Restoring Hope among Teenagers: the story of Agnes.
The ongoing socio-political crisis in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has increased poverty levels, damaged livelihoods, and resulted in gross human rights violations, including Gender-Based Violence. Further generated massive insecurity, leading to an increase in the number of girls at higher risk of being sexually violated. Increasing number of cases of sexual violence and harassment, accompanied by unplanned early pregnancies. Out of school children are continuously facing a range of Child protection risks such as sexual exploitation and abuse, with very limited access to comprehensive sex education or sensitization on sexual and reproductive health rights. Vulnerable conflict-affected adolescents and teenage girls have resorted to negative coping mechanisms. Lack of civil documents continue to impose further vulnerability on the affected population.
The story of resilience
18-year-old Agnes was forced to flee to Buea when she was 14, after violence broke out in Mondoni her native village in the Southwest Region. She left everything behind, including her identity papers and found safety at her uncle’s house in Buea. Initially, she was sent to school, but the uncle later withdrew her from school because he wanted her to be selling in his shop. Selling in the store did not allow Agnès to meet her basic needs. She conceived at the age of 16. Her uncle sent her parking out from his house. She moved in with her boyfriend who was just 20 years old, making both of them very vulnerable.
Agnes later joined a group comprising of teenage mothers. The group of teen mothers was trained by TeenAlive association in the course of UNICEF-ECHO Project implementation in her community. Through the programme, Agnes and the other teenage mothers were equipped with skills and knowledge in areas like business, reproductive health, behavior and mindset change among others. Agnes also benefited from services ranging from psychosocial support to the establishment of her civil documents, in particular her national identity card to facilitate her movement. Since she no longer went to school, she received training in traditional embroidery.
My dream is to become a fashion designer.
Thanks to this support Agnes stated she changed her mindset, regained her self-esteem and started focusing more on being financially empowered. Today, she is able to start up small-scale businesses which can help her meet her needs and take care of her 2-year-old child.
The TeenAlive leadership team is impressed by the transformation of Agnes and other teenage mothers. They are proud to know that Agnes is amongst the select members of Adolescents advisory board out of 11 members for the SW region. Agnes was selected because she knows how to talk. She can stand out now for her peers and for other adolescent girls. Generally, Agnes feels very happy and always expresses words of appreciation to UNICEF, ECHO and TeenAlive.
Make the voice of young girls heard
Receiving the support from the Programme “Restoring Hope among Teenagers” brought back hope to Agnes. She is glad to be member of Adolescents advisory board. “I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given to recover from my situation. I was going through tough times when this program reached out to me. The psychosocial support allowed me to regain self-confidence and the training I received allows me to empower myself, take care of my child and participate in the development of my community. My selection as Adolescent Girls Advisory Board (AGAB) is another opportunity offered to me to make the voice of young girls who find themselves in my situation heard.,” she narrates.
“I would like to thank UNICEF and ECHO, because they have been a great support to ensure that this place is sustainable. It can look small, but it does at lot. So, I’m hoping for more support. I’m hoping for expansion. I’m hoping to get more skills. We need additional skills like hairdressing, shaving. We intend to go to plastic transformation, so that we can into entrepreneurship, saving the community by picking up plastic, redesigning” said Dorine, the Executive Director of TeenAlive.
