Cross-border medicine

In the north of Cameroon tens of thousands of people are still without basic health care. Despite the precarious political situation a "Centre de Santé" could recently be opened in the canton of Lahaï.

For 30 years the authorities of the small capital town of the canton of Lahaï had been trying to build up a basic health care system, but without success. So, when in 2015 the state really built a medical centre, people were overjoyed. However, their happiness was soon followed by disillusionment. There was neither water nor electricity. There was no furniture and there were no medical devices, no medicines and no dressing materials. The building was empty and there was no staff. Once again, the needs of the inhabitants of Lahaï had been forgotten.

IPA partner Aboukar Mahamat, who was himself born in Lahaï, described the situation to IPA and the Leopold Bachmann Foundation immediately agreed to sponsor the project. The mutual trust in this IPA partner has meanwhile – after a visit to Cameroon by the board some time ago – become so strong that even a professionally managed foundation is ready to abstain from an inspection visit for a change and Aboukar Mahamat was determined to make the project "a historical success".

The help from Switzerland however depended on one condition: The state had to provide the medical staff. Eight months after the start of the project, the centre was opened – with four members of staff. Solar panels generate electricity for all the rooms, for the refrigerator with the vaccines, the steriliser and for the pump that operates the water fountain. The rooms are now furnished and there are medicines and the necessary devices. People are happy and relieved. In fact, the word "historical" could be heard everywhere.

"Now I can die at home"

The centre was originally supposed to provide medical care for 17 villages, but the catchment area is now much larger. 22 villages in Cameroon and – rather surprisingly – also 12 villages in Chad belong to it. A large number of nomads also benefit from the facilities so that at least 15,000 people finally have access to basic medical care. Farmers already say that Lahaï has overtaken the two largest villages in the Waza Logone Plain, Zina and Logone-Birni. "Saving a person's life is the most beautiful thing in the world", Aboukar Mahamat had written in an email to IPA. In fact more than two dozen patients suffering from severe malaria were saved from death and five cases of acute appendicitis were diagnosed in time and the patients sent to hospital. For the first time, over 100 pregnant women are regularly checked. People now feel reassured and safe, feelings they had not known before. "Now I know that I can die at home – thank you, my son", an old man from Arainaba, overwhelmed with emotion, said to Aboukar Mahamat. He had been afraid of having to be treated in a faraway place and to die there. And the Chief of the Canton added: "The project has finally given us the dignity our own state has denied us."