Celebrating Inclusion: A2Empowerment's Highlights for International Women's Day 2024
- A2Empowerment
- Mar 8, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 29
International Women’s Day, or IWD, is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.
The #IWD2024 theme #InspireInclusion “calls for action to break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and create environments where all women are valued and respected.”
By supporting A2Empowerment, you have helped to #InspireInclusion.
Our program reduces the gap in education for young women in Cameroon and offers opportunities to show them, and their communities, that they belong in school and the workforce. We promote diversity and inclusion in decision-making positions, by supporting women leaders in Cameroon and including scholarship recipients and alumnae on our board of directors. We provide training to mentors, and mentorship to scholarship recipients, so they thrive.
As A2Empowerment co-mentor and alumna Angèle states, “The scholarship program is very important, even crucial, for the students here in the sense that it allows them to continue their education to achieve their dreams. It helps their parents and their communities by reducing the illiteracy rate, and it allows these girls various job opportunities. Supporting women’s education is important, because an educated woman becomes a pillar for society. She has more confidence in herself and her abilities. She can be completely autonomous and come to the aid of other women in turn, because, as it is said, “woman is the mother of humanity.”*
The scholarship recipients mentored by Aissatou would like you to know, “Being a woman or a girl in Cameroon in general, and in Adamawa in particular, is not easy, but A2Empowerment shows us that it is not difficult. Because going to school, helping others, and also being invested in our community helps us integrate as full human beings and good citizens. We can never say it enough: Thanks so much to A2Empowerment and thanks also to the donors. We are really happy and grateful.”*
*Quotes edited for clarity
A2Empowerment is honored to announce new partnerships
To further our efforts and improve the quality of our program, A2Empowerment is proud to announce a partnership with World Economy Skills and Agro Development, or WESAD, a nongovernmental organization with headquarters in Cameroon.
This partnership will allow us to operate through an official entity in Cameroon to administer our scholarship program and fund a new entrepreneurial project for survivors of gender-based violence.
As a benefit of working with WESAD, A2Empowerment gains a partner in Launch Girls by adopting their Girl Boss curriculum.
The Girl Boss curriculum offers “entrepreneurial and work-readiness mindsets and skills specifically identified to equip adolescent girls to take charge of their future and successfully transition from school to work.” We are indebted to Launch Girls founder and CEO, Averil Spencer, for introducing A2Empowerment to Girl Boss and WESAD. A2Empowerment looks forward to working together to amplify the impact of all three organizations!
Dr. Helvecia Takwe, WESAD’s dynamic founder, will serve as our project coordinator. She has extensive experience that will be beneficial for training current A2Empowerment mentors and alumnae to administer improved programming, reporting, monitoring and evaluation. She plans to hire an A2Empowerment alumna to serve as assistant coordinator and work with our current mentors.
Dr. Helvecia is passionate about empowering girls and women, and she expressed her excitement for this partnership:
"Educated and empowered girls and women are champions of positive change. When girls and women are supported to thrive, they gain opportunities to speak up for their rights, and also for their communities, and their voices are heard. They are able to get into leadership positions, sit at decision-making tables to make decisions on issues concerning women, and they can feed this into future generations. I am so excited about this partnership because A2Empowment holds the same thoughts as WESAD, and A2Empowerment invests in empowering women and girls with the necessary support they need to unleash their potential, so that they can play a pivotal role in community and societal development.”
A2Empowerment is excited to share our new website and logo
Extraordinary volunteer and supporter, Christa Houlahan, applied her extensive user design experience to create a new website for A2Empowerment! As part of this effort, Christa gained paid volunteer hours through her employer, Microsoft, that will be donated to A2Empowerment. Additionally, the Houlahan family graciously offered to fund creative design by the incredible Amanda Schuler to update our logo and promote our new brand. We are truly grateful to the Houlahan family for this beautiful gift and all they continue to do for A2Empowerment!
GivingTuesday artwork fundraiser results
A2Empowerment raised over $20,000 through our year-end fundraising campaign!
We thank everyone who generously supports A2Empowerment so we can continue providing educational scholarships and support to girls and women so that they may increase their knowledge and empower themselves to lead healthier, more productive lives.
We hope you feel proud to celebrate this #IWD2024 for the ways you #InsprieInclusion by supporting A2Empowerment!