Report training on Sobajoo Social Network

SADEA Cameroon in partnership with Sobajoo and CampusJeunes organized two phase training in Cameroon aim at empowering some selected youth leaders with information they need to promote Sobajoo.com as well as its upcoming national contest called Sobajoo Challenge Contest. The 1st phase of this training was held in Bamenda in the conference hall of Pastoral Center on January 10, 2014 with participants coming from 7 regions of Cameroon. Each participant was representing a region:

1. Ms. Banseka Pauline Fonyuy (Bertoua)

2. Mr. Mintyene Philemon Brice (Ebolowa)

3. Mr. Desmond Nji Atanga (Bamenda)

4. Mr. Paolo Pangui (Bafoussam)

5. Mr. Jude Thaddues Njikem (Buéa)

6. Ms. Mikamb Mi Touamot Gaëlle Pamela (Yaoundé)

7. Mr. Bony Mbengue Nicolas (Douala)

 
Training of Regional Representatives of the southern region of Cameroon in Bamenda

The 2nd phase took place in Garoua precisely at the lobby of Dreamland Hotel.

8. Mr. Hyeudip Tchami Romaric Inocent (Garoua)

9. Mr. Tandjong Fopa Franck Arnaud (N’gaoundere)

10. Issa Lucien (Maroua)

The training in Bamenda started at exactly 10:20am and it was facilitated by Bertheline Nina Tchangoue, the National Organizer of Sobajoo Challenge Contest. She began by presenting the workshop program and its objectives.

Participants made self-introduction and shared their expectations.

 
Illustration of participants’ expectations during the training in Bamenda

The crucial points of the workshop were the introduction to Sobajoo social network, the presentation of Sobajoo Challenge Contest. The introduction of Sobajoo social network was done by Mr. Collins Titahong, one of the workshop facilitators. He began this session by asking this question to the participants: what is social network and what are the types of social networks? Answers from the participants included: Facebook, Google, twitter and etc. He continued with a powerful power point presentation that elucidated clearly what Sobajoo project is all about putting emphasis on its objectives, its targets, its focus, its areas and most of all its importance to students and academic institutions.

 
Demonstration on how to register and work on sobajoo.com by Collins

This session showed the difference Sobajoo has over others social media platforms. All the participants were really impressed about the Sobajoo project. Ms. Nina followed with the presentation of the Sobajoo Challenge Contest, which was the core of this training. She gave necessary information about the contest such as the modalities to take part in the contest, the date of the contest.

 
Presentation on what Sobajoo project is all about by Collins

Participants were introduced to their roles and responsibilities as far as the promotion of Sobajoo Challenge Contest in their respective region is concern. The role and responsibility of a participant as a regional representative is to:

• Contact visit to the delegations of Secondary Education, Youth Affairs and communication to seek support and partnership
• Identify and select 10 participating schools per region
• Contact school administration to seek authorization to work with their students
• Select 50 students per school and register them on Sobajoo platform
• make arrangement with two cyber cafés, where students will meet and participate to the contest online.

During the workshop, we discussed about the types of prizes winners of the contest will obtain. These prizes include:

• National prizes: computer laptops
• Regional prizes: internet modems, USB Flash
• School prizes: dustbins, chalks, typing papers, pens

Many participants suggested that, it will more impactful if all the winning students receive a laptop, a notebook or and Ipad as prize.

Ms. Nina and Mr. Eric travelled to the Northern Cameroon to organize the 2nd phase of Sobajoo training. The training in Garoua has the same content with the one of Bamenda. That is, the same program was adopted equally with training materials and it was facilitated by Nina and Eric. This training was presented in French language because French language is the native language of the participants.

Questions raised by the participants:

• What types of profile exist in Sobajoo platform? Is there a particular page for students and another one for teachers or both will use the same page?

• How can Sobajoo platform help students who are out of school?

• To make this project sustainable, does Sobajoo find it necessary to create one or two multimedia centers in each region of Cameroon?

• Why is that students in America are not register on the Sobajoo.com?

• Can Sobajoo Challenge Contest be enough to promote Sobajoo.com?