Nelly Ngadie, Cameroon

“I always set out to bring up my children with a good education and provide them with a home that was safe and comfortable. My family is the most important part of my life.
The Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement has been the ruling party since 1985. Cameroon has been troubled by an internal crisis between the Anglophone region and the government. There have been significant human rights abuses including unjustified and unlawful arrests, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by security forces, restrictions on freedom of expression in the press and internet, degrading treatment or punishment, and lack of respect and violence towards women.
I begin to physically shake when I think about the political instability back in Cameroon. I have had to sacrifice so much along the way, fleeing the country of my birth to be an immigrant in the United States.
My selected projected photograph reminds me about the sacrifices that my late grandmother made, to keep our family together. My mother left us to pursue her academics. This decision was not welcome by my father as cultural tradition frowns upon married women schooling.
My grandmother went against all the customary social norms and took it upon herself to look after us while my mother finished her nursing program. Her actions saved the family from splitting. My siblings in the photo are still living today because of her compassion.”