Education Promotion and Girls Leadership Development
At HOFNA, we believe that increased access of women and youth to quality education reduces their risk of experiencing perpetual poverty and exposure to gender-based violence and abuse and prevents radicalisation and violent extremism.
Through scholarship provisions, and the provision of didactic materials, benches, materials for extracurricular activities and provision conducive environments for education, we ensure women and girls can become self-reliant, socially conscious and have the power to communicate their priorities and make better decisions that drive them and their families out of abuse, poverty, radicalisation, and violent extremism.
a. Making Education Realistic
Through our Making Education Realistic (MER), over the years, HOFNA has awarded a hundred plus full scholarships to women and youth of which a majority of them are young women, who study in various academic and training institutions in Cameroon.
Through this, we help underprivileged students achieve academic excellence through access to school materials and uniforms.
b. Partnership working with Schools & Institutions
HOFNA partners with local educational organizations, institutions and local authorities (councils) with the purpose of working together to promote the greater good of Cameroon by providing capacity building and opportunities than benefit women and girls.
c. Leadership in education - Our Girls Leadership Development Bootcamp
We provide comprehensive leadership training and hands-on experience for women and young girls to help them develop the skills, knowledge and attributes necessary for empowered lives.
Our Girls Leadership Development Bootcamp is our flagship Program. The Program brings 100 adolescents each year to respond to issues around teenage pregnancies, menstrual hygiene practices, increasing low self-esteem amongst girls. Our program establishes effective mechanism for reporting of these acts of violence against young girls in most communities and prevent cases from going unreported or underreported.
HOFNA’s Girls Leadership Development Bootcamp fills the pipeline with young female leaders ready to learn, gain experience, understand their bodies, and grow into more senior leadership roles as their careers progress. Recognizing that leadership skills developed early in life are critical to becoming an empowered woman as she matures, our initiative is a unique program for teenage girls. Through this program, girls develop positive skills for leadership in their own lives.
Girls who have a strong sense of themselves are less likely to be bullied or to become victims of abuse.
The intensive weeklong program focuses on
- Self-esteem strategies that overcome self-doubt
- Time management and organizational skills
- Improving communication and leadership skills
- Self-care, Menstrual Hygiene, and related issues
- Goal motivation
- Civic participation
Since 2017, HOFNA’s Girls Leadership Development Bootcamp has engaged 700 adolescent girls some of whom have progressed into leadership roles in their own organisations or in boards of international organisations.
See testimonials from our girls
To know more about our girls leadership bootcamp or how to partner with us to realize this, contact us
d. Mentoring
HOFNA’s Youth Mentoring Program awakens youth to their power, unique gifts and purpose by matching them with caring adult mentors and placing that “match” within a structured group dynamic that provides the resources youth need to reach productive, conscious adulthood. Our program further seeks to awaken society to the needs, promise and value of youth.
Our purpose is to build communities where young people are truly seen and not just watched, where society understands and accepts its responsibility in meeting the needs of all young people, and where young people bring their gifts back into their communities as productive members of society. As part of the program, we train young people on volunteerism and servant leadership building them to be active members of their communities.
Objectives of the Mentoring Program
By providing young people with positive adult role models in the community and in the workplace we seek to achieve the following objectives:
- Provide young people with a vital sense of belonging.
- Give young people a sense that the greater community also cares about them.
- Start young people on their way to conscious adulthood.
- Support young people on their journey to discover their true potential.
- Provide young people with access to the resources necessary to achieve social and academic success.
- Help more young people graduate high school and move on to meaningful higher education that supports their dreams
- Nurture transformation in both the individual and society at large.