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Nos publications couvrent une variété de sujets allant de l'éducation à la santé, en passant par les droits de l'homme. Chaque article est soigneusement rédigé pour sensibiliser le public aux enjeux mondiaux et aux défis auxquels de nombreuses communautés font face au quotidien.

Parutions Régulières

Nous publions régulièrement des revues, des rapports et des analyses approfondies pour informer et éduquer nos lecteurs. Nos collaborations avec des experts et des chercheurs renforcent la qualité et la pertinence de nos publications.

Les sujets que nous couvrons

Santé des peuples autochtones

La santé est au cœur de nos préoccupations. Nous explorons les défis sanitaires des peuples autochtones et mettons en lumière les programmes et les stratégies visant à améliorer l'accès aux soins de santé.

Accès à l'Éducation

L'éducation est un pilier fondamental de notre couverture. Nous examinons les problèmes relatifs à l'accès à l'éducation et les innovations visant à améliorer les opportunités éducatives pour tous

Changements Climatiques

Nos publications analysent les effets des changements climatiques sur la nutrition et la santé des peuples autochtones d’afrique centrale, mettant en lumière les solutions et les initiatives visant à atténuer ces effets néfastes.

Égalité des Genres

Nous mettons en avant les efforts et les luttes en faveur de l'égalité des genres chez les peuples autochtones. Nos articles soulignent les défis rencontrés et les progrès réalisés dans ce domaine crucial pour le développement équitable.

Publications scientifiques

Access to drinking water in context of cholera epidemic in an indigeneous population a threat to the survival of populations

If one of the requirements of the surrounding pandemic is hand washing with soap and water, the other requirement is to have clean, odorless and potable water. This does not seem to be the case for the populations of the region of the rising sun, who are languishing in precarious conditions marked by scarcity in drinking water, couple with lack of sanitation and appropriate hygiene. However, these needs are part of the fundamental requirements and the sovereign missions of a State towards its populations. People here are dying, exposing themselves every day to other diseases more glaring than Covid-19 while the "authorities focus more" in major cities and metropolises across the country. The Association of United Nutritionists in Cameroon (ASNO), during its missions in the field, has touched the reality and challenges for the careful handling of the situation and the organization of an emergency plan having a magnitude and same dimension like that of the Coronavirus to avoid a disaster.

The regional director of UNICEF for West Africa, Manuel FONTAINE, exclaimed in 2015 about the dramatic situation affecting the populations of Africa due to lack of water, hygiene and sanitation. This situation, 6 years later, is seen in Cameroon and more particularly in the Eastern region where the lack of drinking water is the cause of death, stunting growth in children and numerous diseases.

According to Breton Wood organizations, access to drinking water, hygiene and sanitation have since been included in the calendar of issues and battles that many states must lead. However, these demands represent a daily struggle for hundreds of thousands of citizens who live mainly in developing countries. According to a report by the World Health Organization, 319 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still do not have access to drinking water, i.e. three out of four households go to fetch water outside their homes and 695 million people have no access to basic sanitation services. In addition, climate change is putting increasing pressure on the world's water resources. Thus sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Central Asia and Oceania had the lowest levels of drinking water coverage in 2015. The number of people without access to sanitation services has continued to grow since the 1990s. Insufficient access to safe drinking water and inadequate sanitation has serious consequences for human health. It also exacerbates poverty and hinders development. This is the reason why the international community has recognized since 2010 that, access to quality water and sanitation facilities is a fundamental human right and further what is at stake for the seventeen (17 ) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which include in Goal 6, “universal access to drinking water and sanitation by 2030”.

In Cameroon, and in the eastern region in particular, the rate of access to drinking water and sanitation services is estimated at less than 3%. Within the framework of the district of Yokadouma where ASNO conducted its survey and its field studies which led to the recognition of this deficiency, nearly 33,000 inhabitants live in the villages. The inhabitants of this zone live in precarious conditions with a glaring one being the lack of drinking water and difficult access to hygiene and sanitation. This is marked by the perpetual absence of latrines with an almost obsolete water supply network, whose construction and last maintenance dates back to 2010.

Since the Dublin Conference on Water and the Environment in June 1992 and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in the same year, the management of water resources has been identified as a key issue at the International scale. Based on the recommendations of the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 relating to the development of National Action Plans for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and within the framework of the achievement of the Objectives of the Millennium for Development (MDG), Cameroon, like several Central African countries, is committed to the IWRM process19. In 2005, Cameroon adopted a National Action Plan for Integrated Water Resources Management (PanGire). The water sector policy letter, drawn up in 2007, specifies the authorities' commitments in water supply making water a national heritage asset which the State ensures its protection and management. Moreover, the decree of 2010/0239/PM transfers to the councils the competences for the realization and the management of wells and boreholes in the rural environment. In the villages of Yokadouma, getting water daily is a nightmare and a serious challenge for many inhabitants. The standpipes are non-existent and the boreholes no longer work due to lack of maintenance

In some areas of the East region, the only developed spring serves more than four surrounding villages. From this spring offered in 1982, three pipes were driven into the ground to draw water which fell into a stagnant concrete lake where the populations placed themselves at the cost of the risk of disease. One of the respondents recounts his ordeal as a inhabitant who gets his water supplies from this single water point: "There was water before. This well was clean, and even when it went bad, the council authorities came for repairs and we were comfortable, but since the change of people at the head of our communities, we are suffering. Our children are forced to travel for miles to find water for the household to drink".

The inhabitants of these villages are enduring the worst. The health consequences are enormous. At the same time, some point the finger at the chiefs at the head of their village who exploit and divert in full view all the income raised from royalties paid in by the surrounding forests exploited by Forest Management Units (FMU). One of the villagers who once again preferred to remain anonymous inform us that forest money is regularly embezzled by crooked presidents of the management committee who do not care about the well-being of the population. Some also accuse the government who seems to have abandoned the inhabitants of this part of the country at the mercy of diseases and other dangers linked to poor hygiene and access to safe drinking water. The monitoring and maintenance of wells and other boreholes is in many cases non-existent. Management work on boreholes constructed by some international organizations has been abandoned. The populations hope that in this period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government plan to bring drinking water to households will succeed and will finally reach their homes. It is therefore necessary to put in place avenues of intervention in order to compensate for poor sanitation and the lack of drinking water. It is with this in mind that the project entitled “Intercommunal Program for the Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation (PiGeDEA)” in the other councils of Cameroon must intervene here. This is ease the realization of a good inventory of the current precarious sanitation situation and poor access to drinking water in this part of the country.

CAMEROON: MEASLES EPIDEMIC IN THE CONTEXT OF MALNUTRITION

CAMEROON: MEASLES EPIDEMIC IN THE CONTEXT OF MALNUTRITION

With the resurgence of Covid-19 in Cameroon in recent months, other epidemics such as measles claim around 150 lives in a few days in the East Region of the country. The populations are worried about its rise, which does not seem to concern the public authorities who focused more on the fight against the global pandemic.

Plate 1: Some children with measles

Despite the cries and alarm raised by the World Health Organizations and institutions in place in November 2020, the so-called tropical epidemics continue to decimate the population, causing hundreds of deaths. Measles, is a disease that attacks children from 0 to 20 years of age and adults are having an alarming death toll in the region of the rising sun. In just a few days, more than 150 cases were recorded in seven villages in the district of Yokadouma where unfortunately, the rate of health challenges and poverty affect more than 80% of the population. Everyone is worried about the negligence of the public health authorities and points the finger at the restrictive measures against Covid-19 where the last vaccination dates back to March 2019 without forgetting the reluctance and mistrust of the population towards vaccination exacerbated by the multiple rumors concerning vaccines and especially the lack of education in health issues. The populations of the regions having benefited from the last vaccination are those close to hospital structures and those who received appropriate training. It should be noted that the insufficiency of health structures is another scourge in this part of the country. Majority of it inhabitants therefore prefer to resort to archaic traditional methods, for lack of access to health care, information and adequate training, that instead helped promote the spread of the disease. With the onset of Covid-19, monitoring of measles vaccination has declined. This planetary reality particularly affects the populations of Boumba-et-Ngoko, where the epidemic resurfaced in mid-February, already causing 150 deaths. In this division, only 50% of the population has access to medical care, which makes them increasingly vulnerable.

Burial of two young people in a row with measles

Case of a patient who died after awareness raising

Since the implementation of government restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of covid-19 in Cameroon and in the eastern region in particular, the measles epidemic is progressing very rapidly within this population who lives in a remarkable precarious conditions in the community. According to specialists in infectious and tropical pathologies at the Institut Pasteur in Yaounde, the measles virus is excessively contagious in this part; because it is ten times more than a flu. We note that the Coronavirus is affecting negatively and has slowed down the fight against measles. We are witnessing a worrying surge in cases which is accentuated not only with the fear of populations to go to hospitals (for those who can and are close to hospitals) because of the psychosis created by covid-19 but also with lack of vaccination. There is a real threat and mistrust of the hospital and the vaccine. This distrust of vaccines and the lack of awareness campaign should push the State of Cameroon to focus, as in the case of the coronavirus, on other devastating diseases such as measles. A strategic response plan against this epidemic in the midst of Covid-19 must be put in place to continue the fight and protect the populations from all viral attacks. The World Health Organization (WHO) sounded an alert in July 2020, reporting about 1,130 deaths from the three epidemics; cholera, malaria and measles. It is therefore a question for the State, as reported by Dr. Linda ESSO, Deputy Director for the fight against epidemics and pandemics at the Ministry of Health, in the lines of the newspaper Le monde in September 2020, to mobilize resources both human, material and financial, for the effective management of these diseases. In order to limit the damage, the government, as with the coronavirus, must mobilize it resources to help the vulnerable populations. An emergency plan for regular information and awareness is needed to limit the mistrust and rumors among the population about the vaccine. It is therefore necessary to improve vaccination coverage and fight against disinformation and mistrust.

Yokadouma where field investigations report 1,680 recorded cases with 127 deaths in the space of a month.

Some cases of convalescent child

Par Prosper AZOMBO