Mother Support Human Capital Locomotive

Mother Support Human Capital Locomotive
James Achanyi-Fontem, Coordinator, WABA MWG
From generation to generation in Cameroon, family ties have been engraved through togetherness and belonging. When a girl child is at the age of puberty, intiation start. The purpose of the intiation has remained to achieve economc, ciltural, and social survival in a harmonious environment.
At the beginning in regions where tradition has remained virgin and uncorrupt, the population of the villages still continue to hunt, pick fruits, herd or farm together. This explains why in communities of Lebialem in the South West province of Cameroon, the women continue to put their hands on one plough, from one individual farm to the other on the difficult hills and valleys to farm.
To succeed, the women form labour-contributing groups to produce wonderfully hoed and planted farms for everyone. This is a form of labour-cooperative of the women in Lebialem that set the pace for mother support as a means of financial and social empowerment.
When a member of the group delivers her baby, the job in her farm is still done, as the other will plan and programme the tasks to assist her in various ways, by assumining most of her usual farm occupation in a shared manner. These type of mother support groups have germinated and spread across several villages in Cameroon.
It is often startling to know how much capital these mothers and their different support groups generate from their activities. The larger the group, the more the women hoard., to operate their micro-credit system. Member, solely women, simply pool shares as agreed by the internal regulations of their mother support group. Some groups create a name for its identification in the community, like « Ngwinkon », which stands for the farming women.
The amounts saved in the micro-credit system are loaned out to others for interest. Those who borrow, hve to show prove that they are going to use the money for productive ends such as paying the school fees of their children, constructing a parmanent family residence or financing a small business so that the money is not wasted. Some borrow only for renewing their grains for the next planting season.
The fall out of this human capital locomotive is the stability in many families, uninterrupted schooling of the girl-child and other off-springs, the construction of a family home, the creation of a petty business by the mothers and averting idleness among women, just to name a few.
Experience has shown that when a mother is empowered, stability reigns in the family and education of children are guaranteed. If a mother is developed, the community develops, with the individual and the family. Everyone wins. Cameroon Link’s hidden agenda of mother support is through information, education, communication, advocacy and empowerment of the women. With this, women become less dependent on the father and they also learn about their rights and those of their children.

Cameroon Link Men’s Initiative Profile

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Promoting Gender Equality to Empower Women

Promoting Gender Equality to Empower Women
By James Achanyi-Fontem
Cameroon Link
Gender inequality continues to cause serious problems in Cameroon like in other parts of Africa and elsewhere. When women lack control over resources such as land, they are unable to make decisions which improve family income. Without control over family income by growing cash crops or animal breeding, women contribute their time and labour only to maintain subsistence levels, and are more severely affected by poverty than men. And cultural traditions, which bar women from activities such as tree planting, limit their ability to conserve and promote environmental sustainability.
Land and property rights, in particular, are slowly taking centre stage in almost every public forum convened by Cameroon government officials or civil society, and women are taking a leading role in the fight against discrimination with the creation of many female only organisations. Gender equality is a human right and at the heart of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is a must before overcoming hunger, poverty and disease in our communities. Gender equality means equality at all levels of education and in all areas of work, equal control over resources and equal representation in public and political life. This web page looks at eliminating gender disparity in all sectors of life because we cannot enjoy development without security, we cannot enjoy security without development and we cannot enjoy both development and security without respect for human rights.
Gender equality promotion starts in most cases with the promotion of women and property rights, which is considered a national issues in Cameroon and a global concern in other regions of the world.
Cameroon Link sees women and property rights promotion as another way to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of promoting gender equality and empowering women.
Both men and women have recognised in Cameroon that women are entitled to land access, security of tenure and the right to own property, though only a few respect the legislation, causing this issues to remain on the debate list. Cameroon law does not discriminate against women’s rights to inherit property, but customs and traditions of individual communities continue to prevent their access to that property when their partners are deceased.
By raising this issue, Cameroon Link is trying to help women change discriminatory laws and customary practices regarding inheritance, women's direct ownership and control of land, and women's co-ownership of family land through human rights activism and advocacy action.
We want to help women to become aware of their rights through popular education, legal aid clinics, media campaigns on women's access to land and property, and celebration of "International Women's Day" every year on the 8th March.
Through social mobilisation during health development community meetings, we raised a women's rights advocacy issue and stress the need to involve men, women and children in discussions on property matters.
This has raised women's spirit to fight for their rights and deal with greedy relatives who make women suffer by kicking them out of their matrimonial homes and taking all their property.
It is often very sad to hear that a woman lived happily with the husband for close to twenty years, but when death knocks at the doors of the family, sometimes due to simple malaria, sickle cell disorder or HIV, the whole world crumbles on the woman when the partner is no more. Even the joy of having been the darling of her in-laws disappears like a flash of light from a torch that is put off. Everybody turns hostile to the widow, from her husband's brothers to his parents, as everybody demands a share of the property. Some widows have even been forced from their homes following the deaths of their husbands by several methods.
The awareness campaigns undertaken by Cameroon through the COGESID Women Gender Councils is now getting women want to be the masters of their own destiny. Cameroon Link’s men’s initiative action is getting them to present their own activities and development plans for their future. Some women are beginning to speak a different language. This means that the promotion of WABA Men’s Initiative can lead to diversity among women as a source of richness, strength, knowledge and energy if gender mainstreaming is effectively applied in some circumstances..
As endorsers of the WABA men’s initiative expand their activities, it should be noted that there is no single formula for recommendations on tenure types for women's access to land and property. Registered titles may be appropriate in some situations and customary titles for others.
The provision of legal security and equal access to land and property for women requires action not only by governments, but by all sectors of society, including the private sector, non-governmental organizations, communities and local authorities, as well as by partner organizations and entities of the international community.
We are inviting governments to realise that women need an equal voice in decisions that affect their lives - from within the family to the highest level of government. This is a key element in women's empowerment. For a long time, men have dominated decision-making at the highest levels. Preventive and corrective measures for the expected undermining of women's land and property rights due to current trends of economic policies must be prepared and implemented.