By IKOME CHRISTIE-NOELLA EPOSI
Some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Buea have acquired skills on soap making, following a two-day training workshop organized by the Centre for the Advancement of Women’s Initiatives (CAWI).
The workshop took the women through the production of powdered soap (omo), medicated soap and washing soap. The brain behind the initiative, director of CAWI, Nkembi Lucia says the IDPs have been given skills on soap making so as to enable them produce their own soap to sell and make money. “We don’t want them to continuously beg. We want them to be able to cope with whatever they can produce”, she stated.
Fabian Asong, a resource person at the workshop stated that from his observations throughout the two days, the participants were thrilled and satisfied with the skills and knowledge gained. “We have trained them on the production of medicated and powdered soap using a variety of medicinal plants. Some of them told me that they have discovered a lot that can help them back home during the crisis to treat their selves especially at such periods when they are not financially viable. The soap will also help them do their laundry”, he noted.
Bernadette Foncham and Emefor Sydonie are some of the satisfied participants who expressed sincere thanks to CAWI for coming up with such an initiative: “The training has upgraded my knowledge about making cocoa soap, chocolate, spaghetti, medicated and powdered soap and many others”.
The director of CAWI added that the soap production process is just one of the much training the IDPs are going to undertake. She noted that subsequent trainings will be organized to enable the IDPs have more skills on how to make their lives better.
Accrding to Junie Chamdjou, the cluster lead of the early and economy recovery domain at CAWI “Through the training, the women will be empowered economically and be able to cater for their social needs. CAWI also engages the IDPs in other social activities such as tailoring, hair dressing etc”, she said.
It should be noted that ever since the start of the crisis in the South West and North West regions of Cameroon, CAWI has been doing a number of things to assist the internally displaced by either providing basic needs for them or training them on activities which could be advantageous to them.
The Director of CAWI Nkembi Lucia has equally revealed that there is a lot in the pipeline so far as projects are concerned.