The facility by the “Association pour les jeunes filles-mères du Cameroun” will be equipped with training workshops for young single mothers.

The number of young innocent girls in Cameroon lured into early sexual life, resulting in unwanted pregnancies, is growing by the day. Concerned about the ugly trend, the Yaounde-based “Association pour les jeunes filles-mères du Cameroun,” AJFMC, is tackling the problem by rehabilitating victims of undesired pregnancies.

The association organised a press conference in Hotel la Falaise, Yaounde, on May 4, 2016, to present its activities and next projects to the public. Speaking at the event, AJFMC President, Léonie Enone Ella Chedjou, announced that members will organise a special week of activities from June 5-11, 2016, in Yaounde. It will be concluded with a gala evening at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel during which funds will be raised for the construction of the special day care centre.

Léonie Enone Ella Chedjou explained that the centre will comprise training workshops for young single mothers to learn trades such as sewing, secretarial studies, hair dressing, etc, to enable the girls take care of themselves. The centre, worth about 50 million FCFA, is expected to take between 30 and 40 children, Léonie Chedjou disclosed. “Youth are the future of the nation. There is therefore need to stop them from getting pregnant in early age,” she pointed out.

So far, the association has already identified 152 young single mothers in the Centre Region, with over 40 currently receiving assistance. “Sex exposes young girls to early pregnancies, Sexually-transmissible Diseases, HIV/AIDS and unemployment, since these children become objects of shame to their families and are obliged to drop out of school,” Léonie Enone Ella Chedjou noted.

AJFMC exists since January 2013; and has so far made four sensitisation visits in the Centre Region; including one to an orphanage. For now, the over 40 members sponsor their activities while looking forward to any external support.