Tobacco use: the Cameroon Coalition to Counter Tobacco(C3T) raise awareness amongst youths of Yaounde III

Within the framework of the sensitization and prevention activities around tobacco use, the Cameroon Coalition to Counter Tobacco, went to meet the youths of Yaounde III.

Meeting with International Association of Students

 in Economics and Management (AIESEC)

Thus, the 25th August 2015, the association striving towards the building of a Cameroon free from diseases and deaths related to tobacco, with the support of the Ministry of Public health, a peer education workshop with associations of Yaounde III. Objective, educating them to be backup as peer educators whom on their part will sensitize others on tobacco use dangers.

Led by the young and dynamic team of C3T peer educators, the discussions were based on the following topics: tobacco and its constituents, its fabrication, tobacco and health, tobacco and sporting activities, how to stop smoking, and the right to turn down the first cigarette.

The popularization of GATS - Cameroon: the Cameroon Coalition to Counter Tobacco on all fronts

With the aim of popularizing the results of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), the Cameroon Coalition to Counter Tobacco is implementing an intensive communication campaign.

GATS, this word spilled much ink and saliva in Cameroon. Indeed, this is the center of discussion within media programs, educative and professional encounters...

Fruits of the informative campaign implemented by the C3T, this multiple subject on the GATS have as objective to inform policy makers and the population on the current situation of the tobacco epidemic in Cameroon, so that adequate measures are taken to ensure quality tobacco control in Cameroon

Direct Communication

Also with the aim of ameliorating the perceptions and comprehension of this survey, a multisectoral meeting on this results was presided by the Ministry of public health. Information workshops on the GATS results were organized to attract the interest of civil society organizations and journalists. Press coffee workshops organized by the C3T, gave an advantage to the press towards the better use of the results related to tobacco use in Cameroon. Communications on GATS Cameroon were equally published in the press and social media.

Mass communication

These actions led to the regular treatment of the GATS topic in media. Also, within the period from June to September 2015, about ten corresponding’s were made on this subject.Cameroon-tribune (le quotidian pro-governmental) they even dedicated one of their editorials. Talk-shows were equally made on this subject.

Alarm over Cameroon child smokers

YUH TIMCHIA

Forty-four per cent of pupils in Cameroonian schools have already had their first contact with tobacco and the gory statistic could get worse, an anti-tobacco organization has warned.

The Cameroon Coalition against Tobacco further states that 15 per cent of the people below the age of 15 were among 17.5 per cent of the country’s smoking population.

The organization is pushing for anti-tobacco laws to be urgently implemented in the country.

Cameroon became a signatory to the World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in May 2006.

Parties to the treaty, which obliges signatories to cut back on tobacco consumption and exposure to secondary smoke, adopted the

Education: tobacco prevention in the manual of secondary schools.

The entrance of tobacco prevention in the curriculum of secondary schools will enable a better awareness of the youth about the dangers of tobacco.

Despite attitudes changes towards the dangers of tobacco, smoking is increasing. To remedy this situation, Hilaire Abouna, les Classiques Africains, alongside the Cameroon Coalition to Counter Tobacco (C3T), for the first time ever in the Cameroonian educational system, integrated in the module "Health Education" of the Sciences and Technology manual for the level two of the secondary education, a chapter entitled "Emerging behaviors harmful to the reproductive health."

The said chapter describes behaviors that can interfere with reproduction by putting a special emphasis on the dangers of smoking. Indeed, of the four pages covering this chapter, half are devoted to issues pertaining to tobacco.