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| IDPs in Buea trained by HELP-OUT as house keepers in family picture with officials after their graduation |
By
Christopher Ambe.
A Buea-based NGO known as
HELP-OUT has graduated eleven IDPs in Buea as professional house keepers, after
a three-month intensive training, as
part of its efforts to empower women and girls who are victims of the
Anglophone crisis, which erupted in 2016 and has led to the internal
displacement of over half a million people, in search of safety and protection,
as well as livelihoods .
HELP -OUT successfully
carried out the training of the IDPs with the financial support of MISSION 21, headquartered
in Switzerland, whose mission is capacity-building and gender-equality, and with the technical and material assistance from
Marta Perrone,founder of the Professional Housekeeper Training Program,USA
The graduation ceremony
was witnessed by Angelika Weber, Mission
21 Programme Officer for Cameroon; Togho Lumumba Mukong,Mission 21 country
coordinator,Cameroon;Oben Emmanuel Njock, Mission 21 Southwest Representative;
Clara Manga, director of the Women and Family Empowerment Centre in Buea;
George Ngwane, civil society actor and member of Cameroon’s Bilingualism and Multi-culturalism
Commission.They all lauded HELP-OUT for working toward improving living
standards.
Mr. Lumumba Mukong was particularly happy to learn
that three of the trainees had already been employed. He hoped that the collaboration
between HELP-OUT and MISSION 21 would continue
According to Mr.Obasi
Clarkson, director of HELP-OUT the NGO’s areas of intervention include Human
rights education, prison/legal/democratic reforms; alternative dispute
resolution; rural infrastructure development; Information Communication
Technologies (ICT),professional house keeper training and trauma healing.
He said the three-month
training was “ intensive tutorials and
practical", noting that some 40 applicants had applied but due to limited funds
only eleven were trained,and three were already employed.
Mr.Obasi said the eleven
internally displaced women and girls were drilled on modules such as :Career development, general house keeping, First Aid, Handling family disputes, security
of home, effective communication, home and restaurant; marketing, etiquette/personal
hygiene; basic child care ;flower arrangement a laundry and product use.,
Madam Angelika Weber, who flew in from Switzerland,
to witness the graduation, expressed satisfaction with the timely completion of
the course, which would enable the trainees get incomes for themselves.
Weber said the course,
which was a combination of a need and opportunity, was intended to “educate
young people so that they can have a livelihood security”. She admitted that
their needs were bigger than ever, but that what was more important was for them
to take advantage of opportunities to build their capacities.
The Manager of Mountain
Hotel,Buea, Mbinglo Grace, who had taught the trainees conflict management and
accepted some of them to do a four-week
internship in the hotel, said it was an honor for her to be part of the training.
She encouraged the house-keepers to
strive to become models. ” You can all be models by doing the right things and
be morally upright… Circumstances may want hold you down but your comportment
can make you a role model, she noted. “Going through life challenges you can be
a role model to somebody.”
She said she was happy
that Mountain Hotel was part of the initiative to empower women and girls
during this trying moments in the country.
Also speaking, Clara Manga,
director of the Women and Family Empowerment Centre, hailed HELP-OUT for its
empowerment initiatives.
“Educating a woman is
educating the whole nation. However, it is a good programme for everybody. Let
men not get scared of embracing the course”, she advised. “There is no
knowledge that is useless; there is nothing as good as doing some professional
course.”
For his part,George Ngwane
encouraged the trainees to get into society and prove their worth, wishing them
a good job-harvest.
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