The Sun woman of the month

We do not need ‘godfathers’ and earthly connections to succeed in life-Delphine Konda

The Sun has been driven by her enthusiasm, broad mindedness and achievements, and is proud to present her as its first woman of the month. A dynamic goal-oriented woman with a huge passion capital and commitment to serve, Konda Delphine is currently making her mark within and across Cameroon’s borders, as a young female leader, committed, ready to serve and to advocate for development-oriented initiatives for women and the community at large.

Born and raised in Limbe, Delphine’s academic achievements have been quite rapid, and have given her the weight she carries with her as a classical lady, though only being a product of the late eighties.

After obtaining her Ordinary and Advanced Levels from Government High School (GHS)Limbe, Delphine proceeded to the University of Buea where she obtained a double major Bachelor’s degree in Women and Gender Studies with Law in December 2011 and then graduated Magna cum laude with a Master of Arts degree in Governance and Development Policy from Centre Européen de Recherché International et Strategiquesof Université Paris Sud 11in Belgium in May 2014.

This young, passionate and dynamic woman,has been engaged in community work for the past ten years (Since May 8, 2004) and her achievements is a real inspiration for many young Cameroonian women, with the latest of them being the Moremi Leadership Empowerment and Development (MILEAD) Fellows Program, during which she received the prestigious Moremi award as one of Africa’s most outstanding emerging young female leaders of 2014 in Accra, Ghana in August 2014.

Being a Gender and Development worker, Delphine has been involved in various Organizations and even co-founded Voice of Women Initiative(VOW), an organizationprofiling the challenges, successes and perspectives of women in Africa and the world.

Currently, she is a Regional Ambassador for Girls Rising and a board member of the Network of International Youth Organizations in Africa. She also represents the International Falcon Movement-Socialist Educational International (IFM-SEI) as a member of the Africa-Europe Youth Platform which mainstreams youth perspective in the Africa-Europe cooperation process.

In 2012, Delphine represented her national organization OGCEYOD, worked at the IFM-SEI secretariat in Brussels on a global youth poverty project. As part of the ‘Volunteering against Poverty’ team, she mapped out the burden of poverty in different countries such as Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Senegal etc. and produced a documentary portrait highlighting the plight of young immigrants in Europe.

Her proactive and constructive approach to youth issues attracted the recognition of the North-Centre of the Council of Europe who invited her as one of the trainers of the Global Education youth training course held in the framework of the 13th University on Youth and Development in Mollina, Spain in 2012.

Recently, she was invited as a facilitator for the 3rd Africa-Europe Youth Leaders’ Summit which took place in Brussels in April 2014 within the framework of the 4th Africa-Europe head of States summit. She also served as the international gender equality rapporteur during the 2014 World Conference on Youth in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Talking on her most recent achievement as one of Africa’s most outstanding young women leaders, Delphine says it is one of those rare moments when one experiences so many different emotions- both excitement and the weight of responsibility. She says the recognition has taken her activism to another dimension and her consciousness has been awakened to a host of other things.

Being Africa’s most outstanding young women leader of 2014 clearly defines one’s role as an African woman and reinforces the commitment to the service of both country and continent, she emphasized to The Sun.

Just after two-years of knowing about the Moremi Award, Delphine’s broad-mindedness and zeal in Pan-African issues has earned her this award, and it is not an overstatement to say that she is part of the new generation of African women leaders who will certainly produce the bold, visionary and inspirational leadership needed to lift Africa to its rightful place on the global stage.

When asked how valuable the award has been to her and how much inspiration has it given her in her service as a young leader, The Sun Woman says the Moremi award has raised a platform for her to advance her work and support more youths, women and children and has amplified her voice and given her access to networks and structures that would normally be unreachable.

Also, she explains that it is valuable to the millions of young people who draw inspiration from her work, and the award is a proof that “God can transform us from grass to grace-a clear message that we do not need ‘godfathers’ and earthly connections to succeed in life”.

As a product of the department of Women and Gender Studies of the University of Buea, Delphine says the award is proof that the department is producing the next generation of exceptional and outstanding female leaders, as it has already produced two Moremi fellows.

Her inspiration, she says is her mother, who taught her to be her own woman, make her own decisions and be responsible for them good or bad.

Delphine has also been inspired by other women in Cameroon like Mrs. Justine Ayuk Fonjock and Dr. Mrs. Helen Fontebo Linonge and at the international level, her inspiration comes from women like Tamsin Pearce, Christine Sudbrock of IFM-SEI and Andreia Henriches who in her opinion, are whole women who graciously maintain a balance between their homes and career.

The Sun Woman says for young Cameroon women to succeed, they must be confident and know who they are, because if they don’t, there are millions of people out there who are ready to tell them who they think they are, which may not really be the truth.

She says community work is all about passion and being a servant to the people. “I know that being a young Cameroonian is very challenging but remember that even though we do not control the circumstances that happen to us, we can choose to control how they define us. That is why we need to trust God in all that we do”.

Delphine who enjoys watching movies, travelling and blogging says she intends to enroll in a PhD program in the next 6 years, raise a family and build a successful career in Gender and development policy. She will also like to upgrade her spiritual life and help more people to know Christ.

This resourceful lady who is an only child, loves honest and people with integrity and her dynamism and uniqueness certainly has roots from both the Far North and Southwest regions of Cameroon, where her dad and mom hail respectively.