This  short video shows just one of the many questions being asked on a daily basis in rural Cameroon by young girls

RuWCED brings together traditional leaders, parents, teachers, youth leaders and  girls in primary and secondary school to discuss girl child education as an option against child marriages and harmful practices on young gilrs. The female-led RuWCED team uses their achievements to challenge parents and traditional leaders to send their daughters to school. This challenge has urged parents to come up to us to solicit sponsorship/assistance for their girl children in school. 

The statement of ‘free universal primary education’ is pretty deceptive for planners who think free education means access to education. Enrolling in school, staying in school, graduating from school with knowledge that can improve the entire human living are very separate realities especially in the rural world. Going to school with an empty stomach, closing from school and meeting your mom in the farm to enable her pay your development fee of 5-15 US dollars, coming back home to sleep in darkness because of no lamp, or kerosene and not being able to do your class assignments are just a few of the many typical routine lives of rural Cameroonian kids in school. In these conditions, any man who comes to marry a kid is considered a 'liberator' by her family and the kid has no choice but to go and restart the poverty cycle.

Educating a girl child is giving her the confidence to face the future, empowering her to take decisions for herself by herself, as well as giving her a lifeline to development.