For over 8 years today and counting, the North West Region and South West Regions in Cameroon have been experiencing increasing attacks on education with students and educational structures being the target of mounting destruction. The socio- political stalemate has further tighten the stereotypes that existed on educating the girl child in the region and this has been to the detriment of females who are passionate about their goals. It becomes increasingly difficult to send to school, female children, given the insecurities looming every town and village in the region. Not just that, the region has also been plagued with surmounting economic hardships. Parents can hardly sustain the fee requirements for children. In times like this, it becomes so easy to subjugate the girl child to house care and farm duties while the boys, go to school. CAEPA has taken note of all this and now has dived into an initiative that changes the stethoscope in this part of the country. While introducing the project "Scaling Up The Girls Pride Programme" CAEPE is poised to foster the education of the girl child by making available learning materials for over 1000 adolescent girls to boost enrollment and retention rates in schools across the North West Region. Furthermore the new project aims to empower girls ages 10-19 though education and support their long term academic successes.

Taking a glimpse at the boarder picture, the Girls Pride Programme shall empower 5000 girls in and out of school by providing them with essential life skills to build resilience while ensuring stability. The program shall equally offer hope for a brighter future in the region. This initiative shall guide the girls ages 10-19 through self-discovery, self-confidence and has been tailored towards reducing the literacy gap that exists in this part of the world. As a means of introducing the project proper, CAEPA launched a huge activity dubbed BACK TO SCHOOL in Mezam Division, as students in secondary/high school and pupils in primary school brace up to go back to the class rooms for the 2024/2025 academic year. CAEPA has successfully handed over durable brand new school bags, pens, pencils erasers and exercise books to girls in Bamenda 1, 2 and 3 in mezam division of the North West. With a focus on the target age group, CAEPA has been on the field distributing these materials in various locations few days to the commencement of the academic school year in the region. Moving from mile 2 Nkwen, to Mile 5, Nacho, extending to Nkineu, and finally settling at Below Foncha these adolescent girls all received their materials to set them up for the school year.

At every distribution center, CAEPA ensured to dish out key note addresses on non-violent acts to ensure a better learning environment as well as, educate the crowd on identifying gender based violence and were encouraged not to be perpetrators of such acts that sadly are gaining steam in today's society. The Project Manager Fenwi Linda states that, this whole initiative is to give the girls a better life in a community that is heavily flooded by internally displaced persons who cannot adequately feed themselves talk more of going to school. "we are in a conflict zone where the education of the girl child in particular has been affected. Girl children drop out of school and some have gotten pregnant. This initiative is to encourage these girls with learning materials to enhance their education, build their future, increase their probability of having brighter opportunities and become solutions to global problems." Responding to why Mezam, she said "majority of our beneficiaries are IDP's. Many of them are persons who have settled in Mezam and do not have the means to acquire basic materials and as such are out of school. Education is a life skill and this is what we are out to offer them". She said. In the spur of the moment, the beneficiaries beaming with smiles recounted their dreams and aspirations in life.

As an organization deeply committed to inclusion, we had Muslims and Mbororo girls who formed a section of the beneficiaries. They, just like other girls had strong dreams to equally talk about.

We equally got hold of some parents who preferred standing in for their female children given the insecurities in the town. One of the fathers had this to say "In the past, we hardly saw the importance of girl education but today with the changing times, we can attest to the importance of sending girls to school because they can equally do what boys can do. I am so glad with this initiative being spearheaded by CAEPA. It shall go a long way to help us parents as it enhances the education of our girl children".

To say that this project is timely, will not be an overstatement given the gratitude we got from these children and the parents who marked present for the exercise in all the distribution centers. The project comes in at a time when the population has just been made to see the light of day, after an imposed ghost town that lasted for a period of two weeks rendering it impossible for parents to prepare their children for school this year.

At the time of this distribution, most parents had not purchased as much as a single exercise book for their children. The realities on ground about the insecurities in the town is no longer news to the population reason why CAEPA had to make use of religious structures in the distribution of these materials to ensure the security of beneficiaries and team members. This distribution that was felt in all of Bamenda can be described as the tip of the ice burg for adolescent girls in Mezam Division of the NWR. The program has as target group, girls between ages 10-19 who are in and out of school. This program funded by IGNITE shall run right into 2025 and has in store a menstrual hygiene component for the protection and benefit of the girl child, as well as an ICT component.