#defyhatenow Did it in Douala for 5 Days

 #defyhatenow Did it in Douala for 5 Days

It was a week's stay in Cameroon's economic capital, Douala for the holding of varied workshops at varied venues with varied participants drawn from varied walks of life and regions of the country. It was one of the biggest commitments the hate speech mitigation organisation ever had.  

Ngala Desmond, Country Director of #defyhatenow for West and Central Africa spoke to the press at the close of the various workshops. He recapitulated  the activities carried out to Mbengwi Online. On Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 February a Design Sprint on Peace Builders Maker Spaces workshop was held, an initiative to bring people together to think and contribute ideas for a community led development program so as to have a real impact in transforming communities away from violence toward positive peace as these spaces offer educational opportunities, trainings, resources, events and community engagement in local activities. 

Kendi Gikunda from Kenya Presenting the Social Media Field Guide

Baiye Ebai Frida, a participant at the said workshop said "It was a defining moment for administrative authorities, hub managers, community based organizations, peace advocates and journalists to brainstorm on ideas and sharpen skills in promoting community voices towards peace building initiatives in ending the ongoing armed conflict in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon."

Away from that, as Desmond narrated, on Wednesday 17 February, the organisation held a stakeholders meeting with pastors, members of the civil society, journalists and human rights activists with the main goal of having their own views on what #defyhatenow is doing, especially as within the next eight months, the organisation should be ending its mandate as programmed with its various funders.

On Thursday and Friday, he continued, " Media for Peace and Africa Fact Checking Fellowship both took place simultaneously at different venues. 

Ngala Desmond, Country Director, #defyhatenow West & Central Africa

Hear him, "At the end of these two days, I'm certain of one thing, that the media can efficiently and effectively contribute to peace in Cameroon. As far as AFF is concerned, we've not only been looking at fact checking information but also how best information can be corrected on Wikipedia, an online open source of data contaminated  with fake news and misinformation which many take for gospel truth"

Then he added that from Douala, #defyhatenow shall in the days ahead be moving to Bamenda for an engagement with the civil society as well as community based organizations and later to Maroua for an engagement with IDPs to mitigate their sufferings from a #defyhatenow standpoint. 

In terms of evaluating the performance of the various media persons that have so far  been trained by the organisation within the past months, Desmond affirmed their expectations have been met because there's  been a change in the way they (media persons) now report the news especially in their choices of words as many now go more for the facts and don't stand on one position again.

Participants

However, he regretted that since old habits die har, there are still a few that have remained very reticent to change. "We are still seeing people we taught them one thing today and the very next day they're doing the opposite. This gives us the impression that there's much work still to be done. We still need to engage journalists in different capacities as the days go by. Until the right thing is done, we're not going to relent our efforts" This declaration he made before later giving his expectations from the trained journalists thus, "If there's anything more still to be expected from those who just ended this last training, it'll be that they don't go back and sleep thinking they were given the gospel truth during the various workshop lessons"

Lastly, he challenged them to challenge the organisation. "We are challenging them to move out of their comfort zones and go look for better information out there. Let peace reign in Cameroon at least from a journalistic perspective" he ended. 

During the various trainings, the Social Media Hate Speech Mitigation Field Guide was presented to participants by Kendi Gikunda of Kenyan nationality, a Training Manager at #defyhatenow. It is a pack containing Facilitators Notes, Discussion Cards, Posters, Snakes and Ladder Peace Game, USB Key, Sticky Notes and the Field Guide which itself is the main book. 

Eugene Nforngwa, Trainer

Speaking at the close of the various workshops, Eugene Nforngwa of the African Knowledge and Policy Centre, the main facilitator said "The goal has been to have a crop of journalists  in Cameroon who know that their work has an impact in society especially on conflicts. As we come to the end, we're confident that we now have a good number of journalists that can continue to contaminate their colleagues so that we have a large body of journalists who are conscious of the impact of their work in society." 

He went on to salute the professionalism og the participants. "When I hear the kinds of contributions, ideas that came from the journalists, the kinds of questions they asked, I am very confident that we have not wasted any time and now what we are watching is to see is how their reports will change" he ended.