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The Diary
Solidarity
We left some help in...

Cameroon

S.Joseph Hospital– Widikum
This health centre is one of the most important in the region. It is deep in the forest and accessible by an impossible road that becomes impassable during periods of rain. Villagers travel on foot to reach it, often taking a whole day from some of the more remote villages. It is small but efficient, well organised and is run by a group of Spanish nuns.
Volunteer medical teams from Europe help the surgery department, coming over for weeks at a time. A very active maternity and pre-natal department has educational programmes available to parents and mums-to-be. They also run a small accident and emergency department with a doctor and local nurses; a laboratory used for research and analysis helps in the fight against HIV. Infected mothers, often rejected by their families, can find food and accommodation as well as artificial milk for their small children to help reduce the dangers of infection. We thought we would help them by contributing to the milk that is expensive and difficult to find. We leave a 150euro (£125) Elfo token.

HIV Maria Negretto Centre – Bafoussam
Laolen Testen is four and a half years old, he is being treated for tuberculosis but he is also HIV positive because his mother Sara has Aids. When her husband discovered that she was HIV positive he refused to be tested and then he abandoned her and his family. Sara has five children, the eldest is Vaniel who is eleven years old; she takes care of the whole family. Our 150-euro token will be used to help treat Loalen. We will keep in touch with Maria at the centre to follow this case.

Baka project – Sangmelima
Leo is an Italian living with his wife - who is originally from Chad in the South of Cameroon - in an area populated by the Baka, a pygmy ethnic group. He has opened many small schools in the territory for equatorial pygmies. They are special schools where these primitive nomadic people, who live mainly by fishing or hunting, are taught manual activities and other basics. The 150-euro Elfo token will be used to buy desks and blackboards for a school.

“Les petites Samaritanes” orphanage – Djoum
In the small village of Djoum, in the heart of the forest inhabited by pygmies, Isabelle Ze founded this orphanage that is home to 45 orphans. Many were newborn babies, whose mothers died during difficult births. They come from the tiny surrounding villages, where most of them are small Baka pygmies. Close to the orphanage, Isabelle has set-up a nursery and primary school for poor children of the village that cannot afford school fees. She does not have a house to speak of; her home is within the walls and rooms of the orphanage with her children. We really respect highly all her efforts in this difficult and remote area. We donate two Elfo tokens - 300-euro, school material, a ball, some kilos of pasta and the biscuits from Pierluigi.