Introducing Tecenta Achiri (@tecentaachiri), a passionate activist and a victim who became a victor

My name is Bih Tecenta Achiri and I was born in Mankon, a village in the North West Region of Cameroon. I grew up in a quarter called Ngomgham where I attended my primary school. The community where I was brought up in was that community in which I witnessed a lot of domestic violence which led to the death of many women because they had no one to speak out to and for the fear of being beaten more by their husbands. Also, young girls were being sexually violated rampantly and I happened to be a victim of rape from my own cousin. I grew up in secret and pain hoping that one day I will have the courage to open up to someone and be heard and also fight for my fellow girls going through pain in my community. As a result of the rampant rape, girls had babies at ages 14,15,16 and above. Birth rates and death rates were high and the HIV percentages rapidly increased. Most women died from HIV and domestic torture.
Growing up with so much pain about my own rape case and that of other girls I made a promise to myself to fight for women and girls to the last drop of my blood. I was enrolled into college (SAINT ALBERT COMPREHENSIVE COLLEGE BAFUT). My first two years were not easy at all since I was trying to heal from my secret pain. I kept to myself and didn’t want socialize with other students. I was growing up to be a very sexy girl that most guys on campus admired and wanted to date, but my pain at that time made me very aggressive and rude to many people and even my teachers. The principal noticed and called me to his office for questioning, I didn’t still open to him but he know that I had a secret deep inside. My pain almost turned me into a gangster as I was engaged in things mostly boys do like jumping over the school fence to leave school, bullying and beating of students for no reason. In my heart I knew I was not acting the real me because my pain took total control of me.
In attempt to help me out of the dramas, the principal appointed me the social prefect of the college. Now I was forced to show an example on campus on how to socialize among students during activities. That I saw as a very big and difficult task for me but deep in me I had this feeling I can make it and a voice will always tell me “YES YOU CAN DO IT”. I tried all I could to be a good example and it helped me discover many hidden things about myself which were: good leadership skills, good speaker and a social lady. I performed better in school and I graduated.

From a Victim to a Victor

The moment came when I began musing through my painful girlhood and that was university life. I cannot really say it was easy because I was dealing with a lot sexual problems and it affected me way too much. But I pushed through the pain and stressed till this moment. Many successes were recorded first I was voted the National President of our Ex student association. With this position I fought with boys because they thought as a woman I could not make it. But they were all amazed when I ruled the association very well and it became big and successful till date. I am actually mentoring and training some younger girls who will take over me as I retire from that position ( I believe so much in women/girls) that is why I decided to mentor girls.
I came across a lady who saw the potentials I had and asked me what motivates me to stand for girls and women so passionately, in tears I told her I am dealing with a lot of pain in my heart that I cannot see other girls go through such. She did not ask to hear the story because she knew I was not courageous enough yet. So she asked if I want to be heard and I want to teach other girls through my story I accepted and she introduced me to WORLD PULSE where I met other women and read their stories and I was able to share my own story. From then I had all the courage in the world to speak up and on behalf of other innocent girls. That was when I decided to create a forum for girls to open up, I listen to them and looked for possible means to help them out. I believed in the power of women so my small forum started with three other girls with the WOMEN WITH POWER. Gradually we grew big and bigger and today we have an association with the name DREAM ALIVE CENTER where we enhance and promote the education of the girl child (if young girls are educated, they will know their rights and GBV will be reduced, early pregnancies and marriages will reduce), we fight against GENDER BASED VIOLENCE and we give hope to hopeless refugees and displaced persons. We also have trainings on entrepreneurship to empower girls economically.
I feel proud that I actually empowered boys who are now seriously advocating for girls/women and almost 20 girls have already become entrepreneurs from our training and assistance.

My profound gratitude to you all for reading my story and be very sure to get updates from me.