Veraya Impact, When Women Take Public Speaking To Another Stage

June 28, 2018

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DOUALA, Cameroon-Thursday June 28, 2018-12:30 PM Local Time (Cameroon News Agency) A new Non profit, Non Governmental Organization, Veraya Impact, geared at improving public speaking and performance of Women has seen the light of day in Douala.

The organization, which will be officially launched in Douala this Saturday June 30, 2018 in Douala is the first of its kind in Cameroon, it has come to empower women through public speaking with its powerful slogan, “Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.”

Ahead of the official launch, CNA spoke the Founder of Veraya Impact, Barrister Sandra Sangbong, memeber of Cameroon and Nigeria Bar Associations, who spoke on a wide range of issues concerning her organization, its creation, goals and origin of the name. Read on!

CNA: Good day, we are glad you accepted to have this short interview with you on the creation of your organization, Veraya Impact.

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: The pleasure is mine; I should be thanking CNA for passing by my office.

CNA: Now tell us what Veraya Impact is all about?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: Veraya Impact is an organization that brings women together, giving them the opportunities to practice and build their public speaking skills, that way; they express their ideas and passions to the world.

CNA: Did you get inspired somewhere, somehow before calling it Veraya Impact, why choice of name? It could be Women Impact for instance.

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: the name Veraya Impact is actually a combination of my late grand mother’s name, Veronica Ayah. She was a very hardworking woman, bold, confident, charismatic and influenced many women in her time.

CNA: Alright is that why you decided to…

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: To use her name, because it is all about empowering women and she was an embodiment of that. Though she focused on agriculture, she didn’t have any form of formal education but she learnt a lot and she taught people a lot.

CNA: From your explanation on the origin of the organization, one will have the impression that it is just one out of many others fighting for Gender Equality. Is that the case with Veraya Impact?

**Barrister Sandra Sangbong, Founder Veraya Impact**

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: When you talk of empowering women, there is no way you can separate from Gender inequality , because it is all about making a woman’s voice heard, because women have always been in the background.

It is also about their rights and making the world know that women also have a lot to contribute, they make great leaders and have brilliant ideas. But some of these ideas die because they are not given that chance to make a difference.Some women are not even courageous enough to take challenge, so there is no way you can separate them.

CNA: But we have several organizations which can do that, what will Veraya Impact bring as something remarkable and unique from what we have been hearing?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: Training women on public speaking but then for us, it is all about bringing the inner talent in a woman. You know public speaking is a very important tool to build confidence that is what realized. So if a woman has that confidence to put her ideas out there , it empowers her, so that is the difference, we know woman have so many ideas, they have passions, so we want help them bring that out, that is why we are using public speaking to project such talents.

CNA: Which areas will you carry out your activities in Cameroon, are you going to focus only on women in Douala?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: For now we are starting our activities in Douala and gradually we are working on Buea and Limbe, with time we will go to Yaoundé and Bamenda of course, so we intend to have branches everywhere in Cameroon.

CNA: Your target audience is women, what is the age group?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: We are working on women professionals. When we talk of women professionals, you could be a business woman, an entrepreneur, it doesn’t mean you must have a white collar job, if you are already working, you can be part of us. Our goal is to bring out potentials in every woman, so we want to start with women professionals. We will also find time to visit universities reach out to female students, we will even start from Secondary schools. This is to change the mindset of women that is why it is necessary to start with the younger generation.

CNA: are you in anyway eying the training of women to be engaged more into Politics, there are few women in Cameroon who can stand amongst men and talk politics, are you working in that light?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: Exactly! Exactly! When we talk of empowering women through public speaking, politics is a key part of it because it is something that needs a lot public speaking. We do not focus only on business, if you are interested in politics, you can meet us, whatever you are interested in, be it human rights, politics, agriculture, whatever it is you are interested in; we will help you so that you chose what you can do.

CNA: How can one become a member today?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: Registration process is a onetime fee of FCFA 10,000 then you pay FCFA 5000 every year for the running of the organization. We have experts in different fields who are on standby to begin the empowering process. From time to time we will be giving tips but you should not expect that you will sit in a classroom manner to learn something on public speaking. It is an informal setup where you discuss with the expert in the field.

CNA: Any special appeal?

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: I will encourage so many women to engage in public speaking, it helps a lot in every area of your life; socio-political , business amongst others.

CNA: Thanks for your time

Barrister Sandra Sangbong: It was my pleasure. Thank you!