At Open Door Day: Wildlife ministry showcases woodcraft jobs to inspire youth, women.

The appeal was made on Wednesday April 29.  This was during a one-day open door day at the Mvog-Betsi Zoo-Botanical Garden in Yaounde. 

The event was presided over by the Technical Adviser No1 at the ministry of Forestry, Ngono Tsimi Landry. He did so on behalf of Minister Jules Doret Ndongo.

The event took place under the theme: “Your hands are worth gold”. The open-door day, it was said, was organized as part of activities marking the 140th edition of the International Labour Day. 

It was an occasion for the staff of the ministry to showcase their technical expertise in the training and processing of forestry and wildlife products, raise awareness, and promotion of promising value chains within the sub-sector.

Speaking at the event, the Dr Tadoum said through the open-door day, they wanted to showcase the opportunities of the woodcraft sector to young people, women, and students. 

This, he stressed, was to ensure that “all those seeking employment can discover the various specializations in wood-related trades and manual professions”.

He said samples of different wood-based manual jobs were put on display to make certain that young people may be captivated and find interest and embrace the profession. 

“Our goal is to inspire and encourage them to become specialists in this field. You have seen everything our artisans and sculptors have presented. These craftsmen create a wide range of products, whether from wood or bamboo,” Dr Tadoum said. 

Dr Tadoum added that: “That is why we organized this open day: to inspire vocations among young people and women. We even have an entire stand dedicated to female artisans, as you have seen. It is run by a woman who is both a promoter and a trainer in this sector”.

It should be recalled that a variety of products including tables, chairs, stools, keyholders, bamboo tea, were on display at the open-door day. 

Enter exhibitors 

One of the exhibitors at the open-door day, Jong Moses, admitted that thanks to the fair, he was able to showcase his products and services. 

His stand pulled an impressive number of people who were captivated with the quality of the products he had on display. 

“There are a variety of tropical woods in Cameroon that most people are not aware of. We also showed wood transformation skills, a variety of portal machines. We also showed people the end products of our work. Some of them were made during workshops and seminars. We have a variety of them,” Jong said. 

Women stole the show with their various products mostly made out from Bamboo. During visits to their stands, they drew an impressive crowd of people who were impressed by their involvement in the business and saluted their expertise. 

One of these women was Tebi Adama, a trainer at the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization, INBAR, a multilateral development organization which promotes environmentally sustainable development using bamboo and rattan.

“We were trained on how to make hand-fans which are frequently used especially during the dry season, we had fruit baskets made out of bamboo, a wine carrier made out of bamboo, plates, a file for documents and others,” Adama said.

“The technical adviser was very impressed with what he saw today at my stand, especially that these are things that were made out of bamboo, especially here in Cameroon,” she added. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3782 of Thursday May 07, 2026