Comfort Mussa has gained national and international stardom for her daring and trailblazing activities across diverse fields and programs in Cameroon and beyond.
Comfort Mussa is a renown Cameroonian multimedia personality and activist. She has been in the media industry for years, starring for both broadcast and digital platforms including French international broadcaster, Radio France International, RFI and Qataris state-owned network Al Jazeera. The Founder of SisterSpeak237 platform also has a rich experience working as an activist where she has over the years, strived in tackling challenges faced by persons living with disabilities, promoting social justice and women’s rights across Cameroon and beyond.
One of the major initiatives that Comfort Mussa has attracted plaudits for is her project championing gender and disability inclusiveness in response services during the Coronavirus pandemic. Through the project dubbed Covid-19 Out-reach, the celebrated activist and her team provided hand sanitizers, masks and crucial messaging gadgets in response to the deadly global health crisis. The activist and her team worked in ensuring that vulnerable groups in over seven of Cameroon’s 10 regions are not left out as national institutions and partners strived to tackle the Coronavirus headache at the level of Cameroon.
The initiative empowered vulnerable communities to speak up and break the silence, giving way for appropriate response from both her organization and other government and private-led initiatives. In 2020, the project and similar works earned the activist the Commonwealth Point of Light award from late British Monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The distinction had Comfort Mussa joining a star-studded list of Cameroonians who have bagged the distinction that had since its introduction some 10 years ago, specialized in recognizing volunteers from each Commonwealth nations.
She joined a list that includes Dr George Bwelle of ASCOVIME, a Yaounde-based medical volunteering organization who secured the distinction for helping disadvantaged people with free medical support and Noela Lyonga of the Noela Lyonga Foundation, a volunteer organization that mobilizes youth to become actors of change in their communities. “My hearty congratulations to Comfort Mussa on winning this year’s prestigious Commonwealth Points of Light award in Cameroon,” the United Kingdom Higher Commissioner in Cameroon at the time, Rowan James Laxton said after handing the celebrated multimedia professional the distinction.
“Her unstinting support for women’s rights, social justice and public health is making a huge difference to the lives of some of the most disadvantaged people here. Her work is a shining example of the impact that dedicated and skilled volunteers can make to brighten people’s lives,” the diplomat added.
One of many groundbreaking initiatives
Comfort Mussa has through SisterSpeak237, also been raising awareness on sexual and reproductive health rights through its program “Ask A Doctor” where women and girls are provided platforms to get crucial assistance on their sexual well-being. Last year, the group further expanded its coverage in the program, transforming the scheme from a social media-only initiative to involve radio stations across the country in a bid to reach a bigger audience. This, in a bid to resultantly lay the grounds to make a greater impact by promoting informed discussions.
Comfort Mussa and her team also run the Access to Work and Access to Fashion initiatives under SisterSpeak237. The group also organizes capacity-building programs and helps vulnerable persons to have access to lawyers in broader efforts to not only empower communities through opportunities but also equip them with legal protective tools. In 2019, SisterSpeak247 used the Access to Work scheme to invite women and girls with disabilities to apply for a training program under the initiative. The group capitalized on the platform to provide a two-week training for women and girls with disabilities.
A year later in 2019, the group organized the first ever edition of its Access to Fashion show program with “women with disabilities to promote acceptance and removal of barriers that the disabled face in the country,”. Through the Ask a lawyer program, Comfort Mussa and her team helps individuals, especially vulnerable persons, to have access to a verified attorney to protect their rights, those of their families and their properties.
The group also organizes the National Storytelling Competition in line with what it says is “In line with its mandate to tell under reported stories,”. The scheme provides participants an opportunity to win a National Storytelling Award at the end of the series, resultantly enabling SisterSpeak237 to get to the bottom of multiple hidden, heartwarming stories.
Lifechanging multimedia journalist, communication specialist
Comfort Mussa laid the foundations of her now expanded programs while working as a journalist. She has worked for some of the biggest radio stations in Cameroon including Radio Hot Cocoa in Bamenda and Donga Mantung community radio both in the North West Region. She also works for international French broadcaster, Radio France International RFI and Qataris state-owned multimedia network, Al Jazeera. At Al Jazeera, the Cameroonian journalism queen has reported on some of the biggest human-interest stories in Cameroon including the October 2020 school attack in Kumba in the South West Region.
Comfort Mussa’s excellence has also seen her working expansively for Washington-based Global Press Institute, an institution that works on training women on how to become journalists in developing markets and also publishes stories from across the globe.
Iconic journalism trainee
As an accomplished and well-respected journalist, Comfort Mussa has in line with her drive to promote development-oriented journalism, organized several training workshops for Cameroonian media professionals from different generations. With support from the Canadian High Commission in Cameroon, she recently organized a workshop through Sisterspeak237 to school Cameroonian female journalists on the need to and how to commit to fact-check stories before reporting.
Besides being a practicing journalist, Comfort Mussa also has a rich background in corporate communication, starring for the likes of international non-governmental organization, The Christian Blind Mission, CBM as a Field Communications Coordinator for West and Central Africa.
Insane career award cabinet
Comfort Mussa has bagged over dozens of awards globally for her activities as a media professional and an activist in Cameroon. In 2011, she was honored with the Excellence in Epilepsy Journalism Award for her article on the contributions of harmful myths in promoting stigma about epilepsy following her piece published on the Global Press Institute website. She also secured the CTA/NEPAD Essay Competition Prize for Central Africa, For the category “Youth and ICT in agriculture.
The she has won several other international awards on reporting in the fight against HIV including Prix CEMAC d’Excellence for Youth Animated Radio Show in the Fight against HIV in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC awarded in Bangui in the Central African Republic. The iconic journalist has secured similar distinctions in Addis Abeba in Ethiopia, Brazzaville in Congo and Yaounde in Cameroon.
