Visionary Reports

By Gina Esong

This was during the 2019 Edition of the International Day of the Rural Woman under the theme “Woman Living in Rural Areas and Sustainable Management of Productive Resources

Despite their difficulties and challenges, the rural women of Mouanko -Sanaga Maritime Division of the Littoral region of Cameroon came out in their numbers to celebrate the 24^th edition of the International day of the Rural Woman. During the ceremony the women were congratulated for all their hard work and selflessness to ensure food sufficiency despite their very little means.

The rural woman in Cameroon  have  very little to show in terms of education, they till the soil, go for fishing from dawn to dusk, they are involved in petty trading and other activities to feed their families and the community as a whole .Yet they live in misery, they are  oppressed, suppressed  and despised.

While celebrating this group of women, the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO for the Sanaga Maritime Division, Abondo Cyrille Yvan, applauded the women for their efforts in feeding the nation. He said despite their difficulties the women toil day and night to provide food for all.

Their problems are numerous such as lack of farm to market roads, lack of markets to sell their products, lack of farm inputs, lack of electricity and network, lack of farming equipments, they are in dire need of storage facilities, just to name a few.  A rural Woman in Mouanko, Bafuteka Chantal decried the high cost of transportation, high cost of farm inputs, frequent electricity and epileptic network connections makes life difficult for them. She  told this reporter that they are in need of modern farming techniques and tools. She   revealed that some of the women in Mouanko involved in fishing used locally made fishing nets and others.  She used the opportunity to plead with the government of Cameroon to subsidized farm inputs and improve on farm to market roads.

The Regional Delegate of Women’s Empowerment and the Family for the Littoral Region Madam Makota Isabelle Lafortune explained that, her Ministry and that of Agriculture and Rural Development have put in place several programmes to support the rural women in the agricultural domain. She advised the women to organize themselves into groups so as to benefit from the programmes. She was clear that the rural woman is the guarantor of cultural identity consequently she should be well cared for. She added that the rural women play an essential role in the development of the country as a whole.  Her ministry, she went on, is always there to accompany the rural women to make their lives better so as to improve on their output.

The mayor of Mouanko Ebwea Pierre Honore was around to give   the rural women a pat on their back.

This year’s Edition of the International Day of the Rural Woman under the theme “Woman living in rural areas and sustainable management of productive resources”, was a chance for the women to receive some farm inputs like wheel barrows, hoes, machetes, buckets sprayers, insecticides and others as to improve on production