Educating the Girl Child and its Ripple Effect

Yah Thecla like i fondly call her, Nsaigha Thecla ( from where both my english names were gotten THE _therese CLA- claire) is my maternal grand mother. I always wondered how my mother managed to sail through all the traumas she had in marriage and raising her three children. As i grew up i began discovering where she drew strength from. Her Mother!

Almost in her 90s,but you would not believe me if i told you so! My grand mother still stands strong and holding her family and now 8 children together. Having lost her husband over 20 years ago, she faced what every widow would face in a typical african society. To tell you the kind of person she is, let me tell you my mothers story;

My mother is the first daughter and first child of the family. Being an illiterate, one would expect back then for my grand motherto follow the norm and keep her daughter home and prepare her for marriage as was her case but she did not only encourage her schooling but sent her far off to boarding school. Something that was not common in the community. This set the pace for every child of the family. except for those who did not want, education was a priority for all.

Coming to our home, when my father died, this value was what guided my mother. She drew from her experiences growing up and gave all for her chuldren to go to school inspite the difficulties.My mother never gave up, she invested what she had, sold all she had, borrowed all she could to send us to school.

Today her children are following in her footstep and in honour of my grand parents and all they have been to us as inspiration the ripple continues, we decided to give back not to her alone but to our community. Under the ShineA Light Africa initiative, we went back home to see how we can make a difference in the lives of women who were not as fortunate as my mother to receive an education that could bring them out of cultural bondage byempowering them mentally, materially and financially.

Kisenjam my mothers home town is one of the villages under Jakiri Sub Division.The Jakiri Sub Division is one of the six subdivision that make up Bui Division located in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. It is located some 80km from Bamenda on the Ring Road that passes through most of the Divisional Headquarters in the Northwest Region situated between Babessi Council in Ngoketunjia Division and Kumbo Council area in Bui Division. The Sub Division covers the same administrative and geographical area as the Jakiri Municipal Council with a surface area of about 675km2 and a population of about 75,000 inhabitants.

In this community women are the bread winners and almost all of them are farmers. While their husbands converge every morning to tap and drink palm wine, they take care of the children (some haveas many as nine children), go to the farms, prepare food and still see to theneeds of their husbands(both financial and physicial). With this background i expected to meet frustrated and angry women but I met a group of vibrant, grateful, cheerful and hard working women with hearts open and ready to move forward.

Gathered in my Grand mothers compound, i spent time getting to know these women and what they had as dreams. their tenacity and hope for the future not only for them but their children brough tears to my eyes. Their gratitude for the little we gave them made me cry more. Their strength and willingness to learn and grow, humbled me and i knew there and then why we came back to them: because one woman broke the normand educated her first child (a girl) many others received education because of one woman who was empowered by her illiterate mother. today we have received so much more and the world pulse platform has not only opened my eyes to see how important it is to be a part of change and let our voices be heard and let our communities be enlightened and women empowered. It is our turn to empower our community

Change is possible and we are working one woman, one community at a time and together with sisters all over the world, our experiences and stories will inspire, empower these vibrant women i met and they in turn will be able to shand up for their girls.

Today i honor and celebrate my grand mother Nsaigha Thecla, a women who defiled all odds to educate her daughter.The ripple effect of herinvestment in her girl child is still being felt and i should say waxing stronger today.