Promoting peacebuilding: Local Youth Corner trains young women leaders from NW, SW.

She was speaking Saturday, March 16 in Buea. This was at the start of a support and learning session held in Buea.

The one-day session was an opportunity for young women living and working in conflict-affected areas to reflect on the living and working context of young women in peacebuilding, the challenges they face as women organisations working on conversations around youth, peace and security as well as their opportunities in peacebuilding. 

The support and learning programme targeted young women who live in conflict-affected regions. The project will run for 24-months with the overall objective of increasing young people’s contribution and leadership in peace-building processes in Cameroon.

It also seeks to strengthen local youth organisations’ engagement as actors of governance and social cohesion in Cameroon. 

The project aims to strengthen the knowledge, capacity and leadership of youth-led organisations. 

“We have carried out operational capacity building through which the capacities of youth-led organisations were strengthened,” Mbom Chia said.

Mbom Chia added that the goal of the session in Buea was to create conditions for a better understanding of collaboration and networking between youth-led organisations. 

During the sessions, participants will be able to share their experiences and learn from the experiences of their peers in different parts of the two regions.

Speaking to the press after the session, Rashidatu Dao, a participant said the workshop had been very helpful “because I got the opportunity to share my experiences with others and to learn from their experiences”.

Women and girls, she said, have a natural gift to bring peace “because they are mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters and can influence peace in many ways by talking to their husbands, brothers, fathers, and sons to resolve conflicts”.

Despite this role, women, she regrated, are relegated to the background of society when it comes to peacebuilding. 

However, she has promised to keep pushing to ensure women’s voices are heard.

On her part, another participant, Chi Margaret, said the workshop was crucial “because I was able to establish contacts with other young women activists with whom we can always collaborate and share experiences as women and women-led organisations”.

While the challenges faced by women in peacebuilding are enormous, Mbom Chia said through the sharing of experiences, the women can make recommendations on what policymakers can do to empower them better get more engaged in such initiatives.

The training was organised in line with the ‘Youth Organisations' Upraised Network for Growth and Peace project’ which is funded by the European Union in Cameroon.

The project is implemented by Local Youth Corner Cameroon in collaboration with Search for Common Ground and the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education.