Yaounde — As is the case in much of Africa, cultural and religious factors in Cameroon have proved formidable obstacles to the advancement of women in the workplace. Traditional beliefs dictate that a women's place is in the home, prompting many parents to take their daughters out of school at an early age - and allow them to be married.

As a result, 48 percent of women are illiterate, compared to 25 percent of men - something that helps create a situation where women are under-represented in key sectors such as manufacturing and the service industries. In contrast, women constitute 64 percent of the agricultural workforce.

"The situation for women in Cameroon is of great concern to the government, which is making it a priority," says Suzane Bomback, the minister for women and family matters "That is why our main objective is to help them be self-sufficient and improve their chances on the labour market."

Information technology has proving especially useful in showing women a way out of the cultural cul-de-sac they so often find themselves in.

Two years ago, Bomback launched a programme to give information and communication technology (ICT) training to women. Called 'Operation 100,000 Women by 2012', the initiative was launched in conjunction with the Yaounde-based African Institute for Computer Science.

Earlier this month (Jan. 10), the eleventh batch of students to receive instruction under the initiative began classes in the capital and the commercial hub of Douala. To date, 980 women have graduated from the programme, which lasts for two months.

"After I failed my baccalaureate (the school leaving examination) three times, my parents forced me to leave school because I needed to bring some money into the house," 25-year-old 'Operation 100,000' alumnus Sabine Elomo told IPS. "Last year, after being unemployed for two years, I jumped at the chance to join this programme."

"I went and after two months of training in office automation and the internet, I applied for a job and was hired as a management assistant," she added. Elomo finished her training on Apr. 30, 2004 and has been working since September in a transportation services company in Yaounde.

Another ICT initiative, the Cisco programme, is the result of a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme, the United States Agency for International Development and the Cameroonian government. Scholarships are provided under this programme - and it is not only school leavers or those in their 20s who benefit from the project.

"Thanks to my training in the new technologies, I've been able to survive up until now," said Laetitia Ebongue, 42, who was forced out of her former civil service position five years ago in the midst of an economic recession in Cameroon. She now runs her own secretarial agency.

"Squeezed out and having no specific professional training, I kept my nose to the grindstone until the day when I found out about the Cisco programme in information and communication technology. That's when I enrolled. Afterwards, I applied for a loan to cover the price of my first computer," Ebongue added.

The Cisco programme and Operation 100,000 accept women of all ages who know how to read and write. Managers, students, officials and domestics from all over the country have signed up for training.

"Helping women climb out of poverty has become imperative," Laure Paulino Fotso, one of the teachers on the Cisco programme, told IPS, adding "We've noticed that most Cameroonian women have enormous difficulty simply surviving. Some who dropped out of school just went back to their neighborhoods to join the ranks of the unemployed, whereas other fell into prostitution."

"Our programme has allowed these women to regain their self-confidence by being able to find a job and start short-term revenue-producing projects. We get enormous satisfaction out of that," Fotso noted further.

Women on the training schemes learn about word processing, desktop publishing, bookkeeping and doing research on the internet research, amongst other topics. Those who complete the courses are sought after by small- and medium-sized companies to computerize their offices, said one of the instructors.

Still, difficulties have been encountered in trying to bring women up to speed with information technology.

"The absence or insufficiency of training facilities the fact that some women drop out of the training (These) really deal a blow to our efforts to improve the lot of women," says Claire Tiemani, co-president of Women of Africa: a non-governmental organisation based in Douala.

This group manages development programmes that focus on health, education and business training for women and the youth.

The drop out rate that Tiemani speaks of is caused by various factors, including the onset of pregnancy and the need to pay more attention to other family responsibilities.

Also, "Some women who have received internet training prefer to spend their time trying to strike up a romance with a foreigner, online," says Clotaire Kamgang, of the Women's Education and Training Centre, based in Yaoundé. This, he adds, is contrary to the centre's goal of providing women with the means to live independently.