CBCHS-EDID Project Partner Organization Empowers Women with Disabilities with Skills to Access Employment
Women with disabilities have been empowered with skills to facilitate access to work and gainful employment. A two-day training to help the women uplift their skills took place recently at the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services (CBCHS) Resource Centre of Excellence, Mvan in Yaounde.
The CBCHS- Empowerment and Disability Inclusive Development (EDID) program’s partner – Sister Speak organized the training via its “Access to Work” initiative to integrate women with disabilities in the workplace in a bid to curb the rate of unemployment amongst women in Cameroon.
Within the framework of this initiative, the team will organize subsequent workshops with about 22 women with disabilities in Yaoundé, Bamenda and Buea within a period of four months. During these workshops, real needs assessment will be carried out to determine the challenges women with disabilities encounter in accessing jobs, identify their competencies, dreams and aspirations. More so, they will be paired up with institutions where they will gain professional training and working experience required to get their ideal jobs.
“We have discussed with some of these women who’ve learned different skills (some up to five skills) but they are still not doing anything. Hence, we want to take a different strategy by having them placed in institutions where they will go to work every day and master the trade. For instance; In Bamenda, we will pair them up with established businessmen who will mentor them on weekly basis. In Yaoundé and Buea, we have placements in an IT institution, a radio station, a makeup studio, a catering institution and a radio station,” the Coordinator of Sister Speaks program, Comfort Musa emphasized.
Addressing the participants, the EDID Project Manager, Mrs. Agho Glory stated that “If getting jobs in Cameroon is challenging for persons without impairment, it is even more challenging for persons with impairment. That is why I will like to encourage you all to take this activity seriously and put it into use. I will also like to challenge us to be ambassadors to those out there who are not opportune to acquire the skills you have gained during the training”.
The project is sponsored by the Liliane Foundation (LF) through its strategic partner, the CBC Health Services-Empowerment and Disability Inclusive Development (EDID) Program.