CI-NEWS

HELP-OUT trains IDPs as professional housekeepers.

2019-10-01

No: 449

HELP-OUT trains IDPs as professional housekeepers.

By Christopher Ambe.

A Buea-based NGO known as HELP-OUT has graduated eleven IDPs in Buea as professional housekeepers, after a three-month intensive training, as part of its efforts to empower women and girls who are victims of the Anglophone crisis, which erupted in 2016 and has led to the internal displacement of over half a million people, in search of safety and protection, as well as livelihoods.

HELP-OUT successfully carried out the training of the IDPs thanks to the financial support of MISSION 21, headquartered in Switzerland, whose mission is capacity-building and gender-equality.

The graduation ceremony was witnessed by Angeleka Weber, Mission 21 Programme Officer for Cameroon; Togho Lumumba Mukong, Mission 21 country coordinator,Cameroon; Oben Emmanuel Njock, Mission 21 South West Representative; Clara Manga, director of the Women and Family Empowerment Centre in Buea; George Ngwane, civil society actor and member of Cameroon’s Bilingualism and Multi-culturalism Commission. They all lauded HELP-OUT for working toward improving living standards.

According to Obasi Clarkson, director of HELP-OUT, the NGO’s areas of intervention include Human rights education, prison/legal/democratic reforms; alternative dispute resolution; rural infrastructure development; Information Communication Technologies (ICT), professional housekeeper training and trauma healing.

He said the three-month training was “ intensive tutorials and practical”, noting that some 40 applicants had applied but due to limited funds only eleven were trained, and three were already gainfully employed.

Obasi said the eleven internally displaced women and girls were drilled on modules such as :Care development, general housekeeping, First Aid, Handling family disputes, security of home, effective communication, home and restaurant; marketing, etiquette/personal hygiene; basic child care; flower arrangement, laundry and product use.

Madam Angeleka Weber, who flew in from Switzerland, to witness the graduation, expressed satisfaction with the timely completion of the course, which would enable the trainees get incomes for themselves.

Weber said the course, which was a combination of a need and opportunity, was intended to “educate young people so that they can have a livelihood security”. She admitted that their needs were bigger than ever, but that what was more important was for them to take advantage of opportunities to build their capacities.

The Manager of Mountain Hotel, Buea, Mbinglo Grace, who had taught the trainees conflict management and accepted some of them to do a four-week internship in the hotel, said it was an honour for her to be part of the training. She encouraged the housekeepers to strive to become models. ” You can all be models by doing the right things and be morally upright… Circumstances may want to hold you down but your comportment can make you a role model, she noted. “Going through life challenges you can be a role model to somebody.”

She said she was happy that Mountain Hotel was part of the initiative to empower women and girls during these trying moments in the country.

Also speaking, Clara Manga, director of the Women and Family Empowerment Centre, hailed HELP-OUT for its empowerment initiatives.

“Educating a woman is educating the whole nation. However, it is a good programme for everybody. Let men not get scared of embracing the course”, she advised. “There is no knowledge that is useless; there is nothing as good as doing some professional course.”

For his part, George Ngwane encouraged the trainees to get into society and prove their worth, wishing them a good job-harvest.

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HELP-OUT trains IDPs as professional housekeepers.