Auteur/autrice : TimesNews2

As of tradition, the female staff of the Cameroon telecommunications (Camtel), met on March 8, 2020 after the parade chaired by First lady Chantal Biya, in order to celebrate the 35th international women’s day. The festive event held at club camtel in Yaoude gave root to speeches from the Representative of camtel’s women and the General Manager, Judith Yah Sunday Achidi. President of Camtel’s women, Gisele Ntsama Zang in her address, praised the numerous efforts done so far by the General Manager to revamp the leading telecommunications’ enterprise and to appoint some female employees into top management positions. She said Camtel has a good balance sheet since the arrival of Mrs Achidi on December 2018. Yet, their wish is to have more women at the center of strategic activities of the enterprise. On her part, the General Manager, Judith Yah Sunday Achidi acknowledged the positive contributions of women in her keynote address that has promising venues for an equal to equal agenda. She said : « At our level, we will stop at nothing to ensure that we accompany you to bring out the best in you. Just by simple arithmetic you can already read that we are leaving no stone unturned. Out of the 145 sub directors and directors in Camtel, 47 are women giving a percentage of 32.42 which is above the Beijing requirement of 30%. Of the 3243 staff we have, 1118 are women (34,5%). And we will not stop at that. The ball is in your court. We will intensify the organisation of trainings in view of developing your capacities to align you to international standards as we envision positioning Camtel as digital business leader in the entire Central African Sub region by 2025 ». During her address, the General Manager of Camtel equally said one of their main challenges is to clear all internal debts so as to motivate more the devoted staff. For more impact and results, Camtel lays much emphases on two cardinal points being : Change Management and Customer Centricity. « Your contribution is determinant. And this contribution consists of you being assiduous at work, serving customers diligently at your job position wherever you work, protecting and projecting the company’s brand image wherever you are, and above all jealously preserving the company’s property.  I would like you to commit yourself and fully involve in the implementation of our 2019-2025 strategic plan, the two major axes» Judith Yah Sunday Achidi said. 2020 International women’s day at Camtel was also spiced by artists musicians in a ceremony which ended in merries and joy.     Elise Kenimbeni

Transforming wheat flour into fish pie and producing starch using locally cultivated cassava tubas. This has been  the main focus of a series of training sessions organized by locally based non governmental organization, Bridgers Association Cameroon, within the framework of a project dubbed: economic empowerment of women/Girls to counter gender based violence(GBV) amidst the anglophone crisis. These training sessions held from February 19 till the 27, 2020 in Bamenda, North West region of Cameroon, gathered over 40 women and girls. According to Jackline Azah Chey, General coordinator of Bridgers association Cameroon, the fully funded initiative of the High Commission of Canada to Cameroon, seeks to empower internally displaced women and girls socio-economically, in a bid to minimize gender based violence perpetrated on them as a result of extreme poverty and hardship they are experiencing. While officially opening the trainings, Jackline Azah Chey said they are more preoccupied on how to revamp the mindsets of these internally displaced persons who have been tortured and suffered since the start of the crisis in 2016.  « Our cry is to put an end to the varied forms of Gender Based Violence you women and girls are going through. 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. So we beckon on you to deviate from deviant practices such as prostitution and even early and Forced Marriages in which you have resorted to pushing your little girls in to, just to make a living or shift responsibilities. » She said. The trainees were equally drilled on  accounting and book keeping which will help them have a stock of their businesses and measure progress in the days ahead. In addition to the trainings, the women and girls were granted seed capital as well as capital materials.  As a registered association operating from Yaounde with satellite offices in Bamenda and Buea, Bridgers association Cameroon has the mission to empower women and girls through advocacy in order to achieve gender equality and fight against gender based violence. Bridgers association Cameroon on its roadmap geared towards implimenting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) has so far carried out in over 18 communities sensitization campaigns on GBV with a focus on child marriage, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, domestic and sexual violence and child labour. The community based organization has also amongst others carried- out sexual and reproductive health awareness in some 13 schools, 11 communities, with highlight on menstrual hygiene education, the proper use of male and female contraceptives for safe sex especially for the youths, and besides leading HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.     Elise Kenimbeni