Africa Fact Checking Fellowship “Special Grand Nord”.

AFFCameroon is a program that is run by Civic Watch and its partner defyhatenow. Its aim is to train journalists, bloggers and content creators to be able to fight against online #FakeNews, #Misinformation, #Disinformation, by #Factchecking information both online and offline.  The program is aimed at cultivating the skills needed for creating a healthy and safe online experience for all social media users, making a safe place void of toxic ideas, hate speech, misinformation, disinformation and fake news which fan flames of violence. In the  past years, we have Civic Watch and defyhatenow had trained fellows from different parts of Cameroon, that is; North West, South West hit by the Anglophone conflict, West, Center, Littoral hosting most internally displaced persons from Cameroon. 

This year, we went to the Northern region of Cameroon. The Far North has been facing violent attacks from Boko Haram in the past years and is equally faced with inter-tribal conflicts. Thus we saw the need to create awareness in this part of the country. We saw the need to make those of that region involved and part of #Cameroon that is not forgotten. That is why AFFCameroon in this part was termed “Special Grand Nord”, this is because we needed people who know and master the realities of this region. 

Garoua hosted AFFCameroon for its first time and the training ran for two days, 28th and 29th of April 2022. 15 fellows were selected and they answered present to discover the new world they were about to embark on. These fellows were; 8 from Garoua, 5 from Ngaoundere and 2 Maroua. The trainer was Paul Joel Kamtchang who took them through; the world internet world, introduction to fact checking, methodology for writing Social Media Health Report (SMHR), working group on SMHR and meet up, fact checking reporting and fact checking topics. The first session was all about introduction, making them discover the fact checking world, identify fact checking topics, how to write fact checking reports and SMHR.
`After the first session, the fellows showed their delight and were more eager to discover the techniques and mechanisms of fact checking. Their training will run for three sessions, April, May and June. The next session will be in May 2022.