Career Tour 2026, organized as part of the Central African Youth Aviation Week (SAJAC 2026), which began on February 1st with the AéroWalk in Douala and ended in the reception hall of the National Museum in Yaoundé on Monday, February 9th, 2026, in the Cameroonian political capital, with a wave of enthusiasm and promise.
In one week, the Yaapa Career Tour transformed a curiosity for aviation into a real appetite for careers, projects and commitment in hundreds of young people, especially girls, now determined to take their share of the sky.
In the welcoming room of the National Museum, protocol is quickly forgotten. Our founder speaks to the pupils and students as if they were long-standing allies. She invites them to "dare to dream," to pursue their education, and to believe both in their traditions and in their ability to challenge the established norms of a sector long reserved for an elite. Aviation, she insists, is not an exotic luxury: it is a driver of trade, tourism, and employment, provided it is grounded in African realities and gives women a genuine place within it.
The day's program unfolds like a launchpad. A presentation on youth and aviation reveals the very real connections between airlines, the movement of goods, and the mobility of people. The introduction to the aeronautical alphabet suddenly immerses the audience in cockpit jargon, while a quiz keeps everyone engaged, filled with laughter, friendly competition, and frantic note-taking. When it comes time to sign the Yaapa Charter – Youth, Women, and Aviation, the students stand up to add their signatures: a simple gesture, but one that signifies their commitment to a more inclusive, ethical, and sustainable aviation industry.
Among the attendees, the conference acted as a catalyst. Flora Sandrine Essono, a fourth-year student at the National Advanced School of Engineering at the University of Yaoundé 1 and president of the Girls' Association of the Grande École, saw it as a powerful support for her daily struggle: to bring aeronautics into campus conversations and, above all, into the minds of young female students. Further on, Florent Atangana Tamba, an Upper Sith Science student and aviation enthusiast, discovered that the sector is not limited to mechanics. He left with a fixed idea: to apply his renewable energy engineering project to aviation, by designing windows capable of capturing sunlight to power skyscrapers and aircraft, thus reducing their environmental footprint.
For Fabrice Tchiomtchoua, Yaapa coordinator in the Western region, this closing ceremony serves as proof. What was, until recently, just an "embryonic" initiative has become a highly anticipated event, capable of attracting young people beyond the circle of official guests, simply through word-of-mouth on social media. His next challenge: to broaden the target audience even further, bringing in schools from across the region, until every young person feels connected to the Yaapa message. Finally, there were lucky winners of Yaoundé-Douala-Yaoundé plane tickets for a small fee. This gesture brings to life this collective dream thanks to the Young African Aviation Professional Association (Yaapa) and its Yaapa Career Tour initiative. This shows that the sky is no longer a distant backdrop, it is now a territory to be conquered.
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