Since the first
presentation of our project a few weeks ago we continously worked on bringing
our idea to life and advanced step by step in its planning and elaboration -
which is why we want to give you the latest update:
We finished our
visits at the Women-Organizations in and around the city of Douala; we had some
really interesting discussions and learned a lot about the living conditions
and problems that women are facing every day. No matter with whom we spoke, our
first impression that the worlwide discrimination of women is a serious problem
as well in the cameroonian society has been approved – but we also learned that
there are many women who stand up against this and fight for equal rights.
Besides this rather personal and individual perception, the impact of
discrimination is strongly approved when looking at the percentage of women in
official institutions: Out of 62 members of the government only nine are women,
of all the traditional leaders („chef du village“), which have a strong moral
and spiritual influence especially on the country side, only one is a woman.
Reaching top-decision-making positions in the private and public sector is
almost impossible. Many women we spoke with also decribed the difficulties they
have in gaining independence from their families and the the strong male
hierachie which contiunes to debar women from making their own decisions. Being
deprived of real political participation and social and financial autonomy, for
many women mariage seems to be the best option – which obviously is not a
strategy that offers a perspective to get away from male dominance.
These impressions
in mind, we felt even more motivated to advance in the elaboration of our
project, supported and encouraged by the women we talked to. In the last few
weeks, our main occupation was to find the financial means needed to implement
our idea. This is not an easy task, everyone who did fundraising once knows
what we are talking about – writing lots of emails and letters presenting the
goals and impact of the project.. all this is an important but not always easy
thing to do. But we stay positive and will continue to search for sponsors!
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| We visited "Les dames Sauveters" in Njombé, a village close to Douala. The organisation exists since 1991and has around 80 members. |
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| After a really intresting afternoon with the organisation AME "Association des mères et enfants" some of their members showed us their neighbourhood. |
