Providing Primary Health Care

Midwife Sarah Keegan examining a pregnant woman

SHUMAS Omnipresent in Local Communities
-Foreign medics end 11 days  consultations in Noi Community
By Njodzefe Nestor in Bamenda
Within the backdrop of acute shortage of trained medical personnel in local communities coupled with the noticeable absence of capacity building and poorly equipped health centers the NGOs Strategic Humanitarian Services, SHUMAS and Spreading Health UK have gone on the offensive making sure the local population benefit from primary health care.
    It was in line with this that a Canadian Medic, Dr. Paul Dhillon and an Irish Midwife Sarah Keegan on Tuesday October 28, completed an 11 day community placement in the Noi locality in Bui division of the North West Region facilitated by SHUMAS and Spreading Health UK. During this period, they carried out consultations and animated health talks with school children, women associations amongst others.
    With the Millennium Development Goals, MDGS deadline in 2015 fast approaching and conscious of the need for public-private partnerships in the realization of the MDGs, SHUMAS through this project and other projects has been putting on its maximum best to ensure that Cameroon has a clean report card when the evaluation of Cameroon’s MDGs implementation will be completed.


Areas of intervention and outcomes
    Within the sidelines of the project, SHUMAS and Spreading Health UK in partnership with MINSANTE and the Regional Delegation of Public Health in the North West train state registered nurses who after their training in renowned professional medical institutions in Cameroon return to their rural communities to work at their health centers for at least three years regardless of compensation.
    The project also refurbishes and equips health centers, participate in polio vaccination campaigns, provide refresher courses for health personnel and facilitate doctors coming on placement in Cameroon.
    From inception and with just 2 students trained yearly, about nine new students were admitted for the year 2014. In total, 44 nurses and 44 communities have benefitted from this program. These nurses also benefit from an alumni network which allows them to share obstacles and solutions with one another.
    As regards the refurbishing and equipping health centers, at least one health centre receives support each year. The health center is rehabilitated, refurbished and receives necessary equipments such as hospital beds, delivery beds, refrigerators, microscopes, laboratory reagents, forceps, kidney dishes amongst others to improve on the quality of treatment provided to the community.
    So far, more than 15 communities have benefitted from the initiative such as Roh Vitantaa, Lui Oku maternity, Kourom Health Centre, Nseh Health Centre, Njitapon Health Centre and lately Bipock Health Centre.
    In line with government’s action of totally eradicating poliomyelitis, SHUMAS also participates in the National Days of Immunization against the disease. Its personnel assist in monitoring in selected health districts and submit their reports to both PRVARESSC, the civil society platform working to strengthen routine vaccination of which SHUMAS is a regional focal point, and the Regional Delegation of Public Health.
    To ensure capacity building, refresher courses are also offered periodically for health personnel working in communities. SHUMAS in collaboration with MINSANTE identify important gaps in care and knowledge and then Spreading Health UK identifies medical tutors who can deliver these courses.

Doctors on Placement: Dr. Paul Dhillon and Midwife Sarah Keegan share their experience
    SHUMAS and Spreading Health through this program have been working together to facilitate the placement of doctors in rural communities.
    The most recent placement is that of a Canadian medic, Dr. Paul Dhillon and Irish Midwife, Sarah Keegan in Noi a locality in Bui division of the North West Region.
    At the end of their placement, their efforts were appreciated by the entire community of Noi who came out en mass to thank them for their magnanimity and bid them farewell back to their various countries.
    Conspicuous in the farewell ceremony was the DO for Jakiri sub division who appreciated the medics for taking the initiative and for a job well while thanking SHUMAS and Spreading Health UK for the project.
    Speaking to this reporter after the sojourn in this locality, the visibly elated Dr. Paul Dhillon revealed that during their 11 days in Noi they carried out consultations and educative health talks at the community health centre.
    He added that they carried about 200 consultations, handed some health kits to the health centre and spent a lot of time with elderly persons, women and children educating them on specific health problems.
    Corroborating Dr. Paul Dhillon, Midwife Sarah Keegan who was coming to Africa for the first time said her experience with the local population was daunting especially as she was seeing and experiencing some diseases for the very first time.
    She however expressed satisfaction for the opportunity to have served in the Noi community noting that much still has to be done by the Cameroon as far as the provision of primary health care in local communities is concerned.
    From Noi, the duo accompanied by the Project Coordinator of SHUMAS, Leah Stuart Sheppard paid a courtesy visit to the Star Building, October 30, 2014 where they explained their experience in the field to the Prime Minister Philemon Yang.

How the Spreading Health Program came about
    In 2007, Dr Peter Hearn, a British citizen visited Cameroon as a volunteer with AidCamps International, an organization that through SHUMAS places volunteers in a rural community for two weeks to complete a school construction project they have funded.
Dr. Peter was placed in Lui community. During this time he realized that the individual running the health center was not trained despite the fact that he was the key health resource for thousands of people. This prompted him to launch the Spreading Health Program in partnership with SHUMAS.

About SHUMAS
    Strategic Humanitarian Services is a development Non-Governmental Organization involved in integrated sustainable rural development. The mission of the organization is to improve lives, reduce poverty and empower people, particularly rural and urban people, so that they can meet their needs without compromising posterity from meeting theirs.
    Under the able