Bafoussam, Cameroon - About 500 youths participated in two months-long sporting activities to promote peace and social cohesion and learn about bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive rights. From July to August 2024, the 3rd edition of the “Na We We” Sports Jamboree provided a space for both boys and girls from the crisis-affected North West and South West Regions of Cameroon to team up with their counterparts in the host communities of the West Region and acquire skills to promote peaceful cohabitation and social cohesion.
« Regardless of where someone came from, there wasn’t any discrimination. If there was a need for us to try speaking pidgin to be understood, we would and it went on well.» Tapche Merveilles, 21years old, a female football player, shared her first experience collaborating in a bilingual team.
Over five years of violence and instability in Cameroon's English-speaking North West and South West Regions have caused loss of life, human rights violations, property damage, and the displacement of thousands. The West Region now hosts over 95,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) [OCHA, April 2024.
Thanks to funding from the UN Peacebuilding Funds, UNFPA joined the Ministry of Youth and Civic Education, as well as UN sister agencies UNESCO and UNDP, to support Local Youth Corner Cameroon to implement this innovative peacebuilding approach.
"Our objective was to improve the integration of these young persons into their new environment by establishing a conducive ground for interactions with their peers. One of the main criteria for eligibility to compete for NA WE WE was for teams to be made up of both IDPs and host community members and that was a good start for this integration process." Achaleke Christian Leke, Executive Director, Local Youth Corner Cameroon.
The sporting activities included both male and female basketball, football, handball and fan club tournaments. Besides
the competition, the Jamboree sought to instill values and skill sets to transform these athletes into agents of peace and social cohesion champions. To achieve this target, the various teams were required to bear and adopt specific names drawn from key qualities to enforce social cohesion such as Respect, Tolerance, Solidarity, Peace and Love.
In addition to the sports activities, UNFPA deployed a mobile clinic run by the youth-led NGO AfriYAN and the Ministry of Public Health to provide counseling and services in sexual and reproductive health. This included HIV screening and counseling on modern contraception and menstrual health management. This campaign was highly successful, reaching 2,000 young people with family planning services and distributing 22,500 condoms.
“Na We We” loosely translates to “Togetherness” from pidgin English. Fraternity, Togetherness, Fairplay, Eating Together and Equality are the keywords athletes used to describe the “Na We We” experience when asked on their own takeaways by UNFPA’s Deputy Representative, Noemi Dalmonte, during a bonfire educative talk around addressing Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TF-GBV) and the promotion of bodily autonomy of young people.
For the past three years, the Na We We Sports Jamboree has been using sports to promote peace and social cohesion in regions of Cameroon hosting IDPs. By fostering positive relationships between IDPs and host communities, the Jamboree helps to prevent tensions and conflict, contributing to an early warning approach for crisis mitigation. UNFPA has been supporting the initiative, creating a link between social cohesion, sport values, and sexual and reproductive rights to empower youths to achieve their full potential.
