Sophie Ngassa
CYEED
Executive Director
Cameroon
Sophie is a Civil Engineer and STEM advocate for girls who has been passionately teaching girls hands-on digital skills via project-based and mentoring programs in Cameroon.
Sophie founded and directs the Center for Youth Education and Economic Development (CYEED) founded in 2010 in Bamenda where she champions ICT capacity building of youth and digital literacy for girls.
She has firsthand experience of the sad and devastating situation of two unprecedented internet shutdowns in Northwest and South West Regions of Cameroon in 2017, making her become more meaningfully advocating for internet rights in Africa; engaging government officials and stakeholders to address internet connectivity and the crises that arise from blocked communication.
She has a strong voice as a Digital Rights Advocate fighting against internet shot down especially during crisis periods and advocating for a free and open internet during the Cameroonian Internet shutdown of 2017. Recently her stories about her experiences during the internet blackout were published in Slate magazine, AccessNow and World Pulse.
She promoted and actively contributed in the #BringBackMyInternet and #KeepItOn campaign because she believes that the internet it is an essential human right. AccessNow is using her stories to encourage other people to share their experiences about internet shutdowns that will help change the world.
Sophie contributed significantly in creating a Cameroon Digital Rights Coalition in 2018 as Co-Lead lead under the “Ensemble Cameroon” project powered by Internews in collaboration with AfroLeadership and Paradigm Initiative. She is focused on enhancing and engaging digital rights activists with best digital citizenship practices and online safety skills. She led three campaigns in Anglophone Cameroon aimed at advocating for the government to leave the internet on before, during and after the presidential elections.
She was one of the delegates for IFF2018, Abuja Nigeria organized by Paradigm Initiative and an AFRINIC28 fellow in 2018 in Tunisia,
She has served on several panels and was a speaker at DRIF2019 Lagos Nigeria and ICT4Dev 2019 in Kampala Uganda, contributing to discussions center around influencing Internet policy in Africa. In June 2019 she will be one of the panelist at RightsCon in Tunisia, partnering with Internet Without Borders.