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Cameroon: Using HIPC Funds to Empower Girls
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
7 March 2008
Posted to the web 7 March 2008
Brenda Yufeh
The government has put in place various means to invest on girls as future women in the society.
Girls, with their salaried work and non-salaried activities, play a vital role in the fight against poverty through the enhancement of the national economy. This is why investing in girls is a constant and permanent preoccupation of public authorities since girls have potentials that are worth developing. Through the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family, women empowerment and family centres, have been created in all the ten provinces in the country. Through these centres, girls are being trained to achieve skills which permit them to establish income generating activities.
Comfort Effiom, Sub-Director in Charge of the Education of the young girl and women at the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family, says while the Ministries of Basic, Secondary and Higher educations take care of girls at their various levels, the women empowerment centres are out to ensure the wellbeing of girls who are school dropouts and those who cannot further their education after the primary level. Comfort Effiom says in the various centres, girls receive training on various fields such as sewing, hair dressing, cooking, secretariat, etc. Depending on the field chosen by the girls; they could undergo training within three to six months or even more. This training, according to the Sub-Director in Charge of the young girl and women, enables the girls to gain skills which help them to operate income generating activities thereby living their lives as usually.
While explaining that women empowerment centres existed long ago, with the coming of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) Funds, Comfort Effiom notes that the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family has not only been able to train young girls but also sponsor some of their projects. Hence, after receiving training, the girls write up a project which must be eligible for sponsorship through the HIPC funds. At times, those who receive training on the Information and Communication Technologies, end up coming together to create a secretariat using the HIPC funds. HIPC funds are given to girls to carryout income generating activities so as to obtain credit facilities destined to poor girls by the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family. When HIPC funds are given out; the girls are expected to reimburse the money after making profits through their business. In this way, the ministry is able to financially help other girls who come later.
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There are also rural animators found in the rural areas that are charged with sensitising and educating girls on various issues of life. Besides reinforcing the institutional mechanism for girls' empowerment, the Ministry of Women's Empowerment also support female associations aimed at ameliorating the living conditions of young girls.
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