Anne-Stella Fomunbod

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Anne-Stella Fomunbod, an Educationist by profession and a voluntarily-retired Pedagogic Inspector for Secondary Education in Cameroon, is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Interfaith Vision Foundation (IVFCam), a humanitarian organization in Cameroon working to promote human rights, good governance, health & HIV/AIDS prevention and socio-economic empowerment of women, widows and orphans.

An advocate for women’s rights and participation, Stella, through her Organization, has lobbied for the passage of laws protecting the rights of women with the Metta Charter on Widowhood (January 2010) as landmark; caused the creation of women’s committees on 59 local councils; mobilized, constituted and gained legal recognition for 53 women’s groups as task forces for their human rights; provides farm tools and small seed grants for income-generating and agricultural activities to poor women through a "Rural Women’s Empowerment Fund;" and provides training for the same village councils and municipalities where she once fought so hard to bring women into.

Her contribution within Cameroon and other countries within Africa and Asia, has earned her national and international recognition including: the National Award for the Advancement of Women in 2004; the 2009 Reagan Fascell Fellowship Award; the Women’s World Summit Foundation’s 2010 Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life; and now the Synergos Senior Fellowship