Community Headline

  Over 15 media professionals in Bamenda, the capital of the North West Region, have committed to educating the public about the importance of reading product labels before consumption in order to avoid and ameliorate the growth of non-communicable diseases in the country. This occurred during a one-day workshop hosted by the Reconciliation and Development Association RADA, on Friday, June 30th, 2023, aimed at increasing public understanding and support for front-of-package legislation in Cameroon.  The Reconciliation and Development Association CEO Ferdinant M. Sonyuy emphasized the need for food manufacturers to put appropriate front-of-package labeling of their to promote responsible consumption while commiting the media to educating the public about it's essence and role in fighting non-communicable disease like cancer, stroke and a host of others. CEO RADA, Ferdinant M. Sonyuy "We are advocating for front-of-package labeling legislation that will mandate producers to plac...

Participants in session About 15 journalists from Cameroon's two troubled areas have learned about digital and physical security. This occurred at a two-day workshop that Adisi Cameroon and CIPESA hosted on the 29th and 30th of June in Dschang. The workshop focused on journalist safety in Cameroon, focusing on UNESCO indicators, digital and physical security modules, and a road map. The goal is to equip journalists with the necessary knowledge and resources to defend themselves against armed conflict threats according to the executive Director of Adisi-Cameroon, Paul Joel Kamtchang.  Executive Director of Adisi-Cameroon, Paul Joel Kamtchang  " We noticed that in the North West and South West regions, journalists are facing many threats. Coming from soldiers or separatist fighters. What we also noticed is that when they are arrested by some policemen, the first thing they are interested in is their devices laptop, or phone files trying to look for anything that may link them t...

  For the past few years, Cameroon has experienced an upsurge in hate speech on various social media platforms which goes under-reported though punishable by law. The unrest in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon has created an opportunity where both opposing camps have used social media and other digital instruments to fan misinformation and hate speech. Ngwa Christel, a social media user says inflammatory remarks have corrupted social media causing chaos. Social media surfer , Ngwa Christel .    " Social media handles especially Facebook has a lot of information. People share false information which angers people most times and the consequences are always alarming when you look at the comment section.  For example in  2018, a social media user called people from Nso, an ethnic group in the North region "illiterates". Since the said surfer was from Pinyin also an ethnic group in Cameroon, these social media accounts targeted in their de...

Participants in session Some media practitioners in the North West Region have been upskilled in Disability inclusion and media. The workshop had as an objective to remind media practitioners of the role they can play in educating audiences about disabilities while effectively changing the perception of development actors/stakeholders in the region to include persons with disabilities in their community-based development actions to prevent exclusion. There are hundreds of persons with Disabilities in the region, many experience stigma and discrimination or are completely left out of media coverage. Persons with disabilities are supposed to be recognized as right holders and not objects of pity and care as some media houses portray through their manner of reporting. According to one of the facilitators, Lohshie Eugene, friendly language and media representation plays an important role in influencing public opinions and challenging stereotypes around disability and every journalist is ex...

With the quest to combat hate speech which is spreading fast amongst youths, Civil Peace Service in collaboration with the Cameroon Commmunity Media Network CCMN, effected a sensation Campaign in one of the village secondary schools in the North West Region.The session which took place at GBHS Mendakwe on Thursday 15th December 2022 had in attendance over 40 students. The discussion session kick-started with a presentation on Combating Hatespeech facilitated by Peace Journalist Pechuqui Laurata. While walking participants through this session, the facilitator realized that, most of the students combat hate speech with more hate speech. "I combat hate speech with hate speech. This is my own way of fighting back" a student said. Facilitator, Pechuqui Laurata Combating hate speech with more hate speech has only led to an upsurge in violence, a threat to peace, social cohesion and more. Facilitator Pechuqui Laurata added that in order to combat hate speech, it is important for ev...

The last few years have seen an upsurge of hate speech in Cameroon against a backdrop of conflict, hate, discrimination, and violence. Even though individual, civil society organizations and networks like the Cameroon Community Media Network CCMN have been working tirelessly to end hate speech, the socio-political crisis in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon have further made it worse In this light, the Civil Peace Service, CPS network in Cameroon at the end of its 2022 annual workshop deem it relevant and necessary to develop a joint advocacy project for the development of citizens' consciousness in diversity based on common history and values/symbols of national unity.  This was in a workshop attended by 20 CCMN influencers represented across the national territory.. The session which took place on December 10th, 2022 in Yaounde was an avenue for these members to share the reality on the ground while developing new strategies to help counter hate speech in the online me...

Mr. Lovees is a Gender expert trained at the University of Buea where he obtained his first degree in 2013. The same year his spirit of activism against Gender-Based Violence was born as well.  In 2017, he obtained a Master's degree from the University of Bamenda. One year later in 2018, he got a Diploma from the Wult Institute of Business and Technology Germany.  After 2years, Mr. Lovees got a UN-Women Career Institute certification on GBV, and in 2022, Mr Lovees became a Doctor by obtaining a P.h.D from the University of Bamenda. Presently, Dr Lovees works as Program Manager for The Rural Women Center for Education and Development (RuWCED-Cameroon), also he is a Gender and Environment consultant.  Since 2013 when Dr. Lovees' activist spirit was born, he has been able to organize advocacy campaigns for the rights of women and girls, Build trust in women, and engage men as partners in the fight against GBV.  Dr. Lovees has been able to create women's support groups t...