Yaoundé - The awareness-raising campaign “Mollah briss au Cameroun c’est possible !” (It is possible to make it in Cameroon) was launched on 1 March 2022 in the IOM conference room during a training session for partners on the awareness-raising objectives. Since the beginning of the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in Cameroon in June 2017, IOM has been implementing an awareness-raising campaign which aims to enable migrants and potential migrants to make informed decisions about their migration projects and raise awareness among communities about migration. This awareness-raising campaign, which is part of the Joint Initiative Special Measure Project (SMP), will focus on two main themes: informing the audience on psychosocial consequences of irregular migration on returnees and their communities in a bid to raise awareness of the long-term impact of this initiative; and promoting self-employment and local development through green economy.

This year, the campaign’s activities will focus on educational talks, in addition to support for school clubs and associations, which will sustain awareness-raising activities in schools; community talks with association, community, religious and administrative leaders; talks within sports clubs; organization of radio programmes; management of a WhatsApp group to enable the target audience to stay in touch with the awareness-raising agents; distribution of short SMS for an offline target audience; design of an awareness-raising cartoon strip; and management of an enhanced digital campaign. Three partners, including civil society associations, were selected to implement the awareness-raising activities, including the “Association des Rapatriés et de Lutte Contre l’Emigration Clandestine du Cameroun” (ARECC) and “Organisation pour l’Eveil des Jeunes sur la Migration Irrégulière et la Traite des Personnes” (OEMIT), which are both associations set up by returnees who experienced distressful migration journeys; and Community Humanitarian Emergency Board (COHEB Int'l), which is a youth organization which aims at providing assistance to crisis-affected populations.

In addition to the slogan coined with the awareness-raising partners and tested on a target sample, three awareness-raising messages that will be disseminated through the visibility tools were agreed on: “Rester, c’est aussi un choix de réussite !” (Staying is also a choice for success!); “Pour ma sécurité, je fais des choix informés !” (For my safety, I make informed choices!); “Ma terre promise c’est chez moi !” (Home is my promised land!). These messages reflect the engagement of the Initiative’s stakeholders to help youths not only make informed decisions about their migration projects, but also to raise awareness about local opportunities for success. Ultimately, 10,000 people should be reached by the awareness-raising messages in the Centre, Littoral and West regions.

Since 2017, when the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in Cameroon started, about 50,000 people have been reached by awareness-raising messages about the risks and dangers of irregular migration. According to impact evaluation surveys conducted, 70% of key informants alleged that perceptions of migration among young people had changed after an awareness-raising activity.

For more information, please contact Pascale Essama pessama@iom.int, and Gisèle Massina gmassina@iom.int at IOM in Yaoundé, Tel.: +237 657 103 074.