How Your Support Helps Redefine Gender Roles

Helping Women in Cameroon to Pursue Their Passions

Traditional gender norms in Cameroon expect women to marry early and focus on domestic responsibilities. Habiba is a Fulani, veiled Muslim woman in her thirties working to break free of social expectations.

From early on, Habiba had a passion for information technology, particularly for programming, analysis and software engineering, designing applications when she was as young as 21 years old.

She joined Cuso International’s TechWomen Factory program to further her career in coding and data science. TechWomen Factory, in partnership with the Cameroon Youth School Tech Incubator (CAYSTI), supports women 18 to 35 years old by adding a high level of digital competency to their existing credentials.

Not only was she top of her class in her national exams, Habiba landed a prestigious internship and is the first woman on a local board of directors. Today, she’s working as a Junior Technical Advisor for Universal Health Coverage and is invited to attend events as a panelist, sharing her experience as a specialist in data management and analysis.

Looking ahead, Habiba hopes to one day secure a role where she can make strategic decisions for the most marginalized in her community, especially for women who dream of following in her footsteps.