The women of SAILD commemorated the 40th International Women’s Rights Day on March 06, 2025 at the NGO’s headquarters in the Elig-Essono district of Yaoundé.
Every year on March 08, women all over the world commemorate the respect of their rights in society. The theme of this year’s 40th International Women’s Day (IWD) was “For all women and girls, rights, equality and empowerment”. The Support Service for Local Development Initiatives (SAILD) took the opportunity to bring its staff together.
The meeting, which included a quiz game, enabled both male and female stakeholders to understand the various issues behind the day, and to take stock of the situation of women within the organization, from the NGO’s history to its current organizational chart. “Women have always been well represented at SAILD. We’ve had many women at the head of regional branches. And today we have a woman head of the SAILD Bertoua branch. Here at the general secretariat, women are represented at various levels. We have three women out of five program directors, including the Editorial Director for the newspaper The Farmers’ Voice, the Director of the Documentation Center for Rural Development and the Director of the Natural Resources Management Program”, says Hozier Nana, SAILD General Secretary.
The quiz revealed that SAILD‘s staff is gendered, with around 40% women present in various departments and at all levels of the organization. Furthermore, with a view to improving the working conditions of women in the organization, a debate was opened around the question “What do women lack at SAILD?”. Two answers emerged from this question: namely, that to date, there has been no female driver, and no female General Secretary of SAILD.
At the end of the day, the women of SAILD each received a March 08 outfit presented by the General Secretary. As tradition would have it, the commemoration of the 40th edition of International Women’s Rights Day at SAILD ended with a special meal.
- Sharon Maché
