CAMYOSFOP’s NAYONEB Agenda

National Youth Network on Boys-to-Boys Strategy on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (NAYONEB)

The National Youth Network of Boys-to-Boys on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls in Cameroon (NAYONEB) created in November 2014 by the Cameroon Youths and Students Forum for Peace (CAMYOSFOP) with the support of UN Women Country Office in Cameroon is an innovative way and best practice on End Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWGs) in Cameroon and Central Africa as a whole.

NAYONEB is made up of 50 likeminded young men from the 10 regions of Cameroon drawn from the Cameroon National Youth Council (CNYC) and youth associations. The innovation this strategy brings is that it is engaging men who most often are the perpetrators of violence against women and Girls on EVAWGs. In most other strategies only the victims that are women are considered and as such limits the fight against violence on women.

The Boys-to-Boys Strategy is a replication of the Men-to-Men Strategy which has been a success and best practice on EVAW in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda piloted by FEMNET.

Members of the NAYONEB in Family Picture

NAYONEB IN ACTION ON EVAWGs IN CAMEROON

  • All the members of NAYOBEB are committed through an oath starting with themselves and then fearlessly engaging communities and the government on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls ;
  • The HeForShe Gender Equality Campaign has been a flagship program of NAYONEB that has been engaging men of all works of life to sign on the HeForShe website. NAYONEB initial target was registering 50.000 signatures of Cameroonian males. So far, NAYONEB has already surpass that number and are above 70.000 signatures from Cameroonian on the site;
  • Educating young boys on the notion of gender equality and against all sort of discrimination against their peers girls;
  • NAYONEB is presently engaging community leaders against early marriage, education of the girl child and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in North and North West of Cameroon;
  • In the North West of Cameroon, NAYONEB is also engaging traditional Rulers and communities against rape, sexual assault, child trafficking, domestic violence, early marriages and Female Genital Mutilation;
  • In Yaounde NAYONEB through CAMYOSFOP has already engaged 20 secondary schools on enhancing gender equality. In Dec 2014 CAMYOSFOP in partnership with the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF) organized a Human Rights Excellence Award Essay Competition with 20 Secondary Schools on the topic: In your opinion, what is violence against the girl child and how can it be prevented?
  • Since the creation of the network there has been ongoing awareness rising through the social media especially through CAMYOSFOP website, twitter and Facebook pages.
  • As part of the 16 Days of Activism on Ending Violence Against Women on December 3, NAYONEB and CAMYOSFOP in partnership with UN Women organized a motorized caravan with bike riders in the city of Buea. The caravan saw the participation of over 100 bike riders dressed in orange tee shirts to orange the streets of Buea. Radio talk shows on the roles of bike riders in curbing violence on women and girls were also organized in the studios of the University of Buea Chariot FM.

 

For details on the NAYONEB, log on resources and click on:

Report on the National Boys-to-Boys Network on EVAWGs

Report on the feedback workshop on the Boys-to-Boys Network on EVAWGs