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Africa: Poverty Has Female Face - German Diplomat
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The Post (Buea)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Kini Nsom
The Chargé D'Affaires at the German Embassy in Yaounde, Horst Gruner, says despite the fact women are those who generate riches, they are hardest-hit by poverty.
He made the remark while launching the gender equality week initiated by the German Cooperation, recently.Launched at the Abbia Cinema in Yaounde, the programme was dubbed "Strong women and girls". It is aimed at sensitising various stakeholders to promote women's right and mainstream gender in every aspect of national life.
It was in this perspective that the German diplomat bemoaned the pathetic plight of women in Africa. In Sub Saharan Africa, women produce 80 percent of food crops, he said, yet 70 percent of very poor people are women. He remarked that two-thirds of the world's illiterate who cannot read nor write are women.
In the face of such a situation, he went on; women need to be promoted because equality between men and women is a fundamental aspect of human rights. To him, such equality is also a non negligible factor of development.
"When you develop the woman, you develop the entire society,"Since 2000, he recalled, half of the German Development Cooperation funds, have been used on projects that promote sex equality. He thanked all the institutions of German Cooperation, including GTZ, DED, the Goethe Institute, the KFW and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, for organising the weeklong activities.
The week was used to accelerate the German Cooperation strategies tailored to ensure that equal opportunities between men and women become a reality in Cameroon in 2010.
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During the launching ceremony, participants watched a gender-didactic movie titled Sisters-in-law" It is a one hour 44 minutes documentary by Justice Vera Ngassa and Beatrice Ntuba that x-rays the problems women face in the society.
The Setting of the documentary is Kumba in the Southwest, where rape, child abuse, forced marriages and domestic violence are the order of the day. It portrays the collective will of women to liberate themselves from the dudgeons of male chauvinism.
Senior Officials from the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Promotion of the Family attended the occasion.
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