EXTENDING HEALTH CARE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES 

Almost three quarters of Cameroon’s population (72%) live in rural villages with dirt roads that are impassable in the rainy season; such villages have extremely poor living standards, unclean drinking water, inadequate educational facilities, and worse yet, no health facilities.

In these villages, pregnant women deliver their babies on the way to a clinic or are delivered by untrained women with no understanding of proper hygiene, resulting in maternal deaths and high infant mortality.  Children suffer from curable diet-related diseases, water-born infections, and skin diseases like beriberi, kwashiorkor, rickets, scabies, ringworm, hookworm, jigger feet, severe coughs, malaria, and diarrhea.  In many cases, severely injured people bleed to death before reaching any type of care facility.  In addition, the causes and prevention of HIV/AIDS are not understood by most remote villagers, resulting in rampant unnecessary deaths and a subsequent high number of orphans.  

The need for local Community Health Units to handle these preventable health scourges is urgent, along with a great need for trained personnel.  Simple training can be given to the local population on the care and prevention of many of these maladies.  Local women in the villages can be taught to be Trained Birth Attendants (TBA’s).  Classes presented on proper hygiene, good nutrition, the importance of clean water, and AIDS prevention must be promoted. (See Women Cooperatives) The cost of establishing and equipping a health clinic is less than $5,000.