The national Child Helping Committee has convened its first session of the year, chaired by the Minister of Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa.
The meeting chaired by Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa, focused on strengthening Cameroon’s system for listening, reporting, and supporting victims of child maltreatment, abuse, and violence. This gathering brought together officials one of which was Jean Baptiste Nyebel, Sub director at the Ministry who provided a powerful insight into the convened importance and the public’s responsibility.
“Citizen must know that when he occupies the line for commonplaces, they must realize that a child can actually be in danger somewhere, and he or she is here on this same island. Highlighting the transparent volume of need, Nyebel revealed that “between December 2024 and today, we have received 6,325 calls.”He detailed the process for handling serious cases, assuring the public that each one is treated with urgency. “The serious calls have known the treatment they were calling for.
These have been referred to other actors, these have been managed by our field managers for the superior interest of the child in Cameroon”. The newly established committee brings together all key actors in the child protection chain to examine current situations facing children and find solutions.
“The role of the pilot committee is to bring together all the actors to see what each at his level can do,” Nyebel explained. Accessibility has been key to the line’s growing success. After being limited to two networks in 2023, it is now accessible by all telephony networks in Cameroon.
This expansion saw calls jump from under 4,000 in 2023 to over 5,000 in 2024, and already to 6,325 in 2025 per the sub director, among these thousands of calls, nearly 400 were identified as serious cases, including physical violence, abandonment, abuse, and rape.
