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AIA: Adolescence, Idée, Action
(Adolescence, Idea, Action)
Founded in 1995 by schoolteacher Rosine Gwem in a low-income neighborhood of Douala, Cameroun's second-largest city, AIA is the only Camerounian organization focused on providing accurate and age-appropriate sexuality education to pre-adolescent girls (aged 8 to 12). Throughout Cameroun, teenage girls lack basic information about sexuality and reproduction, rendering them vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion, and HIV/AIDS. Through educational sessions and community outreach, AIA strives to reach these girls early with vital information about their bodies and their rights, providing them with the skills to navigate their adolescent years in good health. IWHC has supported AIA since 2002.
ACAFEM: Association Camerounaise des Femmes Médecins
(Camerounian Medical Women's Association)
ACAFEM conducts trainings, workshops, focus-group research, and advocacy on a range of topics in women's and young people's health, serving as a resource for the Cameroun Ministry of Health, doctors, traditional healers, medical schools, and nongovernmental organizations throughout the country. After completing a groundbreaking study on the effects of traditional practices on sexual and reproductive health, ACAFEM recently undertook research on the health needs of Cameroun's many out-of-school adolescents, in an effort to make clinical services more available and accessible to young people. IWHC has worked with ACAFEM since 1992.
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| Women outside ALVF's Maroua center, in the extreme north of Cameroun. |
ALVF: Association de Lutte contre les Violences faites aux Femmes
(Association for the Struggle Against Violence Against Women)
Created in response to the violent deaths of three women in the capital city of Yaoundé, ALVF works in various ways to address pervasive—but largely undocumented—violence against women in Cameroun. In just over a decade, ALVF has grown from a single office that provided a safe space for women survivors of violence to a national group that manages outreach centers for women in three different regions of the country, including the Muslim extreme north. Beyond providing individual women with the refuge, support, and information they need to confront violence in their own lives, ALVF also fights for the eradication of violence from the lives of all Camerounian women through advocacy, action-research, and public education. IWHC has supported ALVF since 1993.
ARAS: Association Recherche Action en Santé de la Reproduction
(Association for Research and Action on Reproductive Health)
Founded in 1994, ARAS is an association of medical activists, feminists, and community representatives working to promote reproductive health and rights in Cameroun through information-sharing, education, and research. ARAS is currently conducting research on the differing sexual and reproductive health needs of both in-school and out-of-school adolescents—especially along gender lines—and on men's knowledge and attitudes about family planning, reproductive health, and gender roles. This research will lay the foundations for the organization's future work with young people and with men. IWHC has been collaborating with ARAS and its members since 1994.
CCRA: Camerounian Committee for Reflection on Abortion
Representing a broad spectrum of professional affiliations and political perspectives, CCRA is the only Camerounian group committed to addressing the public health crisis of unsafe abortion in Cameroun, where most women face insurmountable barriers to safe services—even under circumstances where abortion is permitted by law. IWHC has fostered CCRA's development from its earliest stages. In 1999 and 2000, we arranged two informal exchanges between CCRA founders and the coordinators of the neighboring Nigerian Campaign Against Unwanted Pregnancy, and in 2002 and 2003, we helped organize a series of strategic planning and advocacy workshops with the Women's Health Project, based in South Africa.
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| A teenage girl learns sewing skills at EducActions's youth center in Yaoundé. |
EducActions
Founded in 1995 in the capital city of Yaoundé, where teenage girls experience high rates of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion and only 4 percent of sexually active girls use a modern method of contraception, EducActions provides girls with vital information on sexuality and reproductive health through its outreach center and two vocational schools. Beyond sexuality education, EducActions also offers skills training and recreational activities for girls, mounts education campaigns on HIV/AIDS and malaria for the community, and conducts research and trainings on sexuality and human rights. IWHC is currently supporting EducActions to build the capacity of its staff and to open a free resource library in its Yaoundé center.
FESADE: Femmes, Santé, et Développement en Afrique Sub-Saharienne
(Women, Health, and Development in sub-Saharan Africa)
In Cameroun, where sexuality education is not taught in schools, FESADE has led the way in providing teenagers with full and accurate information on sexuality and reproduction. Its comprehensive curriculum has reached over 20,000 teenagers through classes taught at an outreach center in the capital city of Yaoundé, its community library serves as an indispensable resource for thousands more, and its strong ties with government and other policy actors are laying the groundwork for the adoption of a national sexuality education program within the public school system. IWHC has worked with FESADE since 1994 and is currently supporting the expansion and publication of its curriculum.
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| An AIDS awareness sticker designed by SWAAC. |
SWAAC: Society for Women and AIDS in Africa – Cameroun Chapter
Established in 1990 to help women cope with the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Cameroun, where 11 percent of the population is living with HIV/AIDS, SWAAC currently operates a national office and branches in five different provinces of the country. Beyond providing diverse communities with basic, lifesaving information on HIV/AIDS, SWAAC is raising awareness on how gender inequalities and attitudes about sexuality fuel the epidemic's spread, rendering women disproportionately vulnerable. IWHC has worked with SWAAC since 1990. We are currently supporting their efforts to reach underserved communities and isolated ethnic groups with information on HIV/AIDS and to strengthen the gender and sexuality focus of their work.
All photos by Frederica Stines. Sticker courtesy of SWAAC.
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