Walter Wilson Nana
Buea, Cameroon.
Reach Out Cameroon is reaching out and bringing out the talents embedded in Cameroonian youths. For the second edition of its Youth Empowerment Programme, YEP, organised in the Tole neighbourhood of Buea municipality, some 65 youths; age 6 – 16 came together for a-month-skills acquiring session.
Moki Liwonjo, Reach Out Cameroon YEP Coordinator in Tole said the holiday programme was intended to bring out the creative talents entrenched in the youths through games, lessons on Human Rights education, making of beads, handy baskets and painting exercises.
Reach Out Cameroon's Esther Njomo Omam makes a statement of hope to the participants of YEP and their parents
A participant of the YEP, ten-year-old Sylvie Edieloh of Mount Carmel Secondary school, Muea, Buea said they welcomed the programme with excitement, noting that it was an amazing moment for all her friends who took part.
Florence Fontah, mother of one of the kids, expressed gratitude to the management of Reach Out Cameroon for the gesture and the teaching messages from the recitals made by the children. She will be corroborated by Chrisantus Ewinjah, another parent, who mentioned with delight the actions from Reach Out and prayed that more pupils and students should enrol for the YEP 2014 and come out as better Cameroonians.
Reach Out Cameroon’s international volunteer, Celine Koreman from the Netherlands said the children will never regret the YEP experience and her Cameroon sojourn will also make her a better citizen of the world.
Participants of YEP 2013
Esther Njomo Omam, Executive Director, Reach Out Cameroon said her institution goes towards the needy and the case of the Tole neighbourhood has come to fruition thanks to the Charity Sisters of Tole. She saw in the youths of Tole as endowed as any other youths in Cameroon and across the world. “The youths are the Cameroonians of tomorrow, so we must support them in all ways,” she noted.
Omam advised the women and girls of Tole to engage into empowerment initiatives and free themselves from poverty.
The YEP 2013 closing ceremony in Tole was spiced with recitation of poems, biblical verses, fashion parade and a sketch from the kids. In the process, the children passed on some food-for-though messages.
Handy baskets beads and decorative back rests made by participants of YEP 2013
These included; AIDS kills, educating the girl child is educating the nation, God is good all the time, discrimination between boys and girls should be avoided, let us join together and fight against HIVE/AIDS, sexual intercourse is not good for children, you have just one life, so take good care, couples should go for HIV/AIDS check up and the sketch, which highlighted the need to avoid stigmatising HIV/AIDS patients.
The children also thrilled their parents and guests with a chair-dance competition, a ballet and traditional dance.
With the back-to-school atmosphere across Cameroon, the Reach Out Cameroon gesture to give out gifts, composed of didactic materials to all the participants and those who distinguished themselves during the month-long training programme was welcomed.
Representative of YEP 2013 Sylvie Edieloh reading their valedictory speech
After the August 29 2013 ceremony in Tole, a similar one took place August 30 at the Government Primary School campus in Bakweri-Town, Buea. It was still a Reach Out Cameroon YEP for kids in that neighbourhood of Buea.
