CBCHS,CbM Partner To Provide Inclusive Humanitarian Action To Persons With Disabilities

By Raymond Dingana

The Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services, CBCHS and the Christian Blind Mission(CbM) have joined forces together to provide an Inclusive Humanitarian Response to Persons With Disabilities, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and their Host Communities.

This was revealed during the launch of the ''Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action" and the "Inclusive Eye Care project," Friday June 26,2021 at the CBC multipurpose hall.

The Inclusive Eye Health(IEH) Project is established within the context of Covid-19 to ensure that, eye care services get to underserved population especially people with disabilities. Cataract surgical services, dispensing of quality eye glasses, primary eye care service and many others are some of the areas of interest. The two projects are expected to run from June 2021 to May 2023.

Eversince the Socio Political Crisis erupted in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, Humanitarian Actions have not been inclusive enough. Health services especially eye care have often been neglected particularly when it has to do with Persons with Disabilities(PWDs) with many haven been displaced by the ongoing war. Rice, vegatable oil among others have been destributed while items like, brail, white cane, hearing aids, just to name but these have been given less attention.

This explains why, persons with disabilities reached out to the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services(CBCHS) to step in and rescue the situation. In return, CBCHS contacted the Christian Blind Mission,(CbM), and the  ''Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Action" and the "Inclusive Eye Care project" was born.

As explained by the Director of the CBC Health Services, Prof. Tih Pius Mufih, the two projects are coming at a time when they are highly needed.

"Services to prevent disabilities emerging from the ongoing crisis are very much needed. The current prevalence of disability in the north west region stands at 10.5℅ and it's expected to increase as a result of the ongoing crisis," he said.

He further indicated that, the CBC heath services intend to conduct over 200 medical outreach campaings in hard to reach underserved communities to provide a range of services including non communicable diseases, Mental Health and Psychological support Physiotherapy, Ear and Hearing Care, Eye Care among others.

He also pointed out that, the CBC health services will continue to function under the guidance of all the principles of humanitarian response.

Director of the CBC Health Services,Prof. Tih Pius Mufih

Answering the question as to how the project will benefit those in the interior parts of the region, Prof. Tih Pius Mufih pointed out during a press briefing prior to the launching that, volunteers and others will be needed.

"Community mobilizers , volunteers especially those the local population trust and can rely on will be working with them. They will be trained and send to attend to the health needs of those in the difficult to access areas of the region." said Prof. Mufih.

Talking about what is needed from the beneficiaries interms of payment for the services, prof. Mufih intimated that, at some point, they will need just their transport fare and a token for the sustainability of the project.

A visually impaired said via a video projection during the launch that, "I was told some persons were supporting persons with disabilities with school needs. I went there and was given pens, rulers and books. How can a visually impaired like me use pens and books? What we need are Brails, quality eye glasses and others," he indicated adding that, most of the time,what is given to them is not what they really need.

On his part, the Country Director of CbM for Cameroon and Central Africa, Julius Niba Fon said, Covid-19 has not been good toeyecareprovidersandtheir servics.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the capacities of eye care partners to continue providing services. The absence of these services is a high risk for blindness. We were supporting the project to ensure that, patients and care givers are protected and are highly equipped to continue proving the services to prevent blindness. We are extending our emergency  response which we started in the south west region in 2020 to the north west region with a program that is focused on persons with disabilities for the next 24 months. This has three important components, bringing assistance to persons with disabilities and their host communities, Meanstream disability to other development actors and support persons with disabilities for their voice and autonomy so that they can increasingly advocate for their voices to be heard to include them in  humanitarian actions." He explained.

Country Director of CbM for Cameroon and Central Africa, Julius Niba

Quizzed on whether PWDs will actually be part of the project, the Program Director of the CBC SEEPD Program Jeacques Chirac said,  "the needs of PWDs will keep emerging and CBC will always try to update action towards meeting them." On why the focus was on PWDs, he explained that,  "Eye care services are not common in the communities. We have many more PWDs who are suffering from eye care issues and the number keeps going up as the Anglophone Crisis persists."

Program Director of the CBC SEEPD Program Awa Jeacques Chirac

The project is under the sponsorship of the German Federal Foreign Office (FFO) through the Christian Blind Mission (CbN) to be implemented by the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services.

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