Save A Child Cameroon: A partner of ours who champion the rights of Children

In my capacity as the founder of the association Hope for the Abused and Battered (H4AB), I was on Saturday the 22nd of June 2019, a guest speaker at an event organized by one of our partner organisations. Save A Child Cameroon (SACC) founded by Mrs Carine Mouchingam is focused on sharing and caring for children, so as to save them from some of the numerous challenges they are exposed to as the grow up. These challenges we can all admit, increase if the children are not loved, nurtured and heard. Their Aim: Faire renaître l'espoir - Bring back hope - redonner le sourire - Bring back a smile - Guérir par l Amour - Heal through love - Partager - Share The round table discussion they organized, was to commemorate the day of the African Child. They organized same under the theme: The importance of listening to children. We were three seasoned speakers, and the founder of SACC herself served as the moderator. Pertinent questions for discussion included: 1) What is done to guarantee the rights of children in Cameroon? 2) Do we listen to Children? 3) Do we take their opinions into consideration especially in decisions concerning them? 4) Why is it important to to listen to Children? 5) Why do children want to be associated to decisions concerning them? 6) What are possible pitfalls if we don't listen to children? The third focus area of H4AB is being the hope for children victims of abuse of all forms, and we assert that if we don't listen to our children, we block any rapport with them and drive further away from us. As a parent too, I must admit that the days when \"Children had to be seen and not heard\" are long expired hahaha. You ignore your child at your own risk, and it may be too late to help them if you hadn't built a relationship of trust and mutual respect with them. Some testimonies and presentations by the other speakers who both run orphanages almost moved me to tears. All in all, it was a successful maiden event. I am happy I created the time in my busy schedule to attend the event, and would honour any further events from my partners as much as possible. I must also mention my appreciation at the presence of her spouse who participated in all the discussions and asked pertinent questions or made ample suggestions. And you, any thoughts on why we should listen to our children???