Join me to end GBV and stigma against women with disabilities in Post War Cameroon

The 2023 theme for International Women's Day is, 'DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality'. This was very important for this initiative and motivated me to pick up the pieces of this initiative and continue. Empowering women and girls with digital skills has always been a passion to me. Looking at my progress over the years with support from World Pulse and my various badges I have as a World Pulse Digital Ambassador, Changemakers, Spirit Award Winner and Encourager I am inspired to continue this initiative. Based on my planned activities to complete this initiative, I continue to carryout sensitization for women with disabilities, GBV survivors and young women on the importance to bring out the digital power in them.

I have assisted approximately 4 women to signUp on World Pulse this 2023 and mentor them on story telling. The success I have achieved in through this initiative is that a few of the mentees have been able to access digital opportunities that are life transforming. One woman with disability has been accepted on the first stage of the IREX community solution program 2023, five women have applied and gain training on peace building in emergencies, and are now community peace mediators.

During my community activities, I ensure to sensitize women about World Pulse and importance of using digital tools for improved livelihood. This 2023 I have carried out two economic empowerment training and have impacted 60 women (30 in each community), in two communities of the North West Region of Cameroon.

I have face challenges to successfully implement this initiative due to the humanitarian crisis we are facing in Cameroon. I have not been able to

·      Do follow up visits, monitoring and evaluation to those I have signed up on World Pulse to track their progress

·      Carryout  digital mentorship programs with women and girls with disabilities

·      Seek support/fund raise for the construction of an inclusive digital vocational training center for women/girls with disabilities in North West Region

·      Organize World Pulse trainings twice every month to reach at least 20 women has been my biggest challenge due to displacement, limited funds and access to digital tools.

However, with these challenges, I have not given up on this initiative but have created a sustainable strategy for it by collaborating with other digital experts to create digital stories for the activities of my works, encouraging women to produce inspiring digital stories about their lives that are transformative. We have created digital stories for the menstrual hygiene day, international day of the girl child, 16 Days Activism 2023, My Clubfoot journey and inspiring women in Bamenda Cameroon. As I continue to share these stories with women leaders, they get inspired and are interested to develop their digital stories.  I love digital stories because they are entertaining ways to share positive and accurate information about your work and life that inspires others and bring change. They are easy to share on all social media platforms and easy to watch. I commit to continue empowering women and girls on the importance of having digital skills, to contribute in preventing, mitigating and responding to GBV in emergencies.

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Veronica Ngum Ndi

CEO/Founder

Community Association for Vulnerable Persons

Bamenda,North West Region,Cameroon