U.S. Embassy welcomes civil society members

On September 9, the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde welcomed 33 Cameroonian civil society representatives for a networking assembly. The gathering was organized by the NGOs themselves, to exchange ideas and to strengthen their own efforts to promote human rights, education, health, civic participation, and the empowerment of youth, women and girls.

In his welcome remarks, Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory D. Thome underscored the United States’ commitment to partner with civil society in their efforts to strengthen communities. “This Embassy, like the wider U.S. government, considers our engagement with civil society to be just as important as our engagement with governments,” Thome said. “In the United States and abroad, we count on civil society organizations like yourselves to partner with governments.

Your role is to fill gaps that government cannot fill, to aid government to identify what needs to be achieved, and to help citizens identify resources -- either from government or from non-governmental organizations -- that they need.”