CAMGEW fetes Eco-community and biodiversity award

By Bakah Derick just back from Ebolowa 

Authorities of Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch CAMGEW have received the Guardian Post 2019 Achievement Award in Eco-Community and Biodiversity with satisfaction following their dedication to on environmental and gender issues in Cameroon.

The non-governmental organisation was declared winner of the category Feb 22 during the award event in Ebolowa South region of Cameroon. According to the award jury headed by Peterkings Manyong Journalists and Author, CAMGEW has successfully carried out biodiversity protection, rehabilitation and damage mitigation programmes in the last years of existence especially in the Kilum-Ijim forest area where most of their activities are executed. 

CAMGEW Team display The Guardian Post 2019 Eco-Community and Diversity Award

Though not opportune to be in Ebolowa for the award event, CAMGEW Director Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy Apiculture and Nature Conservation Campaigner expressed satisfaction to the team of eminent journalists and jurist who found his organisation worthy of the recognition.

“I am very happy with the award I have received from The Guardian Post. It means so much to me and my entire team of CAMGEW that is working to protect the Kilum-Ijim forest. We are happy the work is being acknowledged and also that we are being known and we are certainly proud of it because we done good work on the field.” He said 

 

CAMGEW Director Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy with Award

“It is the award that has come to acknowledge the work of all my team members who have worked with me to make sure that the work we do can be seen outwardly. We are so proud that the Guardian Post could recognise this work and that they could give us this kind of award and it was a big surprise to us to see that somebody somewhere was watching at what we were doing that  could recognise. I think there are a lot of local heroes that need to be made known so that so that they should feel proud and continue to do the work they are doing for the good of humanity and the good of the community where they work. This is going to boast me and make reflect and see how I can make it better and other who can replicate it somewhere else and also to be a model for my team, my community and our region.” CAMGEW Director added. 

Sevedzem Ernestine Women and Social empowerment officer of CAMGEW on her part expressed he joy. “We are so happy that our work is recognised. We were surprised to see that The Guardian Post newspaper choose us amongst many to receive this trophy. We think that this serves as an encouragement for us the staff to know that this is the starting point. We need to work harder because there is so much ahead of us. The community expects so much from us and we have to work hard to meet up with their expectations. I will want to tell the young people that it is good to be committed, it is good to be dedicated, it is good strive to give results and be effective because when you work like that result will be seen when you least expect. We are so grateful and we say that this one is like fire on us to burn and to spark.” 

 

CAMGEW team and journalists

As to the achievements that gave him reason to receive the award with so much satisfaction CAMGEW Director said “We have done some good work on the field. As of now we have planned about 75000 trees in the forest, we have trained more than 1300 bee farmers organising them into five cooperatives. And also we have been able to work with women on micro finance. You can imagine that we give about 3- 3.5M FRS to women we train to do business and this has had a very big impact on the ground. This all is just to project the forest women are part of the forest community and they need alternative sources of livelihood to improve their lives. We have the honey shop in Bamenda, where we are converting bee farmers honey to money and all of this is something we think as a team. I cannot claim this award alone.” 

Created in October 2007, Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW)  is also winner of the 2018 Cameroon Energy Globe Award. The award that distinguishes projects regionally, nationally and globally that conserves resources such as energy or utilizes renewable or emission-free sources, recognized CAMGEW recently for outstanding conception and implementation of a project named “Kilum-Ijim forest conservation and green value chain development for Oku White Honey.” 

With the slogan “act locally and think globally, CAMGEW hopes to continue integrating gender in solving environmental problems in Cameroon.