Combat Child Human Trafficking in Cameroon

December 2012 Project Report

Project Goal: To Increase Community Awareness and Capability to Eradicate Trafficking in Persons

Rural areas of the North West Region of Cameroon are potential fields from where persons, especially children are recruited and taken to urban areas and exploited by unscrupulous well-to-do people.  Our focus for the last quarter of 2012 has been Ngoketunjia a rural but very accessible area of the region. Its proximity to Bamenda urban center and other neighboring towns make it a fertile ground for predators. The two villages targeted for this quarter were Bambalang and Bamessing.

Project Activities

-          Awareness seminars

-          Radio talks and distribution of flyers

-          Formation of vigilante groups

Awareness Seminars

Two awareness seminars were organized. One in Ndop the Divisional Head quarters involving stake holders from the Bambalang and Bamessing villages. The seminars reiterated the objective and project strategy.  This was followed by workshops in Bambalang village involving members of the traditional council, teachers, quarter heads and religious authorities. Twenty three (23) persons participated in the workshop.

Participants were drilled on the concept of Trafficking in person, its varying forms, magnitude and strategies to combat this ill. This seminar took place at the Fon’s Palace. It was facilitated by the CEO and the project officer.

Radio talks

The project staff worked with the Ngoketunjia radio to organize an hour long discussion session on the radio on with the Divisional Delegate of Social Affairs, the Project Manager and the President of the Division Union. The Delegate congratulated the Shield Project and informed the communities on government policy on human rights and the efforts to eradicate the practice of Tip in the country.

Formation of Vigilante Groups

Participants at the seminar agreed that the TIP vigilante groups be formed in each of the twenty four villages in the Division. To kick off the implementation of the decision, a total of eight groups were formed in November four in Bambalang and four in Bamessing. These groups were assigned to organize sensitization workshops and continue to educate the members of their community on ways of identifying and reporting cases of TIP and place information flyers in target locations in the villages.