She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: « Il faut toujours avoir du coeur pour les autres / one must always have a heart for others ».
… Ces femmes concourent ensemble. Si ce prix leur est accordé, il leur serait attribué solidairement. Parmi ces 1000 femmes, on retrouve 137 Africaines issues de 34 pays. Sur cette liste on retrouve trois Camerounaises. Ce sont, Marie-Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, Téclaire Ntomp et Hedwig Vinyou … (full text).
Sorry, I can not find any photo of Marie Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, Cameroon (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).
She works for the Organisation for Health, Food Security and Development OFSAD.
(Named as; ‘INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY – FOOD FIRST, Anuradha MITTAL, Policy Director, Oakland, California, U.S.A.’, page 13/30, not dated; on: OBSERVERS FROM NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS / OBSERVATEURS DES ORGANISATIONS NON GOUVERNEMENTALES / OBSERVADORES DE LAS ORGANIZACIONES NO-GUBERNAMENTALES’, on a page of FAO.org.
And also named on: World Food Summit, 13-17 November 1996, Rome, Italy, also on a page of FAO.org).
Marie Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, a Cameroonian, founded a NGO in 1992 that focuses on reproductive health, food and nutrition, human rights and equity. The Center listens and counsels the youth and teenagers.
It also has a clinic for adults to seek reproductive health advice.
Marie Béatrice reaches the community through educators. Realizing the misery of the populations around her, Marie Béatrice Kenfack (Tolevi), decided to start the Organisation des Femmes pour la Santé, la Sécurité alimentaire et le Dévelopement (Ofsad), i.e. the Organisation for Health, Food Security and Development in Cameroon.
Mrs. Kenfack who is 54 years old is from Dshang in Cameroon. She is married in a polygamous household, without children of her own.
However she sustains the family of 10 children with her meager revenues from her work and numerous other activities that she undertakes, in addition to the demands of her NGO. She has worked as a midwife for 29 years.
The United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa) trained her on gender and development and management process, projects and program coordination and youth reproductive health and clinical family planning. Marie founded Ofsad in 1992, which focuses on reproductive health, food and nutrition, human rights and equity of her fellow Cameroonian citizens.
She later created a center where the youth and teenagers are listened to and counseled. It is also a clinic addressing adult reproductive health problems. She reaches the community through educators.
Her work aims at bringing people to adopt responsible behavior that will in turn reduce loss of lives and has now acquired national dimensions. She has a website that reports her achievements in diverse institutions in the country, since she started working in that field.
This is an asset for better communication in the promotion and advocacy of her activities to all her stakeholders with access to Internet locally and abroad.
Unfortunately, the economic crisis that inspired the need for awareness and the demand for her services in reproductive health is also the very hindrance to the means of her action. This is also compounded other socio-cultural considerations, such as taboos generated from customs, ignorance and illiteracy. In addition, she faces financial and technical difficulties, such as having to invest herself on full-time basis in the activities of the NGO, for lack of volunteers to assist her.
Marie Beatrice?s multiple activities are often a source of misunderstanding among certain family members, despite the counsel she provides to other families. She is convinced that helping others is her destiny, given the persistent poverty. She derives joy and encouragement in providing services to improve people’s lives. She is disadvantaged by not being part of a formal network. However, she still collaborates with any person or organization sharing her vision of helping others.
Several women have followed her example and are launching other human development activities such as schools, agricultural enterprises and providing land for cultivation.Marie declares, ??I have hope despite wars, groups or individual egoism and catastrophes. In any individual exists a fiber of humanity that never dies; that survives wars, egoism and catastrophes. Peace is apparently threatened everywhere with many people who do not have access to healthy nutrition and freedom of expression, as well as human rights. The hope is in expecting a change in all these defaults?, she adds. (1000PeaceWomen).
Sorry, I cannot find more text about Marie Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, Cameroon in the internet, in any language.