Bridgers Association Put Smiles On Faces Of 40 Internally Displaced Women, Girls In Bamenda
With
funding from the High Commission of Canada to Cameroon, Bridgers Association
Cameroon has successfully implemented a women/girls economic empowerment
project in Bamenda, North West Region of Cameroon; they synergized advocacy and
service delivery to rewrite the shattered life scripts of these vulnerable
women. In a project that is titled: Economic Empowerment of Women/Girls to
Counter Gender Based Violence Amidst the Anglophone Crisis launched in Bamenda
on February 19, through February 27, 2020.
According
to the General Coordinator of this Yaounde based women focused NGO, Mrs. Azah
Jackline Chey: the main objective of this project was to empower Internally
Displaced women/girls socio economically in a bid to minimize Gender Based
Violence perpetrated on them as a result of extreme poverty and hardship they
might be experiencing due to their vulnerability. The underlying goal of the
project is therefore to albeit the efforts of beneficiaries to attain trauma
recovery and pullout of their solitude state.
To
meet up with their objectives, Bridgers Association Cameroon carried out a
number of activities ranging from the rendering of psychosocial support/trauma
healing, training on income generating activities, offering tutorials on
Accounting and Bookkeeping, provision of financial seed capital as well as
capital material donations.
At
the level of offering psychosocial support, beneficiaries were given room to
share their stories and they got to learn about similar stories from
Facilitators in a bid to lessen their burdens. Beneficiaries attests that their
spirits have been uplifted as they received messages of hope, they were
encouraged to shun and detach themselves from the negative perception of
displacement and assume a new mindset that would augment their efforts to adapt
and become even more successful than they were in their former localities.
…“The
green T-Shirts you are putting on signifies hope, there is a green light at the
end of the tunnel since you still have life”- as the General Coordinator of
Bridgers Association Cameroon puts it. “being IDP is not a profession"- so
says the Facilitator while urging these women to be financially independent and
responsible.
Beneficiaries
were theoretically and practically trained on two income generating activities:
The transformation of wheat flour in to fish pie and the production of starch
using locally cultivated cassava tubers. Beneficiaries had to make choices and
divided themselves in to two camps to partake in the training they so desire.
Fish pie would serve as fast food for the general public and starch on its part
would play the role of a dress stiffener for pressing houses.
These
women and girls equally received tutorials on Accounting and Bookkeeping to
enable them take stock and track progress of their anticipated businesses.
Summarily,
all 40 beneficiaries received equal financial seed capital and capital material
donations.
At
the close of the trainings, beneficiaries and The Bridgers Team had form “One
big family” as we saw broad smiles and happiness at each stage. “We would
through coordinated efforts continue to mentor these new entrepreneurs and
render our technical as well as moral support whenever necessary. We shall be
committed to ascend together with these vulnerable women and girls the ladder
of progress and success in life” - Azah Jackline Chey, the General Coordinator
of Bridgers Association Cameroon adds in her closing remarks.
Bridgers
Association Cameroon is a registered association operating from Yaounde on the
mission to empower women/girls through advocacy in order to achieve gender
equality and minimize gender based violence.
You
may contact Bridgers at:
Tel:
+237677334678/+237674662893
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