Youths: Rights and Responsibility in the society

A holiday workshop for youths/children organized by SO.NA.RA, the largest oil refinery in Cameroon was held in August 2011 in Limbe. The four day work shop took place from 16. August to 19.August 2011 and was captioned “Youths: Rights and Responsibilities in the society”. It was aimed at educating youths on their rights and responsibilities within the holiday period. OGCEYOD Cameroon, being one of the main promoters of youth activities in the Limbe municipality, played a great role throughout the course of the workshop.

The main resource persons, representatives from OGCEYOD Cameroon, presented on topics such as: ‘Stages of Human Development’, ‘Youths, Rights and Activities’, ‘Youths and Career Development’ and ‘Youths and Sexuality’. The presenters were interns from the University of Buea who practiced public speaking beforehand with the project coordinator of OGCEYOD Cameroon, Mr. Asaah Gideon. The students used the workshop as a platform to carry out their lately developed skills in front of the youths. The entire workshop was a great success as youths learned not only their rights and responsibilities, but also learned about networking.

The last day of the workshop was one of the most interesting: kid’s aged from 5 to 13 years participated in socio-cultural activities such as singing, dancing, acting drama and reciting poems. One of the participants even composed a song praising and thanking OGCEYOD Cameroon and its Chief Executive Director, Mr. Elvis Wepngong for his active role in developing youths in Cameroon. Others made posters of OGCEYOD Cameroon while a young girl wrote a poem symbolizing OGCEYOD Cameroon as a backbone of youth’s capacity building. These works of creative arts have been posted in the OGCEYOD office to keep reminding us of the reason of our existence. The whole workshop was enriched by the support of other community members, who also contributed to the program. Apart from the OGCEYOD Cameroon presentations, the session was spiced with playbacks presented by the children who were also taught on how to cook local dishes and were given the opportunity to produce some art and crafts work. Members agreed that the next edition of the workshop should encourage the participation of more youths so that together the young people of Cameroon can form an alliance for positive change.