NGO to Assist Female Victims of Anglophone Crisis

                                                    

By Ticha Melanis in Limbe

ACF president with Limbe Journalists

The ongoing Anglophone crisis has forced many girls and women to flee their homes and take residence in bushes or in safer areas of the country. In their new abodes most of these girls and women have no access to basic hygiene needs. This has forced many to engage in commercial sex work just in a bid to cater for themselves and their families.

                It is for these reasons that the president for the NGO, African Concept Foundation, ACF, Tracy Kwaleh, has embarked on a project code-named: “Raising the voices of young girls in the bushes in the Anglophone crisis inflicted regions, through story telling.”

                 At a press briefing on Saturday, 30 May in Limbe, Tracey Kwaleh said they intend to heal the girls by raising their voices to the plight they suffer.

The promoter of the Cameroon Association of Media Professionals, Taryang Tabe, whose organization partners with ACF, noted that through the story the girls will tell, they hope to attract empathy from the two conflicting camps and also use it as a means to manage the conflict and its gender impact.

The project will run for one year and will target 50 girls from 4 communities in Fako Division including Bakingili, Mile Four, Bokwango and Great Soppo.

Girls that were kidnapped, raped, widows who lost their husbands etc would be given priority. They will narrate their stories to the rest of the world, identify ethical and appropriate cultural alternative livelihoods, and share lessons to influence policies and actions on conflict management and gender considerations. 

                Organizers called on media practitioners to help the project to succeed.

                The first phase of the project will be the identification of the girls. This would be by way of field visits and through the help of chiefs and quarter heads.

                Assessment meetings would be held with the identified girls to permit them to tell their stories, provide assistance to survivors of gender based violence, create alternative sources of livelihood with limited risk factors for the survivors and then launch an online campaign that will target both parties in the crisis.

                The project is planned to be self-sustaining. It is expected to have a multiplier effect whereby the girls assisted by the NGO will give assistance to others.

                The project was funded by Global GreenGrants Fund.