Rising activist for emancipation of Mbororo girls and women, Bouba Aeisatu, has won the 18th edition of The Guardian Post Achievement Award.
The die-hard crusader received her awards and a trophy for the category of Indigenous People’s Emancipation Champion.
It was during the award ceremony last Friday in Yaounde, chaired by the Canadian High Commissioner to Cameroon, Richard Bale, in the presence of the Nigerian Consult General for the North West & South West regions, Ibrahim Bashir, members of parliament amongst other high personalities.
According to the head of the jury and publisher, Richard Nde, the laureates for this years edition of the annual award were voted by readers of the lone English daily in Cameroon, before the committee sat in the declare the winner.
Bouba was said to have received the awards for “her dedicated service in pushing for the emancipation of Mbororo girls and women and for putting up a rigorous fight against early marriages within the Mbororo community”.
In an interview she granted to us, she stated that “I’m so grateful to The Guardian Post and the selection committee that deem the impacts created by my organisation worth honouring”.
She then vowed to work harder and to try to improve on her indigenous Mbororo communities.
“We have been working in seven regions of the country with great impact in the domain of fighting Gender-base violence by raising community awareness to sensitize the community on issues related to GBV, women and girls empowerment amongst others” the social workers at the ministry of social affairs stipulated.
“We have also been working so hard to educate the community leaders, religious and traditional leaders on the dangers of early and forced marriages. So far we have rescued some 1,200 girls from early and forced marriages and enrolled them into different school. We are so far we have many of these girls who are already University graduates and in other professions or schools” Bouba further said.
Meanwhile, Bouba’s selfless services towards the emancipation of grass root women and girls has earned her multiple awards from national and international bodies.
She is a former laureate of the With And For Girls Award in 2017, by the London-based With And For Girls Collective. Last year, she was recognised by the George HW Bush’s Points of Light Award Inspiration Honour Roll for demonstration of extraordinary traits.
She was also amongst the 462 influential women across the world enlisted by the Women World Summit Foundation based in Geneva Switzerland, for outstanding impact in their different communities.
She also won the Women Creativity in Rural Life Award 2020.
During the 10th Anniversary of UK-based humanitarian organisation, Start Network, CAIWOF Executive Director was named a Change Maker under the category Impactful Leader.
She was also a laureate of the 2019 Peevee Award offered by an organization named FOMBILLION.
Bouba Aeisatu, the woman
She hails from the Mbororo community in Alatening, Santa Subdivision, Mezam division of North West region. Despite the cultural limitation she faced as a young girl, she successfully carved out a niche for herself and be recognised at national and international platforms.
According to her, during her primary school days, “…some family members met my father that he must send me out to marriage”. Refusing to give into the popular request from family members, she was then “…discriminated upon in the family, relations refused to talk to me or share anything in common with me,” she narrated.
She, however, narrowly escaped to Yaounde where she furthered studied.
Based on her background she later created an NGO to fight for the emancipation of all of her young generation.
