Cameroon Celebrates The Spirit Of Womanhood On Commonwealth Day

Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – Cameroon chose to celebrate Commonwealth Day this year by celebrating major steps taken for the emancipation of women in the country.

Cameroon on Monday March 14 held hands with the rest of the global fraternity in commemorating the 20th Commonwealth Day. The celebrations were arranged against a background of what officials choose to describe as steps in empowerment of women in the country.

The mega event that was arranged at the premises of the Yaounde Conference Centre, was headed by the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of External Relations who is responsible for all interaction and relations with the Commonwealth, Joseph Dion Ngute.

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Addressing the audience during the occasion the delegate bought to the limelight the tremendous strides that had been taken by women from all walks of life in the country, making them equal to people in other parts of the world. This was the basic idea behind the theme of the event, “Women as agents of change”.

In his speech to mark the colorful event that commemorated the spirit of the Commonwealth, Mr Dion Ngute said Cameroon could not remain indifferent to the basic values of the Commonwealth which among others comprise of gender equality, growth and proper governance.

He said although the number of women holding the reins of authority still are comparatively low in tandem to the percentage of women in the country’s population, steps are being taken to ensure that they are given more prominence made.

These combined with a lot of reforms and initiatives that are being put in place to give them the priority that they deserve points towards the fact that there is still some hope in the future for the ladies of the country.

He said that there are plans to develop a ministry which would be exclusively responsible for activities pertaining to Women’s Empowerment and the Family.

The Ministry would work towards ensuring that more women are appointed in responsible positions in the country, and steps would be taken to ensure that the number of women was increased in all major decision making forums as well.

Plans have also been put in place to conduct workshops directed towards emancipation of women and more and more schools are being proposed for girls in all parts of the country so that they are taught to respect themselves and are equipped to be independent at a very tender age itself.

All these he said provide ample proof for the government’s efforts to ensure that women have equal rights as their male counterparts and get an equal chance to contribute to socio-economic development of the country.

The British High Commissioner to Yaounde, Bharat Joshie, also agreed to the fact pointing out that the contributions made by women towards the development of the country was one that could never be ignored and promised that his country would provide unending support the cause of educating the girl-child, Mr Dion Ngute said government is not in a position to ignore ‘development luminaries’ like women.

Female performers and actors who had been specifically selected for the occasion performed portraying the culture of the land as well as the immense and varied talents of the womenfolk which was explained to be something that cannot be ignored as far as the socio economic development of any country was concerned.

One of the highlights of the occasion was the reciting of Queen Elizabeth 11′s speech on the occasion in which she appreciated major role that women play in making the society better.

“While some people use this day to acknowledge the love, admiration and respect for women, others use it to remember the great social and political strides made both by and for women in the last hundred years. There is no right or wrong approach”, she said.