She Takes The Lead – Empowering Female Survivors of Gender Based Violence With Vocational and Business Skills

As part of Living Green Cameroon work to promote women’s entrepreneurship and gender equality in rural and urban Cameroon, Living Green Cameroon identifies good practice examples in the area of women’s entrepreneurship to share with training providers, policy makers and traditional leaders. One example is the Advancing Gender Equality and the Rights of Survivors of Gender-Based Violence program in Kumba. This innovative training program provides vocational training for women and girls survivors of gender-based violence, enabling them to plan, organize, finance and manage their own small businesses.

To facilitate this process Living Green Cameroon setup the first ever women-led empowerment center in Kumba called: The Centre For Sustainable Development and Capacity Building for Women and Girls. The center provides empowerment for survivors of Gender Base Violence through vocational and business skills. The Centre provide safe space for women and girls to meet, develop fundamental life skills, acquire tools and resources to fight for their rights, increase their agency, and see themselves as change makers. 

Many  participants after completing their training program go and create their own income generating business for economic independence and to foster gender equality in their local communities. We train survivors to produce and market Ankara bags, soap, beaded sandals/slippers, rugs, reusable pads and Beaded bracelet/Necklace, urban farming using recycled plastic bottles. – by 2025, more than 10,000 women and girls are expected to benefited from the project. The current project aim to target GBV Survivors within Kumba and its environs.