Certification of facilitators women upon completion of initial trauma healing training
Who are we ?
We are Christian women without distinction of denomination, sensitive to the situation of young mothers and daughters victims of sexual exploitation in distress. We want to make our contribution on the spiritual, socio-economic, legal and psychological levels to help these girls find better living conditions. The project has existed since 2007 and its action covers the whole country.
This project is an initiative of the Bible Society of Cameroon (BSC), an organization created since 1959 to be at the service of the Church. It acts in the complete cycle of the Bible namely the translation, the edition, the distribution, the promotion of the Bible, the interaction with the Holy Scriptures and the advocacy for the Bible. The BSC is a member of the United Bible Societies.
Purpose and objective
Esther aims to help the young girl in distress to develop attitudes and skills based on Christian values in order to achieve full social, moral, financial and spiritual fulfillment.
The project aims to:
- Form a national network of at least 100 Christian women after 3 years who support the work through prayer, their skills, their gift, and their know-how;
- Supervise spiritually and psychologically at least 300 young girls, each year throughout the territory;
- Teach each girl at least 5 income-generating activities and support her towards empowerment;
- Help program participants to develop their character with a view to personal maturity and to impact those around them;
- Ensure the succession of women in the network with at least 10 girls who distinguish themselves each year as leaders and facilitators.
Beneficiaries
It is about:
- young single mothers aged 12 to 26, educated or not, rejected, abandoned, sometimes solely responsible for the child/children, sometimes deprived of their children, stigmatized, anxious and depressed;
- victims of sexual exploitation aged 12 to 26, raped, traumatized, abused, in distress;
- adolescent girls aged 12 to 19. This larger target group concerns potential victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. Silent victims, they are sometimes abused or raped in their own families, in schools and in neighborhoods. For fear of stigmatization and reprisals from their abusers, they become shy and keep quiet. They need to learn values and the right way to confidently report acts of abuse and their perpetrators.
The context
Young girls in Cameroon are victims of sexual exploitation from the age of 12, and sometimes before, and become pregnant for the most part around the age of 15. This situation is accompanied by emotional wounds that last a long time and are transmitted over several generations. The causes of this phenomenon are, among others, poverty, lack of education, lack of information, unhealthy environment, imitation, the media, ignorance of their own value, the lies conveyed, irresponsibility parents, idleness, non-schooling, the pursuit of ease, bad company and even certain retrograde cultures. Esther intends to restore their dignity and restore their lost value.
Ressources persons and partners
- The women of the Esther network
- Esther former beneficiaries
- Christian Counselors
- Psychologists
- The doctors
- Lawyers
- IGA trainers
- Training centers for women and Youth
- The churches
- Associations for the care of young girls
- women's groups
- Girls' movements
- The "Parent School"
Outputs and Impacts
The Esther project is delighted with the results obtained:
- nearly 2000 girls reached since 2007
- 100% of girls acquired biblical knowledge, knowledge of law, entrepreneurship, hygiene and skills to carry out at least 5 income-generating activities;
- Several girls active in their communities as monitors, choristers and engaged as Christians;
- more than a hundred currently self-sufficient young girls who manage their small businesses;
- married girls who know how to manage their families;
- about fifty girls who have become facilitators during the activities or who share their knowledge with others.
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