Traditional Rulers Supportive of PCC Women Empowerment Project

By Christopher Ambe Shu

Photo above: Traditional Chiefs at working session with WEEP resource women in Batoke
Photo below:WEEP 's women marching on Women's Day

Through out Cameroon, women last March 8 celebrated, in pomp, this year’s International Day of the Woman under the theme “Investing in Women and the Girl Child” .It was another occasion not only for government officials to show evidence of what the Cameroon Government has been doing to empower women so to lift them out of poverty but also for churches, organizations and individuals. There were calls here and there for people to invest in the woman and girl child. And in Buea, where this writer witnessed the celebrations at Independence Square, Southwest Provincial Governor Eyeya Zanga Louis was very emphatic on the point. Women make up 52% of the population of Cameroon and are known to be hard-working but lack the much needed support to forge ahead.

But this writer’s interest is in what the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) has done or is doing to empower Cameroonian women. My choice of PCC was influenced by the fact that during the march past in Buea by women as part of activities marking the women’s day, Ann Munjong, CTRV journalist and “master” of ceremony, in her public remarks, was full of praises for the PCC. Then of course, came a thunderous applause from onlookers .This was when gender -equality advocate Rev .Mary Kinge led women march past with placards of the Women’s Education and Empowerment Project (WEEP) of the PCC.
But what has WEEP done to receive such public accolade?
WEEP, coordinated by Rev Mary Kinge, is aimed at educating and empowering women collectively and individually. WEEP has so far carried out empowerment activities only in Fako Division of the Southwest Province of Cameroon, but plans to reach out to other women in far away areas.

According to Food and Rural Development Foundation (FORUDEF), Buea-Cameroon, a local NGO that recently evaluated the first phase of Women Education and Empowerment Project (WEEP) of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), the project’s success rate stands at over 75%.
The writer learned that, WEEP has greatly reduced women’s ignorance about their rights and responsibilities, and improved their level of education on political and leadership issues. Many women are today local political party leaders, municipal councilors and deputy mayors in Fako, thanks to WEEP educative talks.
WEEP has also improved Cameroonian women’s access and control over resources as well as over their reproductive health.
WEEP achievements included sensitization meetings with women- round -table conferences on Women and Citizens’ rights, training of trainers workshops on gender and women’s rights, seminars on women and their legal rights,worshops on leadership and good governance, and on girl child education

But of more significance is how WEEP has succeeded to convince some traditional chiefs in Fako to accept to include more women in decision-making positions. More often than not traditions,norms and customs been identified a major barrier to the empowerment of the woman. .Traditional chiefs or rulers are the first custodians of these traditions. Conscious that chiefs could play a great role in the empowerment of women if persuaded, WEEP coordinator organized several meetings with some traditional rulers to sell its objectives, and solicit their support to lift women high. At one WEEP meeting with chiefs in Batoke-Limbe last December, Chief of Batoke, Molive Molungu Otto, said “my chiefdom is organized in such a way that women could be seen in all decision structures of my village”. The chief lauded WEEP for trying to increase the participation of women in decision-making, to improve on women’s participation in local governance and to reduce women’s ignorance about their rights and responsibilities. “Women need to come out and know that they have equal opportunities as men and must take up their responsibility to acquire the required knowledge and skills to match the men who are already in an advantaged position due to culture and inheritance”, cautioned Chief Otto at that meeting, hoping that other chiefs would give women the chance to prove their worth. The chief noted, “Once a woman is educated and empowered the nation is built on a solid foundation”
It is reported that chiefs who have met with WEEP educators are now bent on involving more women in decision-making positions, hitherto reserved only for men.
If chiefs, formerly seen as kind of a barrier to the empowerment of women, are today interested to lift the woman, the woman must take up the challenge to assert herself. Shouldn’t the PCC be lauded for its continued efforts to moralize society?