Cameroon: more support needed for children in the north-western Adamawa regionYaounde, Cameroon, 7 February 2009 - After a two day visit in the Adamawa Region, at the border with Nigeria, Ms Ora Musu Clemens, UNICEF Representative in Cameroon, has brought back several striking images from the field. In Likok, 50 kilometres from Ngaoundere, the capital city of the Region, A healthy girl is called « Mutuelle », the name given to her in recognition of the usefulness of the mutual health association operational in the village health centre. In a Ngaoundere neighborhood, a 60 year old, HIV seropositive woman, is kept busy by a small trade to take care of her 7 children who have long lost their father. The powerful traditional leader of Ngaoundere, the Lamido, has stressed the important role of religious and traditional leaders in support of the early and sustained education of girls. Ms Clemens had enriching discussions with the women’s group in Likok and received a warm welcome when she arrived in the Mbale Primary School, a hundred kilometers from Ngaoundere, which was refurbished with funding from a fruitful partnership between UNICEF and MTN, a local mobile telephone network company. Six months into her tenure as the UNICEF Representative in Cameroon and after her introduction to the national authorities as well as partners at Central level, Ms Ora Musu Clemens went to meet key actors in the promotion of the rights and wellbeing of children and women in the Adamawa region. The Delegate for Basic Education showed pride in the education of the girls that is being reinforced by the support from RECAMEF, a powerful network of mothers associations for the promotion of girl child education. The Delegate of social affairs was pleased with the protection of the child within foster families. The Delegate of Women Empowerment and Promotion of the Family shared his views on the sensitization of women for the wellbeing of the child and the woman in the Region. The Delegate for economy and territorial management spoke of the coordination of interventions of all partner ministries in the Region and of the functioning of a regional communication pool for parenting education in the Adamawa Region. She also visited Likok where she continued discussion with the Djaoro, the chief of the village, members and staff of the health association, and pupils and teachers from the village primary school. Finally she made a stop in Mbale primary school. For more information, please contact :
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