"My Journey"

I was born in a small town in the South West Region of Cameroon called Menji into a family of eight girls and two boys. We grew up in a community where we were less exposed and made to understand it takes being a “good girl” to succeed because a woman is like a flower that blossoms and then wilders and good for marriage only. Most young girls still grow up with this mentality which has led to a lot of social problems in my community; aggravated by the fact that menstrual education is still a taboo between parents and their daughters; the result is high rate of early teenage and unwanted pregnancies among adolescent girls and early marriages.

As a volunteer with Girls Excel, one of the many organizations I volunteer with, we have set up Girls Excel Menstrual Clubs which I am coordinating in four secondary schools in the South West Region of Cameroon. Through these clubs we educate girls on the importance of Education, SRHRs and Menstrual hygiene management. We also use the social media to raise sanitary pads that were donated to the girls. Our greatest challenge is to raise resources to teach the girls how to make reusable sanitary pads. Check our work at http://www.girlsexcel.org

Working with adolescent girls is not the only thing I do, I am also the youth ambassador and Advocate against the stigmatization of epilepsy patients at the Gabriel Bebongbechem Foundation for Epilepsy and Mental wellbeing and the Head of the Community health Department at the Center for Assistance to Justice and Animation for Development.