Empowering new breed of women, girls: Chefusirri Foundation orientates female students on career opportunities.

Participants were female students drawn from secondary and higher institutions of learning. 

Addressing the female students, the Founder of Chefusirri Foundation, Barrister Chefu Sirri-Afanwi Joy, underscored the need for students to be directed to choosing the right career and not left to make choices they might regret in the future.  

“There is a big problem of career misorientation. Many students want to become something in the future but they don’t know how to get there. Others just get lost and study things they are not passionate about…,” the lawyer and human rights activist explained.  

The goal of the workshop, she added, is to “be able to tell students the possible outcomes of subjects and courses they are studying”. 

This, she further explained, is in line with one of the Foundation’s missions of “empowering more women and building more strong minds”. 

Targeting young girls in the career orientation, Barrister Chefu explained, is in a bid to close the existing gap between men and women in different careers. 

Barrister Chefu said most young girls miss out on such lucrative opportunities because they are not versed with the various openings in different careers. 

“The whole idea is to empower them with the different opportunities, tell them how they can get there,” she said.

Such orientation, Barrister Chefu noted, will also help curb Gender-Based Violence, GBV, and close career misorientation gaps. 

Aside the orientation, she said the Foundation is equally pairing the young girls with mentors in various fields they are interested in so as to guide them to achieve their life goals. 

Barrister Chefu also used the workshop to enlighten the students on different opportunities available in the legal profession including magistracy, court clerks, notaries, bailiffs, consultancy, lawyers etc. 

Volunteers drill participants on different fields 

Speaking earlier, volunteers of the Foundation, drilled the students on different careers available in different fields.

One of the volunteers, Blanche Emerinwe, drilled the female students on what to look at when choosing a career. 

She briefed the students on knowing their core principles and values, be passionate careers they choose, understand their life goals and to work towards achieving them.

Another volunteer, Njinwa Khan Brenda, who is a staff of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, touched on careers in the field of communication.

She told the students that communication has diverse careers including openings to become Communication Managers, Public Relation Officers, journalism, translation/interpretation, social media/community managers, digital marketing, marketing and advertising, graphics designing, photographers. 

Njinwa Khan harped on the need for the students to take language lessons seriously in order to better market the image of institutions they will represent in the future as communicators.

She also advised them to be versed with ICT tools, be good listeners, have good research and analytical skills to be able to break down information into smaller bits and proffer solutions. 

On his part, Ngong Elis, presented to the students, different careers in the field of technology and areas of study that can easily enable them better fit in the domain. 

Taking the cue, another volunteer, Barrister Nsen Abeng, talked on how to become a better woman and how the young girls could protect and love their body.

She also drilled them on building a positive mindset, which she insisted, is key to having a career. 

Barrister Nsen Abeng spiced her presentation on practical examples and shared her story to inspire the female students. 

Enter Guest Speaker 

In his capacity as guest speaker at the workshop, the Technical Adviser No.2 to the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Prof Kum Awah Pashcal, presented a myriad of opportunities for youth nationwide. 

He focused on entrepreneurship and opportunities the ministry offers youth. The medical anthropologist used the opportunity to encourage the girls to take the sciences seriously so they could become pilots, doctors among others. 

Zooming on the domain on economic rearmament, Prof Kum Awah presented the students skills development opportunities in multipurpose youth empowerment centres for start-ups of businesses and employment orientation to enterprises.

He also talked of maturing business and entrepreneurship ideas of youths for the creation of business and enterprises as well as support of youth individual projects. 

He also harped on moral and civic rearmament, touching on mind, moral and civic education.

About the Foundation 

Created in 2021, Chefusirri Foundation focuses on fighting domestic violence, sexual abuse, economic discrimination, early and arranged marriages among others. It strives to create a safer society for all women and aims to achieve this not only by directly assisting those who are already victims, but also by educating them on what to look out for to keep themselves as safe as they possibly.