compiled by Neba Jerome Ambe

“Stop Violence Now against Women and Girls” is the EU-sponsored project being implemented by Nkumu Fed Fed. Along these lines, Nkumu Fed Fed has conceived and given birth to a new baby: “Women’s Rights Advocacy Network” (WRAN). This conceived and organized GBV network is made of young girls whom the organization has trained, empowered, and commissioned to go out as GBV ambassadors. Their vision is to have a GBV-free society for all Women and Girls. The network is creating mechanisms and working out strategies to improve the prevention, protection, and responses to GBV perpetrated against women and girls as their mission. Overall, the Women’s Rights Advocacy Network passionately strives to contribute to the fight against gender-based violence in Cameroon.

The measurable objective of WRAN is to educate and sensitize over 500,000 people on GBV against women and girls through training, social media, radio, and TV campaigns by 2027. This is in a bid to enhance local and international partnerships for the provision of GBV and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services for GBV survivors. The process includes directing survivors to referral pathways and promoting GBV campaigns in schools by creating twenty-five GBV clubs in primary, secondary, and university institutions in Cameroon by 2027. In the process, it also engages in strengthening the provision of economic empowerment for Women and Girls who are GBV survivors. By its vision and strategic processes, this network is not likely to get dissolved soon, given that it has proved itself to be a game changer that has come to stay.

Giving Voice to Many

                        Moma Sandrine

My project ensured the enrollment of three young ladies into the vocational training centre Up-Station Bamenda. It followed with each of them receiving a sewing machine from the Centre. Thanks to their training and the machine gifted to each of them, they have become entrepreneurial, earning their keep. Now, each of them takes care of their basic needs and as they mature and flourish in their trade, they would be able to do more for themselves or even for others. Their being able to take care of their own basic need entails that their chances of exposure to GBV are generally forestalled or significantly reduced.

The three girls became the springboard for me to sensitize more people about GBV, the necessity for them to speak out, and the secure livelihood channel for breaking the vicious cycle. It has been an amazing experience and I look forward to greater opportunities to expand and deepen my engagement in this fight. Nkumu Fed Fed, through its European Union-sponsored project “Stop Violence Now against Women and Girls” sprung me up in this exercise. It allowed me to put my leadership potential to practice and I will remain forever grateful for this wonderful initiation into a transforming cause.

The major feedback I have received is that more and more women are now speaking up and against GBV. They are making major decisions on issues that relate to their well-being. Some have been able to talk their battering partners out of GBV and a few have gathered enough courage and taken responsibility for their own lives by walking out of GBV circumstances.

I highly appreciate and recommend that this project be continued, clearly noticing that it is forever going to enable mentees to do a lot more than they have already done this far. For greater public sensitization will change the narratives around Gender-Based Violence.

GBV Free Environment in Schools                        

Bali Fallon Shehri

A healthy and GBV-free environment in schools and communities set me on a campaign trail that was online and by visits to schools. I focused on improving GBV awareness and prevention, especially targeting women and girls in Government Bilingual High School Bayelle and in FONAP High School. The two schools are located within the Bamenda III municipality, and through them, I reached out to more than 500 students.

My GBV awareness having been sparked and enhanced through the monitoring programme, the activity itself proved to be exciting and fulfilling in a manner that I felt personally rewarded in the process. I put my full energy into advocating for the rights of women and girls. It was not just engaging but joy-generating, given that I was given the resources to use. So, I actively engaged in the fight against GBV suffered by women and girls. The joy in the process was my realizing that I had become the voice of the voiceless. I was calling out the violation of human rights. My resilience increased amazingly as I began to notice the positive impact on the lives of the beneficiaries of the campaign. My counter-GBV on women and girls in schools has had the sideline effect of improving on my public speaking ability.

It has been an opportunity for which I will forever be grateful to Nkumu Fed Fed and its EU-sponsored “Stop Violence Now against Women and Girls” project. For the great opportunity for me and the great job the organization is doing, I can only thumbs-up and say, “Keep on with the good work” as I look forward to more prospects to put in my modicum of assistance.

Women’s and Girls’ Mindset Transformation

Ndah Promise Ngefor

My project area focused on the subtle component of mental transformation, even though it ostensibly and practically engaged in livelihood prospects. It took on women with a defeatist mentality caused by battering and humiliation.  So, raising their self-confidence and alerting them to revert to a positive mindset was the multifaceted target of the project.

The process is ongoing. Particularly, there are five women whose mindsets I am tracking and trying to boost. The impact is already being felt as the market-gardening women testify to being able to free themselves from violence at home, most of which was tagged to issues of finance. The women’s financial improvement has done the magic, giving them greater self-confidence along with their financial independence. This has kept them from making financial requests from their partners, which usually tended to start up verbal and even physical violence from their spouses.

It came to me as a discovery and a major opportunity for which I am most grateful to Nkumu Fed Fed and the opportunity to be part of the solution to the evil which is rocking my community. By allowing me to serve humanity in this domain, Nkumu Fed Fed gave me the platform and springboard from which to leverage and ride high. Thanks to this opportunity, the immediate feedback from my endeavours are pouring in from in and out of Bamenda on the impact of the initiative. I now have a series of links posted to me from diverse sources requesting me to apply and get into various community service programs. Most of them come with the assurance that I have an excellent chance of being selected, thanks to that singular initiative.

People with Disabilities Wake up to GBV Types

Veronica Ngum

We took up the cause to bring about disability inclusion in GBV interventions, provision and access to services, ways of advocating for GBV-inclusive practices in the communities, and the importance of making use of the referral pathways. The community of persons with disabilities were thus introduced to improve their knowledge of types of GBV. Women, especially among persons living with disabilities, can now put to practice the knowledge gained to make informed decisions on the available and appropriate GBV services. These they can access when the need arises.

The project execution was not a smooth ride, for challenges cropped up. For example, the limited copies of the referral pathways could not go around to all places for the public that would need it. One other challenge was the assistance some of the persons with disabilities needed for the production of disability cards, birth certificates, and national identity cards.  We were thus unprepared to meet their needs, nor did we know where we could direct them for assistance. We were lost as to what information to give them but led us to realize that some of the persons with disabilities need income-generating activities that would economically empower them and minimize the chances of their being violated.

Despite these challenges, we found the continued raising of awareness of GBV and the need for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in my community vital starting points. For this reason, while other forms of help will still be pending, it would be necessary to also continue to organize training sessions among the trainees among whom should be included young women with HIV AIDS. This should continue online, offline, and through contact sessions. Already, a lot is being done, and I want to use this opportunity to appreciate Nkumu Fed Fed for this life-transforming project that they have brought to the limelight and which the European Union kindly funded under the project theme: “Stop Violence Now against Women and Girls”.

Nkwen Women Inducted into Producing Washing Soap

Tata Sonita

When the story of the EU-sponsored Nkumu Fed Fed project “Stop Violence Now against Women and Girls” is told, the empowerment of some 200 Girls and Women in four quarters of Nkwen in the Bamenda III Sub Division in the production of washing soap will also be in the records.  The training in the making of washing soap was brief but will be a lifelong endowment, employment, and a means of economic empowerment. Not sooner were they through with the training than some of the participants started the production of this basic utility. Almost immediately, it could be seen as a poverty reduction means and a termination of overdependence on others for the provision of their needs, a thing which often would lead to disagreements and gender-based violence. Even when not produced mainly for marketing, the production of the soap for home use cut down on home expenditure along those lines.

For my part, it was a superb privilege to have been selected by Nkumu Fed Fed to become a GBV ambassador. The training we received was exquisitely lucid and explicit on the basics of gender-based violence, its causes, consequences, as well as the prevention or response to GBV cases. Thanks to the training, I was able to educate the participants on Gender-based Violence. I also identified cases of GBV and its causes, and empowered them with the production of powder washing soap so as to enable them to prevent and respond to GBV.

As feedback, we have had packs of positive narrations and expressions of gratitude from the participants who brandish their soap-making skills with so much gratitude and a sense of achievement. They also tell of how much their families and households have been empowered. It is with a sense of much gratitude that I look back to thank Nkumu Fed Fed that led me into this. I keep receiving congratulatory messages from those whose lives I have so impacted.

Humanitarian Frontliners for the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)

Gwanyama Noela

There is a significant improvement in impactful knowledge and skills related to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. This is thanks to the training of frontliners in PSEA, who in turn cascaded to various organizations. After schooling on key gender concepts, a network of partners was created as a sequel to my project. This has led to more and more people acquiring a comprehensive understanding of the stakes of PSEA. This filters down to the fact that individuals in our communities have come to a better understanding and awareness of GBV issues. They now know when they are being abused and to whom they can turn for redress or appropriate action.

I was selected as one of the GBV ambassadors, which was a rare privilege that enabled me to help fight one of the biggest societal terrors of all time – gender-based violence. As it stands, we have risen to the position of first responders of GBV victims in our community, thanks to the EU/NFF project: “Stop Violence Now against Women and Girls”. Our team of GBV ambassadors helped to build a new narrative through youths to fight gender-based violence. We are a well-trained project team that readily availed itself to share and discuss the challenges encountered and seek solutions to them. Besides, the GBV team of ambassadors have now created a network known as WRAN to which I have been nominated president. All this is owed to the springboard initiated by the EU/NFF project. It is helping me to empower others by talking and proposing ways out on GBV issues online, offline, and by contact visits.

So boosted was my confidence through the training we underwent that I now can cascade it, coordinating and involving the other actors in the training of some teachers and healthcare professionals. Centrally, we introduce and train them on how to prevent all forms of GBV and how to respond when GBV does manifest itself. In the follow-up field encounter by those to whom I last cascaded the training, over 400 students at St. Frederick College have been taught how to prevent or respond to GBV. In addition, I trained twenty young girls along with their deaf and dumb husbands. The feedback has been very encouraging. While some have gone the extra mile of sensitizing their students and educating other community members, we have also been able to take in many young girls for counselling on GBV prevention.

Men's Effective Response to GBV on Women and Girls

Wakuna Lucie Logba-Galega

This mini-project decided to have men as focal persons in the fight against GBV, raising their awareness of the role they could play as men to bring about respect and love for women and girls instead of violence and indifference. Thus, every third Friday of every third month we organize talks on GBV under the auspices of Catholic Church Choirs. Men’s awareness has been impactfully created, and in practical ways, the men are being assisted to help stop gender-based violence against women and girls. Meanwhile, the choirs drew the attention of both men and women to ways of preventing GBV or reporting their occurrence.

The training I received from Nkumu Fed Fed played a great part in my facilitation of the events. It enabled me to understand a lot of things that women and girls suffer, including social media violence. GBV turns out to be not only physical, mental, and emotional but also cyber. It allowed me to get field experience which I was never familiar with before then. Indeed, the training did make me feel like a true ambassador, trusted, and entrusted with the task of empowering others and making them aware of the ills of GBV. Such a feeling of fulfilment pervades one now in the process that I would love to have a repeat of it all.  

Unforgettable in the series of training was that given by Madame Eunice Tata, President General of Nkumu Fed Fed, Mrs Boyo Maurine, GBV expert, and the EU-NFF project team as a whole. Their training skills and know-how were so efficient and effective that I felt as if I caught it by infection. It enabled me to be able to empower others who also went ahead to help in the teaching process and awareness campaigns. These empowered individuals have continued to impactfully help in creating GBV awareness. Whenever we meet on the third Friday of each third month, we become mutual encouragement and a thrill to each other. I find it difficult to express enough gratitude to Nkumu Fed Fed for so empowering me.

As to feedback from those who have participated in the sessions, many keep expressing joy at having learnt so much and that they are now aware of modes of GBV which they were already considering as the norm of their society. They are part of the efforts towards the prevention, reporting or directing survivors of GBV to the right referral quarters for appropriate action. Considering reminders as a key component in this awareness campaign, I ensure that the days and times scheduled for them are never missed. I happily note that men, who are traditionally considered GBV perpetrators, have now become frontliners, working to end GBV in my community. All this is thanks to the training I got from Nkumu Fed Fed which I cascaded to them and others.

My Transformation by GBV Ambassadorial Training

Ayam Yvette

Being trained as a GBV ambassador by Nkumu Fed Fed has been life-transforming for me. Of course, it begins with my active role of aspiring to do great things for my community. It had been my dream to venture into activities that would bring positive change in my community. But coming into an organization that has proven to be one of the best on GBV-related issues was like hitting a jackpot of chance success for me.

 I started with what might have been considered the wrong foot, joining the training only midway. However, the passionate interactiveness during the training made it easy for me to catch up. This was enhanced by the ever-ready disposition and availability of the trainer team to give assistance to the trainees where needed. And then too, their training style made the training so easy. One required little more than interest and presence to become an informed and effective GBV ambassador, able in to empower others and impact the community.

Once I took the training to the field, the impact was visibly positive on the community. Many of the beneficiaries of the project can now report their handling of GBV related issues, advising and directing affected individuals to the appropriate technical referents. The mere fact of their awareness has itself played a role in bringing about relative reduction in GBV instances and hence brought about relative equity and peace in the community.

Friendly encouragement from many people who are requesting for training sessions is another aspect of the positive feedback the project continues to receive. Besides, other GBV ambassadors, persons who had been aspiring and looking for an opportunity to serve, have also come on board the project.

Empowering Survivors through Poultry Farming

Lesiga Mirdrate Bambot

Poultry Farming for Survivors was the focus of my project, which has impressively impacted gender-based violence survivors in the Bali Nyonga community. It is certainly a success story to realize that most of the women I trained now own businesses. The businesses make them less dependent on their husbands or others for the supply of their needs. Even from this single experience, I can assert that Nkumu Fed Fed through its European Union-sponsored project has done marvellously well in training and empowering me to empower others. This empowerment came from the opportunity given to me to be trained as a GBV ambassador. I was not the lone benefactor, for my community benefited much through my educating them on gender-based violence, the various types, where to report perpetrators, where to take survivors, and the preventive measures to take. Beyond being informed, they were empowered by being trained in a means of livelihood, precisely poultry farming.

Who would not rejoice at the wonderful feedback where most of the people I trained started an economic activity that is flourishing and ameliorating their lives? Nkumu Fed Fed opened the gates of these benefits and I can never be able to thank it enough for the opportunity to explore and render impacting community service. It is my fond desire that they continue funding a continuation of such transforming economic activities.

Upgrading Bamenda II Women’s/Girls’ Human Rights

Jabut Ruth Tembuck

My project focused on enhancing human rights and awareness on how these are violated to the disadvantage of women and girls. My focal persons included more than thirty women and girls. These I sensitized on sexual assaults and forced or early marriages. I also detailed to them the types and extents of GBV as well as the consequences for violators. Identifying referral pathways and reporting mechanisms during a GBV incident were taught to them, a thing which saw a record of success stories coming from the community. The focal group of trainees excelled in their sensitization of the population on the various GBV-related issues, including early marriages, channels for complaints, and getting feedback.

One major success story in this respect was given by Mrs. Melissa, a teacher from Angels of Bethany Secondary School Abangoh Bamenda 1.  She was so inspired by the workshop proceedings and what she learnt about GBV that she carried the message to the pupils and students of her school. She also made a recording of the many people who started speaking out against the forms of GBV they had started noticing.

If I can now openly talk about GBV, it is because of the training I received from Nkumu Fed Fed, a big stakeholder among NGOs that have taken up the cause of vulnerable people at multiple levels. The opportunity they gave me to become a GBV ambassador has made an indelible mark in my life, besides impacting others as well. For this, I am most grateful and pray that the organization will continue in its great service to mankind.