The auditorium of the Ministry of Communication hosted a workshop on Saturday, March 16, 2024, aimed at strengthening the capacities of women and girls on public speaking and female leadership, culminated by the presentation of certificates of participation to all participants. under the auspices of the Women Empowerment In Africa association.
The celebration of the 39th edition of International Women's Rights Day continued to resonate within the Women Empowerment In Africa association. Building on the theme of the 2024 edition, namely: “investing in women: accelerating the pace”, Women Empowerment In Africa mobilized many women and girls around a public speaking workshop in their honor, served in person and online via the social network Facebook.
It was Saturday, March 16, 2024 at the auditorium of the Ministry of Communication. Several participants took an active part in discussions and training highlighting their oratorical and female leadership skills. An initiative considered as one of the safe ways to invest in women. A learning and capacity building meeting that has become a tradition within the Women Empowerment In Africa association, which has once again achieved its goal. That of contributing to the empowerment of women. Lucy Christiane Agwese from Jiokeng, shares the merits of this workshop: “We organized this public oratory and women's leadership workshop to strengthen the capacities of young girls and women. As an association which promotes the rights of women and girls, we realized that female orality is not valued enough in our community and we said to ourselves that it would be important, by combining the theme of this 39th edition, investing in women: accelerating the pace; to strengthen public speaking among women and girls so that the investment we make in it bears more fruit.»
The panel, so rich in modules and themes, brought together brilliant women, each expert in their field of expertise, asked to further contribute to the development of women. Ms Adèle Bibiane BAHA, lawyer and youth and activity advisor, spoke to the women on the theme: “investing in women: leadership and the fight against gender-based violence”. Her communication gave way to that of Ms. Suzanne A. ZOGO, senior journalist, director of domestic public communication at the Ministry of Communication, who focused on "Positive parenting", with an emphasis on education of children.
In complete immersion, after having briefly been educated on life issues, the women underwent training from Ms. Bérénice Kyliane MOMO, eloquence trainer, vice-president of RIPAO Cameroon and the founding president of WEA, Lucy Christiane Agwese epse Jiokeng. The two trainers took turns taking possession of the room to train the women respectively on “how to succeed in public speaking (what to do before, during, after)” and on “Public Speaking and Female Leadership: overcoming glossophobia and the art of pitching”. A sequence very animated by practical cases, performed on stage by women and girls, who could then detect for themselves their level of competence in relation to oratory art and wipe out the inadequacies right away.
There was great satisfaction among the women who participated from near and far. Cathy Bateng Déborah, holder of a master's degree in microbiology with an immunology option, of Chadian nationality, is delighted with her participation: "As a woman and what I aspire to be, becoming a leader in the service of young women too, I am called to speak well, to communicate better with my team. I gained a lot, the contact with the panelists and even with the participants, it was great meetings for a first. We covered such interesting themes, notably how to educate children well and also how to communicate well as a female leader. We tend to be self-conscious about our inferiority, sometimes even underestimated, and this helps us to better understand the environment and our responsibility to transmit it. We must first really be informed in order to transmit our knowledge. Thank you very much Women Empowerment In Africa, for the opportunity, these are rare opportunities, which very often require a lot of money to be able to benefit from them. For me it is a privilege to participate without giving anything. This is already a really good initiative, I would like it to have several frames like that, so that others can also benefit, so that we too can improve in such training,” our participant confided.
The love of transmitting was above all summed up in a desire to invest in women and accelerate the pace, offering a workshop of such scale free of charge and planning a long-term collaboration. “There is already this training that we have offered free of charge to all women and girls. Online we had 500 recordings, in person, around thirty and others followed us online. It is a great joy and we intend to continue with them in training and support for those who need us, whether for their professional, academic project or any other request. It is a better framework for development that we offer to women, the proof, at the end of a workshop like this, we can see the smile on the faces of these participants by what they have gained not only the self-confidence, but also the abilities to better deploy themselves in their studies, in their daily work.” Noted the President of the WEA.
We also experienced a Success story, feedback from Nazaria Benjamine Nzouatoum, Accountant and Winner of the Women Speaking Challenge 2023, who demonstrated the transformation she has undergone within Women Empowerment In Africa since her coronation. A challenge that continues its journey, in the face of such an initiative which reassures our winner, “For me it was already a great joy to see that it did not just remain a competition, to see so many people mobilize to come more learn, sufficiently shows that the demand is great. There is still work to do. For me, I am not going to say that I came to edify but rather, I learned a lot more with the participation of the experts who spoke. I could further encourage Women Empowerment In Africa, to continue in this momentum to make this effort, to mobilize women more, to maximize at the level of communication so that there are trained people, who become aware of the fact that oratory has a truly crucial place in everyday life but also in other aspects. Today, thanks to Women Empowerment In Africa, several people are already contacting me for events, which was not the case before. Even in my professional world, I stand out best through public speaking training,” Nazaria expressed.
Women Empowerment In Africa, a non-profit association founded in 2018, working to advance the rights of women and girls, particularly through education, empowerment and the fight against violence against women and girls, has closed the work of this magnificent workshop with the presentation of certificates of participation attesting to a transfer of skills to women by the WEA, with meetings in perspective to reassure women in their investment. “In perspective, we intend to continue our mission on related aspects. We will, in the future, launch the 2024 edition of the Women Speaking Challenge, which is a public speaking competition for women exclusively. After this competition we will have the Women Empowerment Summit, as part of the 16 days of activism to combat violence against women and girls. We will continue to carry out actions aimed at helping women and girls to promote their rights on a daily basis,” announced the Founding President.
What could be better than the fulfillment of women in their daily lives? A challenge that is also accepted through the promotion of oratory and female leadership. Women empowerment is its business.
Bertin BIDJA
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