“A Common Future” Campaigns to Protect Women Online

By  ZELIO SIFORA C. (UBa Student on internship)

Colbert Gwain -CEO A Common Future – vision casting in a bus with journalists

The campaign seeks to uphold and respect the rights of women online, particularly on the social media, where various forms of abuses continue to be perpetrated against the girl child and women in general.

Colbert Gwain, CEO of A Common Future explaining the concept to journalists in Bamenda on Tuesday, July 31, in a “vision casting” held in a bus that was used to transport them across Bamenda’s major streets said “we intend to encourage and increase the active participation of women and girls online without harassment”

The project he added “seeks to promote a feminist Internet where women’s voices are not only heard but respected”

The campaign falls under the canopy of what he terms “Internet Freedom Festival Cameroon” which globally looks for innovative e ways of challenging women’s exclusion from online spaces and bolster their rights to freedom of expression.

Journalists taking part in the Vision Casting tour

The campaign has identified privacy violations, sexual harassment, stalking, indecent exposure and vulgar images as forms of violation of women’s rights online. The campaign will use film projections, discussions and exchanges by some selected educators in inter-urban transport buses to drive its message across. It also intends to use the upcoming presidential elections campaign to lobby the candidates who have all formulated the use of the social media into their campaign to promise the protection of internet users after the poll.

The vision-casting tour was broadcast live on the internet on the www.bamendaonline.net Facebook page, including part of the question and answer session that was part of the event.

FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE:WUM COUNCIL EMBARKS ON REFORESTATION OF HER MUNICIPAL FOREST

Reforestation is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests  that have been depleted, usually through deforestation. Reforestation can be used to rectify or improve the quality of human life by soaking up pollution and dust from the air, rebuild natural habitats and ecosystems, mitigate global warming since forests facilitate bio sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and harvest for resources, particularly timber, but also non-timber forest products. 

Youths offloading trees in Wum Council forest

A similar concept, afforestation, another type of forestation, refers to the process of restoring and recreating areas of woodlands or forests that may have existed long ago but were deforested or otherwise removed at some point in the past or lacked it naturally (e.g., natural grasslands). Sometimes the term "re-afforestation" is used to distinguish between the original forest cover and the later re-growth of forest to an area. Special tools, e.g. tree planting bars, are used to make planting of trees easier and faster.

The goals of both afforestation and reforestation are the same: to avoid deforestation on a large scale and thus stop the large scale depletion of natural resources, preserve the smooth running of our ecosystem, and biodiversity. Reforestation and afforestation also aid in offsetting carbon emissions, the damage done to our ozone layer, and global warming. This is due to the fact that trees play a vital role in our functioning ecosystem, which includes the quality of our atmosphere.

Youths offloading trees in Wum Council forest

It is from this back drop that the Wum Council has embarked on the reforestation of her municipal forest. For this first phase of the 2018 reforestation stride, the Wum Council partnered with the Pari Mutuel Urbain Camerounais, PMUC, for the planting of five thousand trees. This partnership greatly contributed to the temporal employment of some twenty five youths within the municipality.

          Five thousand trees shall also be planted during the second phase of the reforestation of the Wum municipal forest project.

Message of the Bishops of Cameroon on Killings and the Escalation of violence in the North West and South West Regions

 

His Grace, Samuel KLEDA, Archbishop of Douala President of NECC

1. Meeting in Yaoundé on 7th August 2018, we, the members of the Standing Committee of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, once more note with regret that violence and abuse are increasing and persisting in the North West and South West Regions of our country. Fighting between the security forces and the secessionists, strewn in several armed groups, has become a daily event. All this is happening despite the cry of distress that we sent out to all Cameroonians in our Letter of 16‘h May 2018: "I have seen the afflictions of my people!" (Exodus 3: 7); “Let us put an end to all forms of violence and stop killing one another! We are all brothers and sisters; let us retrace the path of dialogue, reconciliation, justice and peace."

2. As the days go by, this crisis intensifies, endangering lives, property and social cohesion. The population, administrative, traditional and religious authorities, the police and security forces are assaulted, humiliated and terrorized. To this effect, civilians are kidnapped and taken to unknown destinations where they are subjected to torture, inhuman and undignified treatment. Vehicles and convoys of administrative authorities are attacked within alleys of towns and villages. Not Even private vehicles are exempted from these attacks.

3. Some villages have been emptied of their population. Caught between armed groups and secessionists who instill terror and the national defense forces whose mission is to maintain order and safety of goods and persons. These violent clashes have driven a greater part of the inhabitants into exile or forced them to stay cloistered at home or to flee into the bushes. The consequences are grave at all ‘levels: economic, social and religious.

4. No one is spared from this situation of insecurity, not even religious authorities. A clear example is the case of Reverend Father Alexander SOB NOUGl‘, Parish Priest of Sacred Heart Parish Bomaka (Diocese of Buea), and former Catholic Education Secretary of the Diocese of Buea, shot dead on 20‘" July 2018, in the town of Muyuka,

5. We convey our heartfelt condolences to the Bishop of Buea, His Lordship, Immanuel BUSHU, to his presbyterium, to the lay faithful of Bomaka Parish, to all the people of God who are in Buea and to the natural family of Father Alexander.

We also express our unflinching solidarity with and compassion for all the bereaved or displaced families, and to all victims of violence related to the crisis in the North West and South West Regions.

6. We strongly condemn this despicable and cowardly act, and express our dismay and deep sorrow for this heinous crime committed against an anointed one of God, that has come just a little more than one year after the assassination of Bishop Jean Marie Benoit BALA, adding to the long list of assassinated bishops and priests. We commend to the Mercy of God our deceased son, Alexander, as well as all those who have lost their lives in this crisis.

7. We call on the competent authorities to carry out investigations so that the perpetuators of this abominable crime may be made to answer for their action before the competent legal authority, and that the State assume its sovereign duty of safeguarding the security of persons and goods throughout the national territory.

8. We denounce and condemn, once again, all acts of violence regardless of their origin which can only provoke reprobation and indignation. Furthermore, we demand that those who commit these acts should put an immediate end to them in order to spare our country from sinking into chaos.

9. We request the renunciation of violence and war as means of reclaiming political demands and resolution of crisis between sons and daughters of our Nation.

10. As we emphasized in our cry of distress, (May 16, 2018) we “think that mediation is now more urgent in order to come out of the crisis. Please, spare our country, Cameroon, from a useless and senseless civil war!"

11. For this reconciliation, we pray to God the Father: "May you make your Church a sign of unity and an instrument of your peace among all people. “ (Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II)

12. We invite all the faithful of Cameroon, as well as men and women of good will, to intensity prayers of supplication and intercession, so that the Lord may touch the hearts of all, and give everyone the courage to renounce all obstacles to an immediate resolution of the crisis, and the return to peace.

13. As we draw closer to the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace and Patroness of Cameroon, we exhort all the faithful of our country to pray the Rosary, to fast, to do adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, so that the Lord Jesus, through the intercession of His Mother and our Mother, should drive war far away from us, and grant us unity and peace.

Done at Yaoundé, 7^th August 2018

For the Standing Committee of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon NECC, His Grace, Samuel KLEDA, Archbishop of Douala President of NECC