Income-generating Activities: More Women Now involved

Régional

Christopher JATOR | 02-02-2017 17:12

Financing is one of many constraints towards contributing to the family pantry, defray academic costs or meet personal needs.

Womenfolk in Douala have embarked on income-generating activities in a bid to reduce poverty. The women who said they were tired waiting on their husbands to finance all including their personal needs, picked up little trades that do not command much capital and effort but with a quick turnover for self-reliance. These include making body lotions, soap, lipsticks and dying fabrics. For five days, recently, the women who were both members and non-members of Association des Femmes Bonapriso pour le Développement (AFEB-DEV) learned techniques involved in the production of the cosmetics such as coloration, the addition of perfume and how to make lotions adaptable to various skin colour.
Some participants including Diane Nthepe, AFEB-DEV President, said although they have been eager always to contribute to their family pantry, help defray academic costs incurred on their children by their husbands and meet personal needs, they lacked the skills which have now been gained from the workshop. Participants benefitted from the expertise of two specialised institutions, Home Atelier and Alpha Bio Care, with financial support of the Littoral Regional Delegation of Women’s Empowerment and the Family.
Empowering women for such activities in an economy that is seeking to emerge has become a necessary condition, since government policies seek to improve social and economic incentive. However, the 2017 budget allotted the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family has significantly been reduced compared to that of 2016. Reacting to worries by the Littoral Delegate of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Isabelle La Fortune Makota, that her services could have offered direct individual support to the women if the budget of the Ministry had not remained limited, obliging the Delegation to offer financial support only to associations, Hon. Maylyse Rose Douala Bell Songo, CPDM MP, said it was reasonable also to reduce the visions of the Ministry. She promised to take this point to the National Assembly.