MY PHOTO MY VOICE let your pictures tell the story.

‘Many are called but few are choosen’whatever that means in this context???but these are the words of a young Cameroonian woman Jingla Forgiveness Atanga who hails from the North West region of the country ahe posted these lines beneath a picture which she uploaded on facebook on the 25th of march 2014. Unlike most Cameroonian girls who would rather upload sophisticated photos of themselves wearing the most fashionable outfits or the most expensive hair,Jingla uploaded this picture of herself on face book.

It is no news that facebook is a social network site and that most people consider it a leisure activity and just like most people, Cameroonian women would rather spend hours chatting on facebook with friends and uploading pictures of themselves in the most beautiful outfits; fashionable clothes and shoes, and latest hair do’s just so they attract attention and their friends and admirers can see where they are and what they have become lately. This is not a bad thing; it is a good thing especially when it helps the girls to boost their self esteem and when all the nice comments come after these pictures it makes these girls self confident, something which should be encouraged.
When I first saw Jingla’s photo, I wasn’t surprised for several reasons, and the first statement I made was ‘this girl will never change’, and I am sure that several people who know Jingla said similar things when they first saw this photo. Of course she would never change because she is just being herself, she is representing the true “who she is and what she has been up to lately”. I decided to look beyond what I saw on the photo, of course I saw a young girl wearing a white t-shirt and a green pair of shorts and black socks, standing in a farm and holding a bag on her shoulders. what I read was;a girl returning from the farm after a huge harvest, a Cameroonian woman marketing the value of agriculture(something which is not common), the smile on her face tells me she is a woman with amazing strengths who is happy about what she has done but the smile doesn’t look satisfactory, this tells me she probably has a worry as regards her activity. This picture would have different interpretations from different people because a picture speaks more than a thousand words, but the picture is more than just a story, it is the first step to facilitating the solution to the common problems we face as women in Africa. Thanks to the inspiration I got from this photo, you may now share your own photos of violence against women on SHE Platform, Let our photos tell the story.
Thanks to china most Women and girls now own a mobile phone which has a camera. It should never really be about the sad side of it but even better if we can identify our problems. I identified a better way of spreading the word and facilitating the solutions to our problem of violence against women (I hope this is really a better way), given that people like to share photos rather than write an advocacy message on facebook. World pulse identified a better way of raising women’s voices; using technology and that’s why we are all here to explore ways of making life better for women.