Country
Cameroon
Organisation
Women for a Change
Key Words
Global Goals, Cameroon, Feminism, GBV, Sports, Volunteerism, Community Service and Meaningful Participation
Themes
- Gender Equality and Gender Equity in and through PEPAS
- Empowerment of Women and Girls in and through PEPAS
- Integration of Health, including Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Interventions with PEPAS
- Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and/or Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG)
Summary/Overview
Established in 2009, Wfac is a sub-regional feminist advocacy, research, and awareness-raising organization working with and for women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, leadership, and development within the context of climate justice, health, peace, and security across Central Africa. Over the past decade, Wfac has committed to building and coaching intergenerational feminist movements, including facilitating their meaningful participation in strategic policy spaces such as the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Commission on Population and Development (CPD), UNFCCC Climate Conferences, and others.
The #SDGsFootVacances initiative is designed under the backdrop that sports contributions to well-being regardless of age, gender or ethnicity is enjoyed by all, and its reach is unrivalled. Through sports, Wfac has successfully raised public awareness about the plight of young refugees including displaced young women and girls particularly with regards to their health, climate and environment.
Problem Statement
Since 2016, Cameroon has been threatened by the toxic nature of negative masculinities which has manifested through armed conflict and GBV and VAWG. Men have exerted their power in the most violent manner, resulting in over a million persons internally displaced according to a 2019 OCHA report; +500 being refugees in neighboring countries such as Nigeria, and almost 4.3 million persons in need of humanitarian assistance and need. The brutal armed conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths of men 1 and boys especially the youth from the English-speaking region, northwest and south-west and women and girls abused and violated in some of the most indemnifying and derogatory manner. With fear and insecurity plaguing the entire public. countries such as Nigeria, and almost 4.3 million persons in need of humanitarian assistance and need. The brutal armed conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths of men 1 and boys especially the youth from the English-speaking region, northwest and south-west and women and girls abused and violated in some of the most indemnifying and derogatory manner. With fear and insecurity plaguing the entire public.
About the Programme
In an effort to raise awareness around the consequences of toxic masculinities as well as the impact war has on the attainment of the agenda 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs), we launch in May 2019, the holidays program called #SDGsFootVacances. An intergenerational and intersectional awareness raising initiative which aims at using football to increase community awareness about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly with regard to SDG 3 on Good Health and SDG 5 on Gender Equality a nd also increase public understanding around the concepts of social cohesion, no violence, tolerance, justice, feminisms, positive masculinity and gender equality.
The #SDGsFootVacances through the community collaboration and leadership, convenes with the leaders (quarter heads and notables), parents and young people on weekly basis to talk about the global goals objectives on peaceful, safe and prosperous society, and the role each individual and the community can play in advancing gender equality and social cohesion. Regular visit to offices of the quarter head and chiefs, alongside other community leaders and influencers within the different neighborhoods to galvanize support for the implementation of the activity. Following which, daily football matches (female and male tournaments) are organized. In addition, there are moments set during (and after) these tournaments to exchange knowledge and skills amongst stakeholders and develop community solutions that promote social cohesion and fairness. The community on the other hand, provides us with a playground and basic support required to coordinate the activities in an orderly and comfortable environment. We shared playing kits to all participating teams and players, and shared instrumental and educational materials to all participants for their personal empowerment and for them to effectively follow-up with the conversations whenever we met twice a week. The #SDGsFootVacances initiative is designed under the backdrop that sports contributions to well-being regardless of age, gender or ethnicity is enjoyed by all, and its reach is unrivalled.
Successes and Challenges
The impacts have been enormous. Most of the young people impacted are leading changes across diverse constituencies. Including organizing weekly gatherings, sanitation outreaches and community peacebuilding initiatives. Furthermore, the program challenges the typical gender stereotypes about football being just ‘boys’ game. This tournament employs a 50:50 participation. That is, if the number of teams to compete are 10, 5 are girls and 5 boys. So far, over 20,000 persons and community leaders have been reached since 2016, many of whom have now become more aware and conscious of the multilayered forms of gender-based violence across their communities. These inequalities include but not limited to: VAWg, child marriage, FGM/C, girls’ education, school related GBV, job and income inequality.
Worthy of note is that by 2023, three of the young boys who participated in the program initially had dropped out of schools but after participating at the SGDsFootVacances, they decided to enrol back to school to continue their education. Other observable outcomes have been the development of greater bond build between community leaders and youths in the community, thus a cordial intergenerational collaboration. Observed behavioural change and positive attitude towards community and young people as many have developed the skills and right attitude to be tolerant and non-violent even when they disagree with other views and opinions. Note that football is one game that has disciplines and principles and throughout the 3-months players were encouraged to understand their temperament, manage their anger, be willing to discuss in a most respectful way when disagreeing with others.
Despite all the potential and success recorded, challenges remain as some young people and parents thought the program was not suitable for their children for fear of insecurity and associating with people they don’t know. Some households explained the program not being religiously oriented, which was a key consideration for their children’s engagement. Other leaders in the community explained that the program was not promoting the cultural values of the community. These are areas for continued negotiation and consideration.
Key Lessons
Sport (Football) within the Cameroonian context has proven to be a cost-effective and flexible tool for promoting a peaceful, inclusive and gender equal society.
Players have co-led and fearlessly self-organized actions that has brought visibility to the multifaceted forms of inequalities faced by young people and girls including how this intensifies their vulnerability to devasting effects of climate change and extreme weather events causing health problems, Gender Based Violence, lack of clean water for menstrual hygiene management in schools, and communities, trauma causing school absenteeism etc.
Another key learning has been the intergenerational and intersectional ability to collaborate and build alliance cross movements for the advancement of gender equality.
Authors
- Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo-Wondieh, Women for a Change, Cameroon
- Ndabombi Emmanuel, Women for a Change, Cameroon
References
Women for a Change (2019-2024) #SDGsFootVacances
https://sdgsfootvacances.wfaccameroon.org/
