in Cameroon while gaining first hand experience on the ground. Interns can apply year round, we have no specific datelines because our project is ongoing.

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