Our Socio Economic Empowerment of Women With Epilepsy (SEE-WE) project was officially launched yesterday, March 6, 2022 at the Franco Alliance Conference Hall in Bamenda, North West Region, Cameroon.

During the official launch, which had over 60 women and girls with epilepsy in attendance, the participants were educated on sexual and reproductive health issues in women with epilepsy and how to manage them.

With support from the “Socio Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SEEPD) Program, and the “Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action” project, we were able to offer these women free screening for hepatitis B and C, HIV, diabetes and hypertension, sanitary napkins (both reusable and non-refundable), anti-epileptic medications and soaps.

Over the next few months, this first cohort of women and girls will be trained on income-generating activities like tailoring, cooking, handicraft, etc. They will also be trained on women-related issues like gender-based violence, gender equity, family planning, and leadership.

With skills and knowledge, these women will be able to create/find jobs for themselves, become financially independent, and lift their families out of poverty.

According to the founder of this initiative, Dr. Mundih Noelar, the SEE-WE initiative is intended to bring care to women and girls with epilepsy and offer them sustainable livelihood opportunities in a very challenging context as that of the northwest region. She further noted that these women will in the days ahead receive training on livelihood skills to empower them socio-economically.

In a gift gesture, each of these women received a gift of sanitary kit donated by the Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action (DIHA) Project of the CBC Health Services.

The project further promised free provision of epilepsy medications to women with epilepsy who visit the Nkwen Baptist Hospital Epilepsy Clinic during the duration of the project.