Internet Blackout affects girls in Bamenda



One Monday morning I was seated in my office with 12 girls around my table. With all excitement, I was getting ready to register 3 teams of girls for the 2017 Technovation Challenge program. After turning on my computer I discovered that there wasn’t any signal for the internet connection.



This was really strange to me, and at first I thought that my laptop had a technical fault. I walked out of my office with a lot of frustration, I entered into next office to find out what was wrong. There I met my co -workers who run a cyber café, gazing at each other while some customers were also complaining.



Then, we became convinced that there was no internet connection. We could not understand any reason for this black out. After listening to similar complaints from other internet users around my office, and after investigating further on the issue, we realized that the same situation prevailed in the entire North West Region and South West Region of Cameroon which are the two English speaking regions.



I returned to my office seriously disappointed, wondering how I would inform my team of girls that I would not be able to register them for this amazing online program intended to train them on how to create mobile applications that address everyday problems within their community. I finally convinced myself to explain to the girls that it would not be possible to get them registered on the platform.



The sudden disappearance of internet significantly affected the girls who were highly engaged and very eager to attend these sessions.



One of the frustrated girls exclaimed “I already knew I was going to be part of the global tech community through this program… my dream of communicating and exchanging ideas with peers around the globe has just evaporated.”



Another girl said “So truly I am going to miss this opportunity to pitch my idea for the mobile application…I really want to be connected in order to compete with my peers form around the world.”



Last year, one of these teams was one of the semi-finalist teams for the world class competition and they hoped that they would work harder to move to finals this time.



A few days passed by and the issue of the internet black out became world news. We started receiving phone messages with TV stations and International channels talking about the issue.



We are still trying to understand how we have been deprived of an important basic need that affects us by of holding down all our on line activities.



The inhabitants of these two regions have been waiting now for more than to one month for the return of the internet connection to no avail. We have 2 weeks left for the registration process to close.



This situation has particularly affected the girls negatively and they are seriously demoralized.



The owner of the Cyber wasthe most affected because he depends on his business for his daily bread. This takes care of a family of 5 and has no other source of income making his condition really critical.



These girls that are victims form this particular circumstance in the North Westand South West Regions of Cameroon and will not have the opportunity to fulfill their dream of going beyond the semifinals. That privilege shall be reserved only to the girls from other regions of Cameroon.



Being the regional ambassador for this program in Bamenda, these girls have kept on contacting me to seek other methods we could use to continue the program given the benefits they had once experienced and the impact created last year from their participation.



It is imperative for the government to reinstall the internet connection in the areas affected. So that our girls can continue their online activities as part of an inclusive process for development.





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