About 30 girls have come to the end of a one
week leadership boot camp in Bamenda.
About 30 girls have come to the end of a one
week leadership boot camp in Bamenda. Organized by the Bamenda Head quartered
non-governmental organisation NGO Hope for the Needy Association HOFNA-Cameroon
assembled girls between 13-19years under
the theme “entrepreneurship and servant leadership: inspiring the next
generation of Female leaders in Cameroon.
According to the Director of HOFNA Christelle
Bay C, the “Girls Leadership Boot camp is a prime example
of how to fill the pipeline with young female leaders ready to learn, gain
experience, understand their bodies and grow into more senior leadership roles
as their careers progress.”
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The
fireside moment at the Girls leadership Boot Camp 2018
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During the camp, the girls listened to physical
and online presentations and carried out practical activities which gave them
an opportunity to understand several issues amongst them; Self-esteem
strategies that over-come self-doubt, time management, team building and
organizational skills, building inner peace, improving communication and
leadership skills, using Arts to represent dreams for the future and promote
peace and tolerance, self-care, Menstrual Hygiene and related issues, goal
motivation, civic participation and elections,
building basic entrepreneurial skills.
Yembe Nfor CEO of Yems Group and a 2017
Mandela Washington Fellow who opened the camp presentations engaged the
girls on pitching of a Project Idea, setting and achieving goals, Team work and
Team Building. According to him, girls must be creative with clear goals while
working as a team in a bid to reach their full potentials.
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| HOFNA Director Christelle Bay (in blue) spending the fireside moment with the girls |
The
representative of Mother of Hope Cameroon shared with the girls on puberty,
menstrual hygiene, teenage pregnancies and related issues. With the girls it
was conclusions were reached amongst them “SAVE Sex so that it can be SAFE at
the right time, sex can wait and should wait till the right time.”
Speaking
on Effective Communication, effective use of the social media and adolescent
girls championing the rape culture, Comfort
Mussa
CBM Field Communications Coordinator for West/Central Africa and Founder of Sisterspeak237 encouraged the girls
on the need to value self and avoid feeling less important. She later spent the
day with girls, other facilitators and HOFNA officials to share experiences by
a special fireside reminiscent of the years past when parents shared stories by
the fireside.
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| Rima Desai Transformational Life Coach for women and kids at the Guiding star on Skype with the girls |
Hope
for the Needy Association co-founder and Programs Manager- Munteh Florence Chea,
Mirabel Ngong Founder of CEP Cameroon and 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow, Rev
Fr Francis Tche Principal Saint Paul’s College, Rima Desai Transformational
Life Coach for women and kids at the Guiding star (via Skype) Gortrand
Berinyuy, Fellow YALI Regional Leadership Center amongst others guided the
girls via different topics.
The
girls end the camp with the determination to engage their peers in raising
awareness on emotional trauma and abuse and how it hinders the development of
children especially girls, encouraging parents to build stronger relationship
with their children, to run a #StopHate campaign
both online and in 2 university campuses with the hashtags- #EiDonDo and #StopBadBelly amongst
others.
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| Mirabel Ngong Founder of CEP Cameroon speaking with the girls |
HOFNA
Director Christelle Bay has described the camp as enriching and successful.
Though with limited funds, she has reminded grateful with the fact that parents
allowed their children to come at such challenging times and that her
facilitators showed uncommon commitment towards the success of the camp. While
expressing the hope for another camp next year, She has promised to keep in
touch with the girls to make such their dreams do not die after the camp. She
has also thanked partners like SHEMKA Foundation, SistersSpeak237, VUVU and
Miss Africa Texas for standing by her for the success of the camp.