CBM empowers journalists, partners on disability inclusive social protection.

The Programme Officer in charge of Social Protection at cbm Cameroon Country Office, Melissa Longla, told participants that Disability Inclusive Social Protection is a comprehensive approach to risk management composed of policies, programmes and initiatives that seek to remove barriers and protect all individuals with disabilities in situations of vulnerability from stresses and shocks that may lead to increased poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and crises.

“Disability inclusive social protection is a new technical area in CBM. It is relatively new, and a couple of months ago, CBM launched its new project in this technical area with its long-term partner, PromHandiCam,” she said. 

She said they realised that the concept of social protection is relatively new to Cameroonians, even though there are some social protection initiatives in country, including a policy.

Longla insisted that “because CBM is keen on what it does and how its work is represented out there, we thought that it was necessary to bring together people from media houses who often pick up stories like this, and, the communication staff from our partners that support us in implementing programmes in this technical area, to give them the right message”. 

While opening the workshop, CBM’s Field Communications Coordinator, Comfort Mussa, said the organisation, through the workshop, is strengthening collaboration between media actors and stakeholders in the disability and social protection sectors, fostering inclusive narratives and advocacy.

For the partner organisations present, Mussa assured that the session will help to avail high-quality, accessible educational materials on DISP to support internal learning, and boost stakeholder engagement aligned with CBM’s inclusive development strategy.

Initiative lauded

Participants at the workshop have praised the initiative of CBM, noting that the training capacity building would help enhance their understanding of the stakes.

They said the training will help them build skills to identify, capture, and ethically report compelling stories that reflect the lived experiences of persons with disabilities.

One of the participants, Jean Charles Beyaolla, said the concept of social protection is very important to journalists.

“…because you have to understand that beyond the work we do, employees also have rights, and among those rights is the concept of social protection,” Beyaolla said. 

Beyond being abreast with the concepts of social assistance, social insurance, and labour market interventions, Beyaolla insisted on the need for journalist to gain knowledge to better perform their role as educators of the society via the mass media.

“We are also responsible for teaching others that if we do not master these concepts of social assistance and social insurance, and which words to use in which contexts, it will be very difficult to teach others,” he added. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3637 of Wednesday November 26, 2025