Her Voice My Voice Fund

Some 45 years ago a little girl called Melanie from Great Soppo in Buea, chief town of the South West Region nursed a dream of becoming a voice to the voiceless. Born into a polygamous family where it is a situation of survival of the fittest. Her mother, a farmer, was first wife to her father who were all farmers. Being born as a girl was first of all a very big challenge as such she lived in a situation of marginalization and discrimination for a very long time. Through subsistence farming her mother struggled to pay for her education but couldn’t continue due to hardships. She then took upon herself and struggled by herself and vowed to further her education and today her story has changed.

Melanie today is Dr. Melanie Ideng and she knows and beliefs that many young girls and mothers identify with her situation especially within our African setting where tradition and culture play a big role in promoting marginalization and discrimination. She noticed this situation in the 13 villages in Buea and 28 villages in Tiko Municipality in the Fako Divison where she carried out a Focus Group Discussion and in-depth interviews with some participants during her field work as a researcher.

She used the opportunity to share her story to encourage them not to give up. Some reactions were not friendly as they accused her of distorting the statusquo to do things differently to make life better. After her PhD defense, her zeal to become a voice in her community increased as many young girls and women continue to face the challenges of marginalization and discrimination within their families and in the communities.

Today she is a Community Counselor of a gender-based violence (GBV) prevention project at Denis Miki Foundation (DMF) and part of DMF's Communication team and a strong advocate of rural communication to impact the lives of young girls and women in the most impoverished and remote areas where acute poverty hinders them from receiving quality education.

She experienced this first hand in a home where it was survival of the fittest and is now committed to contribute efforts to make better the lives of other women and girls. Join Melanie today through the DMF Her Voice My Voice Fund through a donation, a partnership with DMF, signing up as a #DMFvolunteer, #DMFmentee or by recommending us to possible partners and funders working to support women and girls in Africa.