A Project Sponsored by Global Fund for Women !!

BERWODEVCOOP for the past years started working with some 400 orphans and vulnerable children. About 120 of these children are child headed families with no legal rights to their parent’s property after the death of both parents. The situation becomes worst when these children are all female because when is a male child, the husbands family has some little consideration but when a female they do not understand and will even want the child.

While working with the vulnerable children there is in most cases the mother alive but after the death of the father the women and children mostly female are sent a way by the father’s family and all the property this women acquired with their husband seized from them making the women and children vulnerable. After serious investigation we realize there is a major problem in this community on the rights of women and the girl child which then needs urgently a legal commitment within people who are married.

BERWODEVCOOP as an organization that empowers the family and community through women with the respect of human dignity, decided to sensitize the community on the equal rights of women and the rights of children in partnership with the ministry of women empowerment and the family with grants from Global Fund for Women.

Project Objectives:

1-) This project is carried out to create awareness in this community on the rights of women and children.

2-) The project has as objective to sensitize couples on the importance of a legal commitment in married so as to protect the family members in the absence of one and thus a legal right to parent’s property.

3-) This project also has to organize workshops and seminars on the Cameroon code of law about married and its legal benefits and the United Nations laws on human rights and equal opportunities.

4-) Finally this project before it ends has to assist some 50 women get legal commitments with their husband so as to secure their homes, and property in case of anything and avoid violence from family members.

BERWODEVCOOP, after very serious interventions was able to have 60 couples for legal marriage and 56 actually were able to have their marriages signed by the Lord Mayor of Ndu council and the Divisional Officer for Ndu. The reasons why the other 4 couples could not get marriage is because after the workshop with couples on their rights and duties after the legal commitment, these husbands to these 4 women teamed up and were supported by the husbands family to reject the legalization of their marriages with the argument that their customs holds that a women can never take over the family property after the death of the husband and worst still a female child when the husbands family is there.

Some of the family and parents of some women came to reject the marriage on the grounds that the bride price for the women had not been completed. But as far as this is concern we were able to resolve this issue of bride price and council the parents who then understood and supported their children in getting the legal commitment.

We also realized in the course of this activity that women in this community are completely sold to men as the bride price is bargained with certain factor considered like the level of education of the girl, the weather she is from the royal family or not, does the father hold any traditional tile etc. The most shocking expression is the fact that the girl’s parents and family keep saying over and over that they husband is buying his property and has to pay all the money he is asked to.

To read the full Report of this wonderful Project funded by the Global Fund for Women, Click Here