Overview
Young women and girls make up a considerable part of the population of the Southwest Region of Cameroon, yet they do not have equal access to health, education, economic opportunities and are not able to actively participate in decision making within their communities and the households in which they live, due to preconceived notions of what their roles should be. The prevalent socio-political situation in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon has unfortunately left young women and girls even more exposed to violence and discrimination. Women and children also make up the majority of internally displaced persons who have moved from more troubled zones in the Southwest region to the calmer areas like Limbe, Buea and Tiko. Consequently, lots of women have lost their means of subsistence, and girls find themselves in situations where access to necessities such as healthcare and education is considerably reduced, and their personal and collective well-being endangered.
The women and girls’ empowerment program of SODEI is designed to encourage young women and girls in the Southwest region of Cameroon through knowledge sharing, counselling, coaching and leadership and entrepreneurship training. The program helps empower to be independent, able to make important decisions about their personal well-being and to better play their roles as members of their community, to foster peace and development. Through this program, SODEI adopts an engendered approach to community development projects and design strategies to promote and strengthen equality between men and women and reduce the incidence of gender-based violence.
Gender Equality
SODEI is determined to uphold gender equality in its work, with its staff, volunteers, beneficiaries, and programs. As an organization built on solidarity and development, we are conscious of the various inequalities and discriminations which exist in our society especially towards women and girls. In this regard SODEI designs its programs and projects to benefit everyone equally.
In January 2019, SODEI launched its pioneer SDG4Schools Campaign in four schools around Fako Division in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. More than 500 students were involved in the events in all four schools. The events involved among other things, interactive discussions on SDGs 4 on Quality Education and 5 on Gender Equality.
LESPLAY sessions are themed with issues concerning individual genders, all genders or society in general. They are not aimed at prioritizing one gender or raising sympathy for one gender but aimed at treating in a wholesome and gender sensitive manner all issues that plague our society.
Girls is STEM
SODEI inspires and engages young women and girls in the Cameroonian society to exploit the resources at their disposal and reach their highest potential. We are cognisant of the inequalities in STEM education in Cameroon, the greater barriers female students face in accessing digital tools and the underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) professions. Hence our programs seek to challenge masculine dominance in technological fields and help close the gender gap in digital access.
VIEW OUR REPORT ON DIGITAL EDUCATION IN CAMEROON
Empowerment Workshops
As part of our Youth Mentorship and Empowerment Program (YMEP), we host workshops bringing together participants and facilitators (mentors). This provides a platform for young women and girls to access mentorship tools, guidance and career orientation. We invite young entrepreneurs, change makers in different fields to encourage beneficiaries by providing the much-needed direction for their development. Beneficiaries have had the opportunity to listen and interact with youth leaders like Clement Ngosong founder of Youths Inspiration, Felix Fomengia of the Fomengia Foundation, etc, and were impacted by their inspirational and motivational messages on education, technology and insights on building ones character and skills to compete in the modern economy. So far, we have organised over ten YMEP workshop series on themes such as peer-to-peer knowledge transfer, project-based approaches, etc. More that 50% of beneficiaries of these events have been young women and girls.
VIEW OUR YMEP WORKSHOP SERIES REPORT
Entrepreneurship Training
Through this initiative SODEI fosters income generation, self-reliance, self-sustenance and community development through entrepreneurship for young women and girls. We seek to encourage and support them to get into ventures such as agribusiness, petty trade, food processing, animal farming, detergent production, fashion and design. As well as supporting the development of technical skills in the different vocations, we seek to enhance their entrepreneurial capacities by developing business and financial acumen, resource mobilisation, marketing and leadership skills.
Bangem Vocational Training Centre
SODEI launched a new centre in Bangem to serve as a Vocational Training centre for youths in and out of school. This initiative provides young women and girls the opportunity to learn and develop skills to improve their lives and communities. The centre currently offers training in computer services, secretariat duties, food processing and packaging, detergent production and fashion and design.
Bangem is a rural town in Kupe Muanenguba Division of the Southwest Region. The town has a population of approximately 25000 inhabitants mostly from the Bakossi tribe. The main occupation is farming in subsistence and cash crops such as cassava, plantains, cocoyams, maize, vegetables, coffee, fruits, etc. However, the deplorable state of the roads - with no access to farm to market roads makes it difficult for farmers to market their farm products. Though relatively safe, Bangem was also affected by the ongoing armed conflict and remains under threat.
Gender Based Violence
SODEI recognizes the repugnant effect of gender-based violence (GBV) in our society and plays an active role in combating it through our advocacy and sensitization. We organize regular sensitization workshops on GBV as part of our LESPLAY activities. We also organize special GBV advocacy and sensitization activities to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV. These events are often interactive sessions involving young women and boys taking part in discussions to find solutions to combat GBV. Our online platforms, especially social media, play an important role in our advocacy and campaigns against GBV. We developed and released a lexicon on GBV to simplify comprehension for our young beneficiaries and participants.
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