GLFx Nkambe 2022 Activities Launching on World Biodiversity Da

 

At 2pm on May 22, 2022, members started arriving the conference hall of Millennium Star Hotel in Nkambe. At 3pm, Haruna

 Mohamadou announced the arrival of the chairman of the event in the person of the Divisional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife for Donga Mantung Division. The event started with prayers. Madame Gwei Kindness took the floor to prayer for God Almighty to be the main guide of the event. After the prayers, Fai Cassian Ndi, coordinator of Youth Development Organization-Yodo/ GLF welcome all the members and partner organisations. He used the opportunity to expressed gratitude to the entire GLF community, GLF team, CIFOR and the Robert Bosch Foundation for the timely support which he said will enable them to engage communities to act on landscapes. He added that GLFx and Yodo Cameroon will also work in close collaboration with other organizations through active engagement and sharing of ideas to ignite communities to actively participate in restoration activities, conservation practices so much so that everyone could secure sustainable livelihood. He emphasized that this year, GLFx Nkambe chapter will work with schools, traditional leaders, fish farmers, local water management committees and the Nkambe council. On the local partnership, he cited Camitex, Pan African Parliamentarians Network on Climate Change, Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, Sustainable Run for Development, Foundation for a Green Future and the Cameroon Telecommunication-Camtel. He also announced the names of chapter members who were to receive certificates of participation for the two days Youth Leaders Summit( world peace game) organized by Boston Green Fest Future Leaders Summit and Foundation for A Green Future as well as participants of the 2022, World Water Day Youth Summit. The certificates were handed over by the Divisional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife, and the Farm master of Technical School of Agriculture Nkambe, Mr. Tamfu. After that exercise, Madame Gwei Kindness, knowledge coordinator of the chapter presented the Community Action Plan for 2022 highlighting the major axes, expected results and the indicators. These activities ranges from planting trees, distribution of trees to fish farmers, support to local water management committees, award of prizes to students trees growing competition (winners) and the holding of open dialogues. Speaking during the official launching of the Divisional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife for Donga Mantung, Periementah K.N appreciated efforts by GLFx Nkambe to scale up restoration activities at community level. He reiterated that GLF programme is unique because it addresses very pertinent issues that seek to mitigate the loss of forests and land degradation among the several challenges people are facing nowadays. According to Periementah K.N addressing problems that undermines land productivity, food security, water scarcity or restoring biodiversity is a lofty initiative which ties with government agenda. Harping on the importance of Biodiversity Day, the Divisional Delegate was categorical that planting and nurturing trees to grow go hand in hand with promoting biodiversity. “Trees help bring nutrients back to into the depleted soil, help protect water sources and provide shade for crops” and that trees also help to protect species that are in danger by preserving their habitat. He however promised that the Divisional delegation of forestry will support and work in close collaboration with the chapter to ensure success. After that, members were handed Camtel sims to enable some of them to get access to the internet at very moderate rates. It is worth mentioning that GLFx Nkambe Chapter benefitted from Blue package flitte which will improve communication in the chapter. Members will benefitted three free numbers and low cost data under the special offer.be.Closing the event launch, HRH Fon Stanley Chifu called on the population of Nkambe plateau to join GLF to protect water sources and the small patches of forests. He said that in recent years, water has become a scarce commodity. To him, water scarcity has reached crisis level. He equally used the occasion to call on the Ministry of Forestry and Fauna, through the Divisional delegate to support communities to restore degraded landscapes. “Climate change is already here and GLFx is the surest partner”, HRH Fon Stanley Chifu concluded. The event ended at 5:30 pm with group photos 

When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)

The Surprisingly Positive Flip Side Of Nalova Lyonga's Student Pregnancy Pass

The Colbert Factor:

The Surprisingly Positive Flip Side Of Nalova Lyonga's Student Pregnancy Pass

Secondary Education Minister, Professor Nalova Lyonga's radical new move to correct the scripts of decades of Government's authoritarianism in systematically dismissing pregnant students from colleges in Cameroon may at first sight seem controversial.

Yet, a deeper reading reveals a tsaunami of equally systematic injustices to generations of female students who have been deprived of their education, and by extension, life-long opportunities, simply because they got pregnant.

Despite years of lobbying and advocacy by local women's rights' campaigners who were largely inspired by regional and international instruments duly ratified by Cameroon, it took the courage and dogged determination of Professor Nalova Lyonga, to reverse the retrogressive Government decision.

Cognizant of the fact that the Minister's decision was informed by UN human rights instruments that urge state parties to 'recognize the vulnerability of adolescent girls', school authorities and the education community must only be encouraged to implement Nalova Lyonga's decision, to the letter.

For, once the girls are allowed to drop out of school because of pregnancy, they are easily lured into 'early and forced marriages, which reduce their opportunity to complete school, develop employable skills, and contribute to community development'* 

To better understand the import of the recent ministerial decision, one only needs to go through available research on the subject. Going by a reproductive health report published on January 5, 2022 by some seasoned Cameroonian researchers, including Joelle Sobgwi Tambekou, Marthe Tsague Agnoux, and Flavien Ndonko, under Open Access, 77% of pregnant school dropouts in Cameroon, never return to complete their education. A situation Secondary Education Minister, Professor Nalova Lyonga is fighting tooth and nail to reverse.

More dangerously, the research results point to the fact that almost one in five (19.3%) of teenage mothers interviewed confessed to have had induced abortion, at least once. And this is where Professor Pauline Nalova's preemptive foresightedness comes alive. Her logic: If a student and by extension, some parents, know for sure the child's education would not be tampered with, they would not take the risky option of abortion-a thing many parents and sometimes authors of such pregnancies, have forced the victims to do,-a thing the victims themselves have voluntarily done. 

What results in immediate risks of death for some, and long-term consequences of infections and barrenness, for others.

The Open Access researchers reveal that Cameroon's national registry for single mothers, Reseau Nationale des Tantines (RENATA), or National Network of Aunties, (an auntie being a single mother trained in reproductive health and adolescent rights), has over 20,000 members, belonging to 305 associations nationwide, with 42.3% of them having dropped out of school due to unplanned pregancy. The study also names pregnancy as the second cause of school dropout in girls with 16.9% dropout rates, after financial problems. It was probably for this reason therefore, that the Minister sort to reverse the alarming situation, and in a more productive manner.

With some studies already conclusive on the fact that the long-term consequences of early child birth on a teenage mother's social status and child development could be lessened by continuing education, and that educational continuity may reduce the risk of subsequent pregnancies, one could only applaud H.E, Professor Nalova Lyonga's decision to reverse the outdated 1980 circular prescribing dismissal as only sanction to a pregnant student.

Professor Nalova Lyonga's proactive decision not only helps to bring back Cameroon to the table of Commitment Makers at the UN Women's Generation Equality Coalition, but also aligns with the thinking that since student pregnancy is just a temporary disability, and that since a woman does not get dismissed from her job simply because she got pregnant, the female student should be allowed to continue her education. 

Professor Nalova Lyonga's recent directives come to correct and complete Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of sin and punishment, of the strengths of women and the weakness of men, in the famous American novel, 'The Scarlet Letter'. Although the Scarlet Letter 'A' that Hester Prynne, the main character in the fictional story, is forced to wear, is a punishment for adultery in Puritan New England, Professor Nalova Lyonga, who was long time lecturer of 'The Scarlet Letter' in the University of Yaounde and beyond, completely redefines it in today's Cameroon to mean, 'able' or 'angel', and no longer a badge of shame.

Just like Rev. Dimmesdale, the clergy man in The Scarlet Letter convinces the Governor to allow Hester tokeep her daughter, Pearl, with her as a constant reminder of her 'fall and transgression'.

This could be evaluated to, Cameroon' Secondary Education Minister convincing school authorities, both public and private, to allow pregnant students to stay in school, as a constant reminder of their 'fall and transgression'.

If 'The Scarlet Letter' continues to be taught in schools today because it is a direct path to students engagement with the past and the future, Professor Nalova Lyonga completes that relevance in her directives by tasking school authorities to systematically include sexual and reproductive health education into all lessons.

Professor Nalova Lyonga's latest edict is therefore, a wake-up-call that we cannot continue to live in a repressive and authoritarian society, as it is analogue for the girl child in particular and humankind in general. 

It demonstrates in triumphant detail that change is possible in Cameroon once we have the right people with the right mind frames.

*Colbert Gwain is digital rights activist, author, radio host, Commitment Maker at UN Generation Equality Coalition, and content creator @TheColbertFactor

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When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)

The Numfor Solange Foundation Empowers Communities in Limbe on Waste Segregation

Two localities in Limbe II Council in the South West Region of .Cameroon have benefitted material support from The Numfor Solange Foundation to engage in waste segregation at community level. Speaking during sensitization and handing over of waste bins to the beneficiary communities, the Mayor of Limbe II Council expressed gratitude to Dr. Numfor Solange for the timely support. Chief Ndive Woka Daniel Ngale equally used the opportunity to thank The Numfor Solange Foundation, Tohoko University and The Numfor Solange Foundation for extending a hand of fellowship to his fast growing municipality. Harping on the importance of the project to his municipality, Chief Ndive Woka said plastic pollution is one of the major problems in his municipality. 

The Divisional Delegate of Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, Madame Ekwangeh Mercy applauded the donor for encouraging waste collection, reuse and recycling. She added that the waste segregation and sensitization project will go a long way to impact the lives of the poorest of the poor. However, before handing over the support to the beneficiary communities of Batoke and Mokundange, volunteers carried out sensitization campaigns moving from household to household where they lectured on household waste separation and how families could generate compost manure from homes. 

Talking to the press after the handing over ceremony, Dr. Numfor Solange, CEO of The Numfor Solange Foundation said plastic pollution is everywhere due to the poor management of waste at local levels. She emphasized that the segregation and sensitization project is the begining of a large recycling project that will in the nearest future cover the entire Fako Division. According to Dr. Numfor Solange, the project will impact lives given that it will generate more compost manure and stimulate farmers to go into regenerative agriculture. The representatives of communities of Batoke and Mokundange communities promised the support will be used for the purpose intended. Due to the hike in the prices of fertilizer, beneficiary communities expressed much thanks for the support. It is worth mentioning that The Numfor Solange Foundation also received support from Hon. Agho Oliver Bamenju, a Master Degree student at Tohuko University, the same institution that funded the project. 

WICUDA Goes Blue with CAMTEL

The Wimbum Cultural and Development Association has gone Blue. The Wimbum Cultural and Development Association's head quarters was today dressed in Camtel colours. The thousands of Wimbum people in Yaounde are expected to switch to Blue Camtel network. Prospects are high at that all WICUDA branches nationwide will join the bandwagon to switch to Blue Camtel so as to enjoy cheap and latest digital technologies. 

Following the contract signed between CAMTEL and MTN, where there is MTN network, there is equally CAMTEL network. Sources at CAMTEL have hinted that in the few months, Camtel network will covering the entire Donga Mantung Division. An authoritative voice also adviced that it will be of great advantage to get Camtel sims to access the fastest G4 network.