My Journey to Empowerment

GIRLABILITY:

Founded in 2012 in Kumba-Cameroon, the inspiration behind this project came about through an encounter between a little girl and the founder of Girlability, Madam Caroline Bokuba nee Bokwe. Caroline was visiting her parents in her home country Cameroon in 2012 when she met this family with a little girl her son’s age. She fell in love with this little girl and in the course of interacting with the girl’s mother, she found out that the living condition of the little girl and her family was deplorable. Taking an interest in their story, Caroline decided to visit this family and to her greatest dismay, found out that a family of 8 shared a small space of something that looked like a studio (a room and a parlour). During the visit, the family was very receptive and offered Caroline some snacks. While sharing that time with the family, Caroline realized that 5 of the school-aged children in that family. 4 of whom were girls, were not actually in school due to lack of finances. Put her personal challenges faced as a child into play, Caroline instantly made the personal decision to informally adopt that little girl by taking over the sponsorship for her education moving forward. “I do not wish to see any girl go through similar challenges like I did” (Caroline states). Two days later, Caroline formed an empowerment association that caters to the needs of girls in that community. A week after that encounter, Caroline hosted a back-to-school jamboree with a goal to provide basic school supplies such as exercise books, pens, pencils, colours, as well as hygiene kits which included soap, toothbrush and toothpaste to 50 girls. However, she ended up supporting over 100 children in total, as both girls and boys alike showed up to the event. “I could not find the courage to send away the male children who showed up”, she said; “they too need help”, she concluded. However, with a mission to explore abilities, empower ideas and provide opportunities to young girls, the success of the 2012 jamboree has encouraged Caroline to return to Cameroon annually to give back to her community. “This journey just began, and there is no turning back because our girls need us”, she states. Since 2012 Caroline and some generous donors have sponsored a variety of projects and she hopes that more will be done in the years to come.