CAMEROON : Vitamin A supplementation, the contribution of HELEN KELLER to the wellbeing of the pygmy communities of MINKO’O.
Friday, December 02, 2022, at the pygmy camp of MINKO’O in the health district of Djoum, was held the launch ceremony of Action Week for Infant and Maternal Health and Nutrition in the South region of Cameroon, organized by the Ministry of Public Health in partnership with Helen Keller Intl and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
This health campaign was held from December 2 to 4, 2022 throughout the Cameroonian territory. In the pygmy camp of MINKO’O in the health district of Djoum in the South of Cameroon, the launch of the activities was coordinated by the Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Niraka TOUDOU, Coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunization in the South region. A team from Helen Keller Intl was also present for the occasion.
The launch of the activities in this camp was an opportunity to remind these populations, exposed to food insecurity, marginalized and very often refractory to what they call « Western medicine », of the urgency and importance of regularly supplementing their children with vitamin A.
The receptive attitude of the community of this camp was remarkable in the face of the speech of sensitization by the teams present, particularly that of Helen Keller. And this, because, « faced with the loss of our land following our various displacements and the abusive exploitation of our natural resources by loggers, even the pharmacopoeia can no longer help us. We therefore thank you for thinking of us », underlined the representative of the pygmy community of the MINKO’O camp.
About twenty mothers were sensitized on the importance of vitamin A, and especially the relevance of deworming their children. More than thirty children were supplemented with vitamin A.
The launch of the activities in the pygmy camp of MINKO’O, highlights the interest of both the government of Cameroon and Helen Keller Intl to contribute to the improvement of food security and the nutritional situation of the indigenous pygmy people in Cameroon.
As a reminder, Helen Keller in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, has always supported Vitamin A supplementation campaigns for children aged between 6 and 59 months during Action Weeks for Infant and Maternal Health and Nutrition (abbreviated in French « SASNIM ») which reached, in 2021, more than 2.2 million children aged between 6 and 59 months in 6 target regions of Cameroon.
Baltazar Atangana
Auteur de l'article
