Social Affairs Ministry reinforces digital capacities of vulnerable women, girls.

The opening ceremony of the workshop last Thursday was chaired on behalf of the Minister of Social Affairs, by the Inspector General at MINAS, Asongtia Valentine Foreke.

It unfolded in the presence of the President of CJARC, Coco Bertin. The workshop was under the theme: “Digital inclusion: Issues and challenges of responsible use of social networks by socially vulnerable women and girls”.

The opening of the workshop also marked the launch of MINAS activities in commemoration of the 38^th edition of the International Women’s Day.

“We are here at this centre because it has an inclusive multimedia centre used mostly by visually disabled persons. The centre here is adapted to their needs which enable them to do whatever a normal person can do in the digital world. All what we do at MINAS is to strive for inclusiveness,” said the Inspector No.2 and gender focal point at MINAS, Maurine Ndifor.

The workshop organised for visually impaired women and girls was also attended by some female staff of the ministry and some leaders of socially vulnerable women's organisations.

Besides the workshop, a sport walk and ecumenical service in honour of one of the longest serving staff of the ministry, have been programmed and will culminate with the celebration of Women’s Day on March 8.

The national celebration in Yaounde will be organised by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment.

A member of CJARC, Jiogue Gisel, explaining the challenges faced by persons with disabilities to integrate into the digital world, said: “Most websites are not accessible for persons with disabilities and sometimes we too are not well trained on the use of the digitals tools that can enable us to earn a living”.

Lauding the organisation of the workshop, the CJARC member also doubled as one of the facilitators added that: “We have been able to train them on how to use their soft skills, how to collect data, analyse them as well as how to use computers to animate and create programmes”.  

Earlier in his keynote address, the MINAS Inspector General had saluted CJARC for its technical support in the organisation of the workshop.

Declaring the workshop open, he stressed that it was sufficient proof of the interest of the minister in the promotion of women and in improving the social and economic situation of socially vulnerable women.

“I therefore urge you to pay close attention to the lessons you are going to learn so that you can leave here with concrete proposals to strengthen the action of our ministerial department in favour of the digital inclusion of its targets,” the Inspector General mentioned.