On Monday the 3rd of September 2012, the interns from the University of Buea and a volunteer from Germany at OGCEYOD, gave a presentation to a women´s Association of Newtown, Limbe. The presentations began with a welcome speech from the president of the women´s association and an introduction from Mr. Asaah about the presentation and the presenters. He said the reason for this lecture was not only to educate the women on the different topics to be presented but also as training for the interns. Achick took the stage and presented on ‘fostering harmony in a home’. Her presentation aimed at giving the women tips on how to better relate with their family members and bring them closer. She talked on the importance of a good family relationship, how to build a good family relationship by cultivating patience, forgiveness, respect trust and understanding towards one another. Miss Ndifang also gave the women some simple tips to enhance the bond with their children and their husbands such as; saying ‘I LOVE YOU’, avoid abusive words, becoming their friend, showing affection towards them and making them a priority in their lives. The goal of this talk was not to teach the women how to run their homes but to enhance harmony in their homes. In her conclusion she said she hoped the is women will take the training home with them and teach their families. Eyoug Loveline lectured the women on ‘Food preservation and transformation’. The goal of this training was to teach women how to preserve food, increase agricultural produce and link agricultural produce to the market. She talked on the importance of food transformation and preservation being to alleviate food shortage and to guarantee food security. Loveline gave examples of food stuffs that can be preserved and transformed, some of which include; vegetables through drying or refrigerating depending on the type. Plantain through drying, transforming to flour, mpou and plantain drink. Pepper through boiling with oil to form liquid pepper or drying and grounding to form powder pepper e.g. ‘kan kan’ [soya pepper]. Even fruits through drying e.g. plums and others can be transformed to juice or jam. Nfor Sylvia presented on ‘Women and climate change’. The goal for her training was to stimulate the action for women in fighting against climate change. She lectured the women on the different causes of climate change such as, deforestation, the emission of carbon monoxide from burning dirt, cars and industries, improper waste disposals. The consequences of these will be global warming, floods, erosion diseases and dry earth which can cause food shortage. She latter advices the women to properly dispose waste, avoid cutting down trees, stop burning dry grass from the farms, try using fuel stoves and plant trees. Sylvia encouraged the women to go home and restitute the training to their neighbours’ and friends . she talked to the women about ‘Menopause’. Rose talked on the types of menopause which comprised of peri-menopause and post-menopause. Peri-menopause is early menopause which occurs from 35years. It happens only in exceptional cases and can be caused by hormonal tampering through surgery, too much consumption of diary products and genetically. Rose told the women that peri-menopause can be avoided through constant exercising, therapy and abstaining from unnecessary hormonal surgery.
She explained several symptoms of menopause such as; hot flashes, osteoporosis, a drain in energy, loss of appetite and low sex drive. Miss Rose gave possible prevention of early menopause and how to handle or better deal with disturbing symptoms such as ‘hot flashes’ which she said women should take showers before bed and put on cotton pajamas. She concluded by telling women that menopause is a natural phenomenon and such be treated as such. She encouraged them to embrace it, stop trying to fight it and try to make life easier with the symptoms. Proceeding was Mesumbe Nadege who spoke on ‘Financial empowerment amongst women’. She explained to the women why financial empowerment is important. She then talked on ways of becoming financially empowered which is by getting involved in income generate activities. She told them the type of income generate activities to get involved in to help assume financial responsibilities at home so as to reduce the burden on the husband. Gina talked on ´Women and Education´. Miss Gina explained to the women the concept, objective and the importance of education. She talked on some of the problems women face with education, such as poverty, pregnancy, patriarchy, cultural values, over-crowded schedules and the solutions to these problems. Miss Gina concluded by appealing to women all over to get educated and ensure the education of the girl-child.
Miss Carine presented on ´Women in Politics´. She gave the meaning and background of politics. She said, women should be involved in politics because of inadequate female representatives in politics. Miss Carine told the women on how they can become involved in politics and in her conclusion, she hope the women now know that involving themselves in politics is not fighting to exchange gender roles but rather a means to work together with the men to build a good governance structure for all to benefit. Miss Julia Reich talked on “HIV/AIDS: How to prevent mother-to-child transmission”. Miss Julia explained the ways to contract the virus, how to prevent contraction and she lay emphasis on how to prevent mother-to-child transmissions. She encouraged pregnant women to know their HIV status for the benefit of their babies and advised them to breast-feed their children only for 6months if they are positive. She concluded by telling them to all get tested and not to be afraid to get their results and to accept drugs given to curb the spread of the virus. The presentations ended and a closing remark was given by the coordinator Mr. Assah and the president of the women´s group thanked the presenters and OGCEYOD for the commitment to empower women.
