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Development-Cameroon:
Independence Via the Keyboard
As is the case in much of Africa, cultural and religious factors in Cameroon
have proved formidable obstacles to the advancement of women in the workplace.
Traditional beliefs dictate that a women's place is in the home, prompting
many parents to take their daughters out of school at an early age - and
allow them to be married.
As a result, 48 percent of women are illiterate, compared to 25 percent
of men - something that helps create a situation where women are under-represented
in key sectors such as manufacturing and the service industries. In contrast,
women constitute 64 percent of the agricultural workforce.
"The situation for women in Cameroon is of great concern to the government,
which is making it a priority," says Suzane Bomback, the minister
for women and family matters "That is why our main objective is to
help them be self-sufficient and improve their chances on the labour market."
Information technology has proving especially useful in showing women
a way out of the cultural cul-de-sac they so often find themselves in.
Two years ago, Bomback launched a programme to give information and communication
technology (ICT) training to women. Called 'Operation 100,000 Women by
2012', the initiative was launched in conjunction with the Yaounde-based
African Institute for Computer Science.
Earlier this month (Jan. 10), the eleventh batch of students to receive
instruction under the initiative began classes in the capital and the
commercial hub of Douala. To date, 980 women have graduated from the programme,
which lasts for two months.
"After I failed my baccalaureate (the school leaving examination)
three times, my parents forced me to leave school because I needed to
bring some money into the house," 25-year-old 'Operation 100,000'
alumnus Sabine Elomo told IPS. "Last year, after being unemployed
for two years, I jumped at the chance to join this programme."
"I went and after two months of training in office automation and
the internet, I applied for a job and was hired as a management assistant,"
she added. Elomo finished her training on Apr. 30, 2004 and has been working
since September in a transportation services company in Yaounde.
Another ICT initiative, the Cisco programme, is the result of a partnership
between the United Nations Development Programme, the United States Agency
for International Development and the Cameroonian government. Scholarships
are provided under this programme - and it is not only school leavers
or those in their 20s who benefit from the project.
"Thanks to my training in the new technologies, I've been able to
survive up until now," said Laetitia Ebongue, 42, who was forced
out of her former civil service position five years ago in the midst of
an economic recession in Cameroon. She now runs her own secretarial agency.
"Squeezed out and having no specific professional training, I kept
my nose to the grindstone until the day when I found out about the Cisco
programme in information and communication technology. That's when I enrolled.
Afterwards, I applied for a loan to cover the price of my first computer,"
Ebongue added.
The Cisco programme and Operation 100,000 accept women of all ages who
know how to read and write. Managers, students, officials and domestics
from all over the country have signed up for training.
"Helping women climb out of poverty has become imperative,"
Laure Paulino Fotso, one of the teachers on the Cisco programme, told
IPS, adding "We've noticed that most Cameroonian women have enormous
difficulty simply surviving. Some who dropped out of school just went
back to their neighborhoods to join the ranks of the unemployed, whereas
other fell into prostitution."
"Our programme has allowed these women to regain their self-confidence
by being able to find a job and start short-term revenue-producing projects.
We get enormous satisfaction out of that," Fotso noted further.
Women on the training schemes learn about word processing, desktop publishing,
bookkeeping and doing research on the internet research, amongst other
topics. Those who complete the courses are sought after by small- and
medium-sized companies to computerize their offices, said one of the instructors.
Still, difficulties have been encountered in trying to bring women up
to speed with information technology.
"The absence or insufficiency of training facilities the fact that
some women drop out of the training (These) really deal a blow to our
efforts to improve the lot of women," says Claire Tiemani, co-president
of Women of Africa: a non-governmental organisation based in Douala.
This group manages development programmes that focus on health, education
and business training for women and the youth.
The drop out rate that Tiemani speaks of is caused by various factors,
including the onset of pregnancy and the need to pay more attention to
other family responsibilities.
Also, "Some women who have received internet training prefer to spend
their time trying to strike up a romance with a foreigner, online,"
says Clotaire Kamgang, of the Women's Education and Training Centre, based
in Yaoundé. This, he adds, is contrary to the centre's goal of
providing women with the means to live independently.
Inter Press Service
(Johannesburg)
January 31, 2005
Posted to the web February 1, 2005
Sylvestre Tetchiada
Yaounde