Journalists are training on how to access funding for voter and civic education.

The first of two workshops for media people and civil society organisations on how to access funding for voter and civic education in the country, held at the Ecumenical Service for Peace, SEP, House at Nsimeyong, Yaounde from April 26 to 27, 2012.

Organised by the Strengthening Civic Engagement (SCE) in Cameroon Programme of Counterpart International, Cameroon, the second workshop begins at the Baptist Centre, Nkwen, Bamenda in the North West Region today. According to Edison Yuniwo, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of SCE and facilitator of the training, the workshops are a follow up to earlier ones on covering elections with the goal of reducing the level of voter apathy. The two workshops were organised last March in Yaounde and Bamenda for French-speaking and English-speaking reporters, broadcasters and civil society representatives respectively in preparation for forthcoming Parliamentary and Council elections in the country.

Media houses and civil society organisations that participated in last March's workshops will be eligible to submit grant proposals each worth US $ 4,000 (about FCFA 1.9 million) to be used for increasing public interest and participation in election matters. A total of 12 of such projects worth FCFA 22.8 million will be funded under the programme all over the country this year with focus on regions where voter apathy was high in the 2011 presidential election. The programme is funded by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID.