On June 30th, 2009, 11 women were certified as Community Health Workers by Colorado African Organization. These women attended an 8-week intensive training course at CAO on preventive health– cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and HIV/AIDS. Armed with their certificates, these women will be presenting health education sessions in their home communities once a month, supported by CAO staff members. These presentations will be held in homes, community centers and other convenient locations; there will be food and drink provided, and it’s a great opportunity not only to learn about how you can stay healthy and disease-free but also to gather with other Africans in the metro area.

The eleven women come from all over Africa– Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, for example– and speak many local African languages as well as French and Arabic. If you or someone you know are interested in joining one of these community health worker groups, please call CAO at 303-751-2290 and ask for Oumar or email Oumar at oumar0@caoden.org.

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Reprinted with permission from the CAO Blog.

In the coming months, an Aurora CO, based non-profit organization will distribute 100,000 copies of the Cameroon Constitution to Cameroonians within the United States and in Cameroon.

Founded by George Bamu, Africa Agenda seeks to ‘garner positive press for Africa using powerful concepts of the media in the society’. In fulfilling its mission, Africa Agenda organizes ‘education events, workshop, seminars and conferences’, and ‘executes projects that speak to a better, stronger, stable, prosperous and democratic Africa’.

One such workshop, the Cameroon Information and Education Day (CEID) was held on May 7^th at the Community College of Aurora.  The workshop was attended by Michael Hancock, President of the Denver City Council, Richard Nyamboli, Communications Counselor at the Cameroon embassy in Washington DC and Linda Brown, President of the Community College of Aurora among others. Members of the Cameroonian Community in Colorado also gave remarks.

CEID’s principal task will be to distribute 100,000 copies of the Cameroon constitution, both in French and English to ‘ academic institutions, civil society groups and individuals’, with the aim of increasing knowledge of Cameroon and spread the concept of constitutional democracy.

In a continent where civic participation has left a lot to be desired and where lack of access and information on a country’s constitution can be a severe impediment to political participation, the availability of free constitutions can deal a blow to the coups, endemic corruption and fraudulent transfers of power that have littered the political landscapes of many African countries.

In distributing 100,000 copies of the Cameroon constitution, Africa Agenda is embarking on a powerful journey in educating the citizens of Cameroon. Ambitiously, we hope that this is a project that can be replicated in many African countries.

Kudos to Africa Agenda for this enormous initiative

7 Random Facts about Cameroon.

1. Present day Cameroon was first "discovered" in the 15 century by a Portuguese sailor, Fernando Poo, who named it " Rio dos Camaroes", meaning, River of Shrimps. The name, Cameroon, is derived from this Portuguese appellation.
2. The Cameroonian flag is a vertical tricolour of green, red and yellow with a star. Green for the luxuriant vegetation of the south, red for sovereignty, and yellow for the sunshine of the northern regions. The Flag had two stars included in it to represent the former British and French parts of Cameroon. The second star was dropped in 1972 when Cameroon became a unitary state.
3. Cameroon has produced many internationally renowned musicians, probably most famous of whom is Manu Dibango. Manu Dibango was born in Cameroon but has been based and performed abroad for over 40 years, during which time he has had numerous acclaimed Jazz and Makossa hits.
4. Cameroon boasts the highest point in Africa, Mount Cameroon, at 13,451 feet above sea level.
5. There are some 250 ethnic groups in Cameroon, speaking about 270 dialects, which constitute 24 major African language groups. Additionally, most Cameroonians speak English and French, and the literacy rate is 79%.
6. More than 168 political parties have been legalized in Cameroon since 1990.
7. Cameroon possesses 409 different species of mammals, 143 types of reptiles, 849 birds’ species, and 19 types of amphibians.

Since metroafrican.com launched only about three months ago, a retrospective of the year may seem a bit much, but here's a look back at the most popular stories of the last quarter of 2008.

• metroAfrican.com launched in September with an appearance on African Roots radio show on KGNU with host Moutiou Yessoufou.
• Yohannes Gebregeorgis of Ethiopia Reads was honored as one of CNN's Top 10 Heroes of the Year.
• Guy Lumumba, son of Patrice Lumumba, spoke at the University of Denver.
• Sudanese lost girls were amongst those displaced and injured by an apartment fire in Boulder.
• Somali musician K'naan was a no show in Denver, but thrilled a crowd in Boulder
• Bazi Kanani explored Colorado-Rwanda Connections
• The African Community Center hosted a huge multi-cultural Thanksgiving party
• Somalis in Greeley faced difficulties with SWIFT
• The 6th annual Taste of Africa took over UC Boulder
• Metroafrican posted the first in a series of interviews with influential and remarkable Africans in the Denver and Boulder Areas. We kicked it off by talking to Mangar Amerdid of the Leadership Institute of New Sudan

We here at metroAfrican have been incredibly encouraged by the positive response we've gotten from so many people, and want to thank everyone who has contributed to making metroafrican.com a valuable community resource. We hope to continue to hear from you in the year ahead, and we will continue improving the site so we can all get the most out of it. As always, if you have ideas for stories or features you would like to see on metroafrican.com, let us know. metroAfrican belongs to you, so please make your voice heard!

We wish a blessed and prosperous 2009 to all!

If you have not yet been to the Palava, here are two very good reasons to go. They are throwing a party on Christmas Eve and another on New Year's Eve. Celebrate the year that was 2008 in style with great music, tasty eats, and an impressive selection of mixed drinks.

Both events begin at 7pm at the Palava - 11002 E Yale Ave. in Aurora