With hardly a moment to take breath as my colleagues and I organized a diverse spectrum of activities across Cameroon, a fascinating country where over 250 languages are spoken and the landscape ranges from the bustling congestion of the port city of Douala to the hilly rural areas spotted with homes adorned by spectacular tin-thatched roofs that reach up to the sky in a triangle shape. We were told that the more majestic the roof, the greater the status of the residents in terms of the village hierarchy.

We started our week with an introduction to the volunteer pilot committee and dedicated staff working on the AMA Market Women project, an initiative supported by Vital Voices Leadership and Advocacy Fund through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The pilot committee is an impressive group of men and women, all market traders themselves, who have volunteered their time to see through the realization of the project’s objectives, which are to strengthen the voice of women market traders in the areas of tax administration, public health and sanitation, and commercial regulation.

The five women and two men joined the President of Sandaga Market to offer our team an orientation to the work done thus far to develop the plans for the project (elections of the pilot committee, information sessions at the market, recruitment of staff). On that first day we also met the group of young women that Marilyn Nguemo, an alumni of the Vital Voices African Women’s Political Campaign School, had identified to participate in a follow-up empowerment program generously supported by the ExxonMobil Foundation. The 3-day workshop aimed to offer the young women selected an opportunity to explore the ways in which they could make a real contribution to addressing issues and concerns for their community and country.

On Tuesday, we attended an information session at the Sandaga Market where my colleague, Kah Walla, Director of Strategies! answered questions about the framework of the project and elicited feedback about the market women’s priorities, which include concerns about taxes, sanitation, market organization, and skills building in the area of business administration and legal rights. After the information session Zoe Dean-Smith, a senior consultant on the Vital Voices African Women Artisans Program, and I left for Bamenda on an 8 hour journey that took us through small and large towns and villages, windy roads, and steep mountainous passes, and a lot of banana trees. We passed the time wondering how the buses stood upright with the large loads balanced precariously on the roof, always with a bunch of bananas affixed at the summit.

The next morning we met over breakfast with Helen Gwanfogbe, President of Nku’mu Fed-Fed, and Emmanuel Ngang, the project manager for the Gates project we are supporting at Nku’mu Fed-Fed. Helen and Emmanuel are managing a Vital Voices Leadership and Advocacy Grant focused on breaking cultural barriers to women’s sexual and reproductive health through advocacy and awareness. They described both the promise and the challenges faced in doing development work in rural areas around Bamenda, where they are training communicators to engage locals and chiefs in particular in the project.

We traveled next to the Community Resource Center for the Disabled and Disadvantaged, where we met with its President Florence Limen, a dynamic and vocal advocate for the CRCDD’s members, all of whom live with physical disabilities and confront societal discrimination as well as health challenges (the HIV/AIDS rate is 15% for the disabled compared to 5% for the general population). After a morning workshop orienting us to the project we are supporting that will result in legal and societal advocacy to foster greater integration of disabled in the community, we visited a gorgeous plot of land where CRCDD has plans to build a resource center complete with educational, health, and residence facilities. That afternoon we joined a larger contingent of CRCDD members for a series of activities - a drama depicting the challenges faced by disabled in securing land rights, a colorful fashion show of items sewn by CRCDD members, traditional songs and dances, and finally a product development workshop led by Zoe on the side of a busy Bamenda street. The women were focused and intent on learning how to ensure their products reached international markets so they took copious notes, asked insightful questions, and scrutinized the samples Zoe brought from successful craft ventures she is cultivating around Africa.

Our last morning in Bamenda we rejoined our friends at Nku-mu Fed-Fed, where we was visited Nku-mu Fed-Fed’s offices, which include a shelter for survivors of child trafficking. We learned that 5% of Cameroon’s girls are trafficked from rural areas to be nannies, hotel workers and domestic servants. Nku’mu Fed-Fed has worked with the US State Department to track and service the survivors, five of whom we met during our visit. All of the lead communicators of the their project met with us also - a retired male sociologist, several women teachers, and others who each are giving their time and attention to be trained on awareness and sensitization before going out to their assigned regions to engage locals and chiefs in the advocacy campaign which will unfold in early 2009. We enjoyed a comprehensive conversation about the challenges of changing traditional behaviors and beliefs ingrained for decades and even centuries. Time, measured expectations and determination were stressed as the vital components of an effective strategy.

After a quick tour around Bali, a neighboring town to Bamenda, which included a drive-by of the chief’s impressive residence, we departed for Douala. This time we took the short route home through Melong and Tchang, which had us going up and down twisty roadways and through breathtaking valleys that I could have only imagined before taking the journey.

That evening we caught the last few minutes of the young women’s political training workshop. They were celebrating their graduation from the program. Stephenie Foster, the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the American Legacy Foundation, Vital Voices Africa Program Officer Celena Green, and Marilyn appeared pleased and proud of the group’s hard work and accomplishments so it was a pleasure to come in time for the ceremonious group photo in which all the women proudly held up their Vital Voices certificates. Next we traveled to a lovely restaurant where STRATEGIES Director Kah Walla and Marilyn had arranged a closing reception and roundtable on which sat a gender specialist, university professors, a market women representative, Marilyn (as the representative of young women in public life), and Kah (as the facilitator). The rich dialogue continued until after 11pm. I learned a great deal about feminist discourse, the inclusion of men in advocacy for women’s empowerment, and the role of traditional/rural women in making strides for women in Cameroon.

Our final day began with a visit to Dikolo, a village enclave in Douala, where Kah, who also serves as a local council member, is working with local residents – her constituents — to address neighborhood concerns related to irrigation, property rights, and health concerns. The warmth of the people in Dikolo and their welcoming open arms was striking. Working together the community is taking small steps to protect their rights and improve their living conditions. It was quite inspiring.

The afternoon was set for the launch of the market women’s project. It was a remarkable event with women waiting hours for the speeches and ceremony to begin. A DJ played loud African music interspersed with American pop. The Government Delegate of Douala attended and expressed his support for the project and its objectives. A representative of the pilot committee, Kah, and Celena all spoke articulately to thank the Government Delegate for his attendance and support. Soon there were platters of Cameroonian food to taste and cold drinks to gulp down. I kept reminding myself that it was only 6 short months ago that I sat in an empty conference room with Kah in Cape Town, South Africa, and learned about her idea for the advocacy campaign aimed at strengthening market women’s rights. Add into the picture the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, committed volunteer market women, an engaged Sandaga Market President, and Kah’s unbelievable energy and vision …. and we had a project, a launch, and the measured hopes and expectations of the hundreds of market women signed up for the project. Wow.

Believe it or not, this does not capture even a quarter of all the activities, exchanges, and lessons learned from our week in Cameroon.

We travel overnight to Nairobi today where I begin bright and early tomorrow morning with Ripe for Harvest, an organization doing anti-trafficking work in Nyeri.