Commonwealth of Learning Workshop Goes To West Cameroon

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) story design open distance learning programming is being scaled up in Cameroon using the community radio stations to promote healthy communities and the reduction of infant mortality. After Kumba, in the south west region, the interactive and participative story design workshop moved to the west region. According to the COL Cameroon Link Partnership project coordinator, James Achanyi-Fontem, twelve (12) community radio stations in Cameroon have already been engaged in the process of informing and educating mothers on how the achieve better health conditions and wellbeing by participating and listening to radio programmes designed by them on mother and child health protection. The participants in the workshop that just ended in Melong were drawn from the community radio stations in the west region, women’s community development organizations, experts from the health and social welfare sectors. The focus of programme content was infant and young child feeding with particular attention to breastfeeding. The radio story design community of learning programming aims at reducing maternal and infant mortality. Apart from the Commonwealth of Learning agency based in Vancouver, Canada supporting the project technically, a United Kingdom based not-for-profit organization, Development Media International has just joined the wagon and started by holding talks with top officials at the WHO office in Yaoundé and the ministry of public health on how to contribute to maternal and infant mortality reduction in Cameroon. The Development Media International delegation was led by Will Snell, the head of public engagement and development. Seven Community Radio Stations in the English Speaking South West Region of Cameroon joined the Community of Learning Programme Wagon during a five-day long story design workshop in Kumba, Meme Division from Tuesday, 15th January to 19th January, 2013. The workshop was organized by Cameroon Link with the technical and financial support of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) at the Women’s Empowerment Centre in K-Town. At the end of the CLP pilot phase in June 2012, mother and child health care remained a major challenge in all regions of Cameroon with mothers and children considered the most vulnerable target groups within communities. Maternal and infant malnutrition is very high and a cause for concern. This explains why Cameroon Link and stakeholders of the initiative are focusing attention on infant and young child feeding, particularly breastfeeding during the radio story design programming process. On the other hand, non-communicable diseases, principally cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases are increasing the burden of health care provision in the urban and rural areas. Mother to Child Transmission of HIV is also complicating the nutrition efforts and there is urgent need for appropriate and adequate health information, education and communication for mothers to make well informed choices on how to feed and care for their children.

DMI United Kingdom Plans Mass Media Child Survival Campaign In Cameroon

By Cameroon Link, Email: camlink99@gmail.com Cameroon Link and the Development Media International (DMI) U K held business profile exchange talks at the Djuega Palace Hotel in Yaoundé on the 20th February, 2013. Cameroon Link was represented by James Achanyi-Fontem, Executive Director, while Will Snell, Head of Public Engagement and Development, led the DMI United Kingdom delegation, accompanied by Lavoie Mathew, Burkina Faso Country Director of DMI and Bassirou Kagone, DMI Broadcast Liaison Manager. Similar meetings took place at the WHO Cameroon office, ministry of public health, UNESCO and Cameroon Radio Television. The purpose of the meetings was aimed at lay the foundation for a mass media child survival campaign in Cameroon to be undertaken BY DMI and other partners. The Commonwealth of Learning connected Cameroon Link to DMI. Executive summary In Cameroon, almost one in eight children dies before the age of five. This number could be reduced using simple interventions and behaviour change. For example, malaria accounts for 16% of under-five deaths, but only 21% of children sleep under insecticide-treated nets. Our campaigns could lead to dramatic increases in the uptake of this and other basic interventions. We can reach 60% of the population through radio messages alone (compared to 43% for television). Our model indicates that a DMI mass media campaign in Cameroon would save 14,000 lives every year. About Development Media International DMI is a social enterprise with non-profit and for-profit arms. It was established in 2005 by Roy Head, who ran the Health Division of the BBC World Service Trust for eight years, running 15 campaigns with 150 staff. DMI's experts have led some of the world's largest and most successful media health campaigns in Africa, Asia, and South America over 30 years. DMI was created to distil this experience into a set of systems to run campaigns much more comprehensively, cost-effectively and sustainably. The team has a proven track record of managing multi-million dollar projects (involving 500 to 8,000 broadcasts) on TV and radio. Funders of previous campaigns include DFID, PMNCH, WHO and USAID. For examples of the impact of previous DMI mass media projects on health behaviours, see www.deveIODmentmedia.net. Project outline Many barriers to healthy behaviours (e.g. use of ORS/ORT and malaria bed nets) are due to a lack of knowledge and mistaken beliefs. For example, many mothers believe that the colostrum (first milk) is unhealthy, or that the best way to stop diarrhoea is to stop providing the child with food and liquids. In Cameroon, just 15% of infants are exclusively breastfed up to six months. A key barrier is the mistaken belief that breast milk is not enough to meet the nutritional needs of an infant during the first six months. DMI's media campaigns will increase the coverage of key interventions by promoting healthy behaviours and dispelling mistaken beliefs. This will save lives: in Cameroon, 37,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria. Many deaths are due to unhealthy behaviours. DMI has developed a unique statistical model, combining data from the Lancet Child Survival Series and its own evidence base for the impact of behaviour change campaigns. The model predicts how many under-five lives we can save by changing behaviours for particular health issues in each country, enabling us to design campaigns with maximum impact. It predicts that a mass media campaign alone can reduce child mortality in Cameroon by 16%, more cost-effectively than almost any other health intervention (at $6.08 per disability-adjusted life year or DALY). DMI is running a $12m randomised controlled trial in Burkina Faso in partnership with LSHTM, funded by the Wellcome Trust and Planet Wheeler Foundation. This is the largest, most rigorous evaluation ever of a mass media intervention. Our objective is to design and implement a radio and TV child mortality behaviour change campaign in Cameroon, in partnership with the Ministry of Health & Public Hygiene and major radio and television broadcasters. We would develop health messages in collaboration with the Ministry of Health & Public Hygiene, the World Health Organisation and UNICEF. The main broadcast format is 60-second adverts (in local languages), but longer-format interactive shows are also possible. There is also potential to integrate mobile phones into the campaign, for example by encouraging listeners to call in to radio shows, or by partnering with existing Health initiatives (such as helplines. Project deliverable •DMI researches the social attitudes and beliefs of target audiences and identify key barriers to behaviour change. •Produce creative outputs that target those barriers, using international producers and local script-writers. •Broadcast the outputs at scale (e.g. 6-10 radio spots per day) in all major languages, on all key media stations. •Build the capacity of local partners, including broadcasters and (where feasible) Ministries of Health. •Collaborate with national and global public health authorities, including WHO, UNICEF and Ministries of Health. •Evaluate the impact of campaigns using baseline/end line, time-series and dose-response analyses. The DMI approach is to campaign on all key maternal and Child health Issues. Once key staff has been trained, and the infrastructure and relationships established, the marginal costs of conducting additional campaigns are very low. Campaigns can be conducted on a different issue every month for little more than the cost of a single-issue campaign: January: Breastfeeding February: Water and sanitation March: Diarrhoeal diseases April: Giving birth in a health facility May: Malaria prevention and treatment June: Birth spacing and family planning

Breastfeeding is a public health issue… Says Prof. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food

By James Achanyi-Fontem, camlink99@gmail.com

Olivier de Schutter, United Nation special Rapporteur for right to food an made recommendations to governments as to how to improve food security & promote the vital food at all levels, during the World Breastfeeding Conference in Delhi, India from the 6th – 9th December, 2012. Though not present in Delhi, he sent a message from New York and lauded the work of the International Baby Food Action Network Asia that was instrumental in organizing the event. He called on governments to copy the Vietnam good example, where on the 18th June 2012, the National Assembly approved the extension of paid maternity leave from 4 months to 6 months. On 24th June, it voted to ban the advertising of Breast Milk Substitutes for infants from 6 to 24 months, aligning the country more closely with the 1981 International Code on Breastmilk Substitutes on the marketing of breastmilk substitute and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions. Prof. Olivier De Schutter added that, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and continued breastfeeding until the second birthday of the child, is very important for governments to move beyond promotional campaigns and education. Promotional Campaigns and education are extremely important, that they are necessary and useful. Education about nutrition and the benefits of breastfeeding in schools should be supported, while the media should be sending the right messages to communities.

He regretted that there is relatively a low number of countries that are serious about the enforcing the International Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitute. In his words, the count made by World Health Organization in December 2011, shows that out of a total of 165 states 103 states had some regulatory measure in place, 37 States relied only on the voluntary commitments of the infant formula manufacturers and 25 States had taken no action. More worrying is the fact that out of the 103 States which adopted legislative instruments in order to implement the International Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitute, only a bit less than 50% of the countries have provisions on enforcement and only 37 States has the World Health Organization considered serious enforcement of these provisions. With this, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food said, governments should ensure that the mothers are given the right message and that the efforts of government to promote breastfeeding are not nullified and made fruitless by the selling of infant formula by the manufacturers.

The International Code of 1981 is absolutely vital but it is not enough and governments must also ensure that the employers facilitate breastfeeding, by having childcare facilities in the work place. Maternity leaves allow women not to have to choose between remaining in employment and providing adequate breastfeeding to the child, he emphasised. This should also be true for public work programmes because the important part of social protection measures is often forgotten in developing countries. Another phase for action for supporting breastfeeding is by strengthening women’s rights and women’s education. There was a very impressive study published in 2000 by Smith & Haddad showing that based on a cross country study, covering 25 years from 1970 to 1995 Smith & Haddad showed that 43% of the reduction of hunger in developing countries during those 25 years were attributable to improved women’s education. This is almost as much as the increase in food availability which stands at 26% and the improvements in health services at 19% together. Infact if we 12% of the improvements to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition during this period attributable to better life expectations for women, the conclusion is that 55% of the gains against hunger, malnutrition during this period were attributable to women’s education or a longer life expectancy for women.

This leads us to recognize the importance of adequate care of the children during the first few years of life in order to have adequate nutritional and health outcomes. UNICEF in particular has proven and demonstrated that food intake alone would not ensure adequate health & nutritional outcomes if not combined with adequate care, if not combined with adequate access to water, sanitation services and health services, All these together ensures that young children develop well physically and mentally and that the mortality of the children under five is reduced. Better education for girls and women is absolutely vital to achieve this. Today, better education for women and girls means more economic opportunities and more chances of employment outside the household. The income effects are such that the child ultimately benefits & women that are more economically active and more economically independent can make better use of their time and make the right choices, for example, to visit health facilities and to have the child adequately taken care of. To promote breastfeeding better and more effectively, we must build on breastfeeding as a human right both for the women and for the infant. This imposes certain obligations on governments particularly to adapt the world of employment to the need to support breastfeeding and to seriously implement the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes In support of the UN vision, the President of India, His Excellency, Shri Pranah Mukherjee send a congratulatory message to the organizers of the World Breastfeeding Conference. Considering that New delhi was honoured as host, he extended wishes of success during the deliberations. Mrs. Sheila Dikshit, the Chirf Minister of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, on her part said, that the Global Breastfeeding Initiative for Child Survival, GBIGS, organizing the World Breastfeeding Conference, WBC, under the theme “Babies need mom-made, Not man-made” was very relevant, especially as over 1.000 delegates from all regions of the world were in Delhi to contribute and exchange their experiences. Chief Minister of Gujrat, Narendra Modi. On his part said, while India is fighting malnutrition, the age=old tradition of breastfeeding is a blessing in disguise. Breastfeeding the very natural source of nutrition for nw born provides anti-bodies which help to establish the baby’s immune system. It also provides digestive nutrients essential for healthy growth.

Some 800 experts from 84 countries arrived India to support the initiative of the International Baby Food Action Network, IBFAN and the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, WABA. It was an opportunity to pledge support for every breastfeeding mother in the world. Minister Omar Abdullah, Minister of Jammu and Kashmir said, the nature of the theme is welcome and timely. He observed that the nature of the family is changing and the change is impacting the relationship between the mother and the child with breastfeeding as an important structural element. He aaded that feeding the baby through any other method different from the breast is artificial. Artificial feeding impacts on the baby negatively health-wise, physically and psychologically. Minister Oomen Chandy of Kerala, added his voice by saying that the dawn of modern day health care remedies and life style has influenced artificial feeding to suppress breastfeeding. With this situation, we have to highlight the nutritious and healthy nature of mother’s milk. Breastmilk substitutes trigger impairment in children and we should fight against it. The world breastfeeding conference aimed at popularizing the significance of infant feeding globally. H.E. Manohar Parrikar of Goa called on participants to take up issues related to policy gaps if change has to be achieved in the struggle for child survival and especially to support women to improve on child health and nutrition. India has a ministry for health and family welfare and another ministry for women and child development. For more information, click on the following web pages – http://uk.youtube.com/camlink99/ - http://camlinknews.blogspot.com/2012/12/breastfeeding-gets-into-worldwide_5124.html

Breastfeeding Gets Into Worldwide Development Agenda

By James Achanyi-Fontem, Email: camlink99@gmail.com

The World Breastfeeding Conference 2012 theme, “ Babies Need Mom Made Not Man Made” was echoed in over 100 presentations in three busy working days by facilitators and over 800 participants from 84 countries. This articles points out some of the strong statements by presenters. Dr. Arun Gupta highlighted the advantages of breastmilk in a paper, saying that junk food cause girls to hit puberty at the age of 6 years, bananas may soon become a critical food sources for millions of people and replace potatoes as a staple diet due to climate change according to recent research. Healthy diet can prevent second heart attack because this has been seen as powerful as pills and healthy life is what mothers and their babies deserve. Breastfeeding can save 22% of new born babies, especially as the first 1.000 days shape the health life of the baby.

Prof. Anwar Fazal had presented the past icons of breastfeeding promotion and what they all left behind as a memorial legacy. Dr. Nicholas Alipui, the UNICEF Director of Programmes in New York presented a paper which revealed that breastfeeding is on the development agenda worldwide, as he highlighted the successes, challenges and way forward. Dr. Alipui said, what is hampering progress is the lack of a common agenda with a shared vision of change and the orphan issue is not grounded in a cohesive advocacy with the communities. The industries act as counter forces. The bottle neck at programme level is the under-estimation and inadequate recognition of impact, the absence of effective, comprehensive approaches at scale, interventions are not optimally implemented, slow and not tangible behaviour change, while HIV and infant feeding makes issues more complex and confusing.

Some of the opportunities are the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) action with focus on a promise renewed, quality of education/learning link to Nutrition, early Childhood Development, greater focus on gender equality and support to national movements for the expansion of health campaigns to involve community workers. UNICEF has produced a good number of IYCF tool and reviews to facilitate achievement of goals within communities and health facilities. Another strong intervention was made on how to enhance breastfeeding rates globally by Dr F. Branca, Director of Nutrition for health development department at the World Health Organisation head quarters.

It was made known that on the 26th May 2012 at the WHA, Member States committed to tackle global nutrition challenges. The six nutrition targets agreed on include reduction of childhood stunting by 40%, reduction of anemia in women of reproductive age by 50%, reduction of Low Birth Weight by 30%, 0% increase in childhood overweight, increase exclusive breastfeeding rates in the first 6 months up to 50% and reduction and maintaining childhood wasting to less than 5% The actions recommended include: ACTION 1: To create a supportive environment for the implementation of comprehensive food and nutrition policies ACTION 2: To include all required effective health interventions with an impact on nutrition in plans for scaling up ACTION 3: To stimulate the implementation of non health interventions with an impact on nutrition ACTION 4: To provide adequate human and financial resources for the implementation of health interventions with an impact on nutrition ACTION 5: To monitor and evaluate the implementation of policies and programmes The factors for successful breastfeeding promotion include: 1. implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes 2. Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) 3. Advocacy, training and education of health professionals 4. Community-based promotion and support 5. Maternity legislation and workplace support Participants at the World Breastfeeding Conference in New Delhi, India were reminded of the Innocenti Declaration and countries that have not already accomplished the following, should plan to: 1. a national BF coordinator and establish a multisectoral national BF committee. 2. Ensure that every facility providing maternity services fully practice all the “Ten steps to successful BF”. 3. Give effect to the principles and aim of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly resolutions (Code). 4. Enact imaginative legislation to protect the BF rights of working women. 5. Develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a comprehensive policy on infant and young child feeding. 6. Ensure that the health and other relevant sectors protect, promote and support EBF for six months and continued BF up to two years of age or beyond. 7. Promote timely, adequate, safe and appropriate complementary feeding with continued BF. 8. Provide guidance on feeding infants and young children in exceptionally difficult circumstances. 9. Consider new legislation or other measures to give effect to the principles and aim of the Code.

PCF7 Holds In Abuja, Nigeria from 2 - 6 December, 2013

Courtesy of COL Monthly Bulletin

COL's Seventh Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF7) holds in Abuja, Nigeria from 2 - 6 December 2013. It will be co-hosted by the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is the lead partner institution. The theme of PCF7 is "Open Learning for Development: Towards Empowerment and Transformation" and sub-themes announced include: Girls' and Women's Education, Skills Development, Promoting OER, Innovation and Technology, with Institutional Development Established in 1988, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) was inspired by the vision that the peoples of the Commonwealth must and can have access to knowledge, regardless of where they live and whether they are rich or poor. Member governments have given COL a mandate to encourage the development and sharing of open and distance learning knowledge, materials, expertise, technologies and other resources. Working with, and providing services to hundreds of institutions throughout the 54-member Commonwealth, COL is helping to increase the capacities of developing nations to meet the demands for improving access to quality education and training. COL's Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning is held biennially. It is co-hosted with different partners in different regions of the Commonwealth each time. The five-day programme is designed to explore applications of open and distance learning in widening educational access, bridging the digital divide and advancing the social and economic development of communities and nations at large. The Forum's focus is on topics relating to developing countries and participation of practitioners from these countries. COL's Excellence in Distance Education Awards are also presented at the Forum. The Sixth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF6) took place from 24 - 28 November 2010 at Le Méridien Cochin Resort & Convention Centre (Kochi, Kerala), India, in partnership with India's Indira Gandhi National Open University. Theme: "Access & Success in Learning: Global Development Perspectives." The Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF5) was held in London, from 13-17 July 2008, hosted in collaboration with the University of London. Over 700 educators from more than 70 countries explored how open and distance learning can help achieve international development goals and education for all. The Commonwealth of Learning held the First Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning in Brunei Darussalam, followed by the Second Forum in 2002 in Durban, South Africa. The Third Pan-Commonwealth Forum was held 4-8 July 2004 in Dunedin, New Zealand, and PCF4 was held in Ocho Rios, Jamaica from 30 October - 3 November 2006. For more information, visit the following link - http://www.col.org

Cameroon Breastfeeding Trends 2012 Reassessed

By Camlink News, Email: camlink99@gmail.com

IBFAN Africa and Cameroon Link have conducted a three-day workshop from 24-28 October 2012, to orient the government of Cameroon on how to conduct periodic monitoring and evaluation of infant and young child feeding practices, policies and programmes using a simple to use World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) tool. The workshop was held at Hotel du Rail Bonaberi-Douala for 16 participants who came from the government, Civil Society Organisations (CSO), Infant Feeding advocacy groups. Being gender sensitive, training and the breastfeeding trends reassessment included men, women and youth group representatives. The workshop was facilitated by the Regional Coordinator of IBFAN Africa, Mrs. Joyce Chanetsa, and the Coordinator of IBFAN Cameroon Link Group, James Achanyi-Fontem, who triples as the National President of the Federation of Cameroon Breastfeeding Promotion Associations (FECABPA) and Liaison person of COL Cameroon Link Partnership and Men’s Initiative coordinator.

The objectives of the workshop were to sensitize participants on the Global strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding and how it is linked to the WBTi tool; to impart knowledge and skills on the application of the WBTi tool for monitoring and evaluation as well as for advocacy and action to improve infant and young child feeding; to discuss unique national situations as regards the tool; Identify sources of representative local data and methods of its gathering them. This led to the development of an action plan from the reassessment. According to the regional coordinator of IBFAN Africa, the workshop achieved its objectives and beyond as it was able to conduct a rough score of Cameroon (95.5/150 or 63.6 %) achievement on implementation of the Global Strategy of Infant and Young Child Feeding (GSIYCF). The team came up with a concrete plan to utilize the draft assessment results to advocate for further action using the community radio stations, national TV channels, newspaper publications and internet web sites and blog. The Regional Coordinator of IBFAN Africa appeared on national CRTV after meetings held in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon. During the meetings with top level officials and decision makers, Mrs. Chanetsa made calls for further action on the issue and invited Cameroon to participate in the World Breastfeeding Conference scheduled in New Delhi, India from the 6th – 9th December, 2012. Cameroon achievements on implementation of Global Strategy 1. Excellent initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth (95.6%). 2. Cameroon has a national Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, even though it is not enforced and it has no sanctions. 3. Many health facilities in Cameroon practice kangaroo care to provide care to low birth weight or pre-term infants. 4. Community based support by mother support groups is fairly good, except that there is lack of optimal and correct information for mothers and community workers. 6. The World breastfeeding Week is celebrated nationally annually. Identified major gaps 1. Too early introduction of other foods and water (26.2%) and too late introduction of appropriate complementary foods (20%). 2. Lack of a National Coordinator for infant and young child feeding in the Ministry of Public Health and a national coordinating committee supported by the Ministry of Public Health and fully responsible for IYCF. 3. The National Code of Marketing is not translated into English so that all can understand and it lacks sanctions. 4. Information, education and communication efforts are only reaching 58% of the population. 5. High bottle feeding practices for infant 0-6 months (26%) 6. No efforts are made to implement BFHI in health facilities. 7. No awareness of infant feeding in emergencies. 8. On Maternity protection, not all provisions of the ILO 183 Convention are addressed and there is no protection of agricultural workers and those in the informal sector. 9. There is need to know more about what is happening to mothers who are HIV positive in terms of infant feeding. Opportunities 1. Cameroon has over 75 community radio stations that are not fully utilized by the government to disseminate information on infant and young child feeding education. 2. Cameroon boasts of having a good national Federation of Cameroon Breastfeeding Promotion Associations, FECABPA; it is host of the Men’s Initiative of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, (WABA). 3. Good relationships between Cameroon Link, IBFAN Africa, Commonwealth of Learning and the Government. 4. The government was fully supportive of the WBTi workshop and the gathering of preliminary data. Key recommendations made to the government and local partners 1. Appoint a national Coordinator for infant and young child feeding who is in a senior position and create a national committee answerable to the Ministry of Public Health. 2. The government should have a budget for implementing infant and young child feeding programme. 3. The government should translate the national Code into English so that all can benefit and it should revise the Code so that it includes sanctions. 4. The government, WHO and UNICEF to initiate urgent opportunities to train health workers on BFHI and implement the BFHI in health facilities and communities. 5. The government needs to integrate guidelines on infant feeding in emergencies within the nutrition policy. 5. The Government with the support of WHO and UNICEF to improve monitoring and evaluation of IYCF indicators within existing systems. Official opening of WBTi Re-assessment In the welcome address, the national coordinator of IBFAN Cameoon Goup, James Achanyi-Fontem said, Cameroon is honored to have another opportunity for an orientation and reassessment training workshop on the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). He thanked Mrs. Joyce Chanetsa, the Regional Coordinator of IBFAN Africa who included Cameroon on the list of countries to benefit from the training and reassessment on the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). He recalled that Cameroon undertook the first assessment in November 2009.

He thanked the government through the ministry of public health for allowing the reassessment to happen and to the patronage it. He acknowledged that since the first assessment, many changes have taken place though the influence and guidance of the Minister of Public Health. The secondary data was reached for preparation of this re-assessment using WHO/UNICEF data and information system for analyzing the 15 key indicators of Cameroon’s trends so far documented. The data used during the WBTi training and reassessment in Cameroon are based on information collected from the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) in Cameroon, statistics from the Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Planning, Programming and Territorial Development, WHO, UNICEF and ILO sources in Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon. The department for health promotion in the ministry of public health contributed through researched data as the policy and decision making channel within the frame work of its collaboration with Cameroon Link, FECABPA and IBFAN Cameroon Group that reports regularly on all its activities. He concluded by saying, since the government is working on putting in place a national nutrition programme, the opportunity of the training and re-assessment was used to advise the Cameroon government, on the key areas of budgeting for achieving successful breastfeeding in a country. He explained that in most countries of the world, a national budget for breastfeeding promotion activities is broken down to cover the following key expenditure lines: • budget for training in IYCF counselling, • budget for Code implementation and protection of breastfeeding • budget for promoting maternity benefits, • budget for policy development of breastfeeding/IYCF promotion, • budget for developing and promotion of legislation on the Code, • budget for promotion of the setting up of good crèche systems, • and a budget for annual operating costs of the nutrition programme. 8 If the government improves on its policy by taking decisions to make the necessary resources available, breastfeeding rates will increase from the current 20% to 65% by the year 2015, he concluded. It was highlighted that UNICEF is working with communities and the government to increase access to sanitation from 33 per cent to over 60 per cent by 2015. During the training, paticipants had the opportunity to listen to Mrs. Tamfu Hanson Ghandhi, a Cameroonian UN volunteer on emergencies, who had the opportunity to serve in Rwanda. He addressed the unpreparedness situation of Cameroon in handling emergency situations in flood regions and where there has been an influx of refugees in the north and east regions of Cameroon. Tamfu Hanson Ghandhi observed that the influx of refugees create silent emergency in some parts of Cameroon apart from the natural disasters, which have become more and more regular. The participants agreed that additional challenges facing refugee children in Cameroon include the lack of birth registration as well as an increase in child sexual exploitation, early marriages and early pregnancies. IBFAN Cameroon National Coordinator, James Achanyi-Fontem made a call for aid to Cameroon saying, “unless the Cameroonian Government and host communities receive the support they need to develop long-term solutions, the silent emergencies will continue to grow. The Regional Coodinator, Mrs. Chanetsa emphasized the fact that over 2.000.000 child deaths is recorded each year due to poor infant feeding practices, and the strategy ensues that mothers feed their babies properly. She explained how the Innocenti Declaration came about with its objective in 2003 and was revised in 2005. The Innocenti Declaration was actually to show young mothers how to breastfeed rightly. It was within the frame work of the declaration that Cameroon came out in December 2005 with an act of the national code for regulating the marketing of breastmilk substitutes throughout the territory. It was observed that the breastfeeding mothers are not protected after delivering their babies, most especially working mothers. The addition targets aim to remedy some of the IYCF lapses in a way to promote timely, adequate, safe and appropriate complementary feeding with continued breastfeeding by providing guidance on IYCF. The head of the health plannification service at the regional delegation for public health in the littoral, Mr. Ekoum Joseph (MPH), officially opened the workshop with an acknowledgement to IBFAN Africa and the Commonwealth of Learn9ng for their support and efforts towards improvement of Infant and Young Child Feeding, IYCF, through community education strategies. He thanked Mrs. Joyce Chanetsa, the regional coordinator of IBFAN Africa for including Cameroon on the list of countries that have benefited from the training and reassessment in the Africa region. In a record card briefing, comments and recommendations were made as follows: Overall Comments: Cameroon has moved from 79,5% to 95,5% showing slight progress. The red and yellow colour rated areas should be seen as priority for government and stakeholders to act on urgently. Overall Recommendations The assessors encouraged the government to enforce the legislation already put in place. The government decisions should ensure that business is done within the respect of laws put in place, as tools for the protection of the mothers and their babies. The participants strongly recommend that the government should prioritize the following programme areas: Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), Infant feeding during emergencies, Ensure that the median duration of breastfeeding is increased in the community and that bottle feeding should be strongly discouraged. Government is encouraged to develop an infant and young feeding policy and put in place the necessary structure for implementation.

Cameroon Link Installs WOCOTOMADI in Cameroon

Cameroon Link had the priviledge to chair the installation cermony of the Cameroon agency of the International Humanitarian NGO, Coming Together To Make A Difference (WOCOTOMADI) recently in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon. Cameroon Link was identified as the premium humanitarian and not-for-profit NGO with the longest experience and impact working with underpriviledged communicties in Cameroon for over 20 years.During the installation ceremony, he made a call for good will countires and individual to extend a hand to the needy in Cameroon.

The speech delivered by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cameroon Link in his capacity as the President of the Board of Directors of WOCOTOMADI, is shared with you on this page. To start, he said in his own words that, "It is a singular pleasure for me to be here in Yaounde as the Chairman of WOCOTOMADI Cameroon, to preside over the installation of the national executive bureau of WOCOTOMADI. He added that it should not be a surprise to many and this gave him the opportunity to introduce his person and past activities. "I am James Achanyi-Fontem, who coordinates a number of non governmental organizations and civil society organizations like WOCOTOMADI in Cameroon, which has head quarters in Bedford. Massachusetts, United States of America. The head quarters of Cameroon is in Grand Hangar-Bonaberi in a neighbourhood of Douala City. I am the Executive Director of Cameroon Link Human Assistance Programme,that triples as National President of the Federation of Cameroon Breastfeeding Promotion Associations, FECABPA, Liaison person of the Commonwealth of Learning Cameroon Link partnership, Focal Point of National Coordinator of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN Cameoon Group) and International Coordinator of the Men’s Initiative of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, WABA.

From the above, you will understand that the activities of Cameroon Link are purely humanitarian and similar to those of WOCOTOMADI, which is a non-profit making and charitable organization registered in the USA only in July 2011 in Massachusetts, Unites States of America. According to the activity sheet already presented, WOCOTOMADI is assisting the most vulnerable populations of Cameroon to improve on their well being, living standard, attainment of education and perfect health. - WOCOTOMADI works for the prevention of poverty, hunger and diseases, - WOCOTOMADI promotes education for all - WOCOTOMADI promotes gender equality, better conditions of Women, old peresons. That is what Cameroon Link does and for several years, Ms. Julienne SIWE Ngongang, the founding president of WOCOTOMADI, has continued to devote most of her time thinking about the opportunity to show case her esteem for the marginalized. The primary mission of your organization is to help the vulnerable and fight against extreme poverty without moving away from the major concern of governments and international organizations to contribute to the education of all around the world , extension of the New Information and Communication Technology. Agriculture which is the cornerstone of the third world economy, is promoted as a means to fight against hunger through viable action plans and research developed with other international organizations like the UNDP, WHO, and the FAO.

From the above, it is clear that the World Coming Together to Make a Difference, resulted from much thought when it started to realize that sustainable development cannot be achieved without the fight against extreme global poverty, promotion of health for all, education of all, the promotion of the use of ICT at all levels to improve exchange of information internationally, and also to create an atmosphere of love, harmony and solidarity among peoples around the world. The World Coming Together to Make a Difference is already wll implanted in Haiti, Benin, Senegal, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Portugal and the United States of America. The installation of the national bureau will open the doors for collaboration with the groups in others countries. With the support of support of partners the Cameroon branch will be aiming at achieving activities that target the objectives of the UN Millennium Development Goals to: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2. Achieve universal primary education for all; 3. Promote gender equality and empower women; 4. Reduce child mortality; 5. Improve maternal health; 6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases; 7. Ensure environmental sustainability; 8. Development of global partnership for development With this, Iwould like to use the powers vested in me by the chairman to install the National Executive Bureau of WOCOTOMADI Cameroon. Those installed today, the 7th October 2012 are the following: National President : Louis Pierre WESE Vice President: Gweth Ngwend Mabo Secretary General: Nyobe Emma Odette Assistant Secretary: Rose Mary Ngassa National Treasurer: Ndengue Pierre Assistant Treasurer: Augustine Njioya Auditor: Ottou Melkissedek Plannification and Development head: Djeumo Dieudonne Health and Community Action head: Mrs. Tepou Zang Animation and social mobilization: Timothee ZOGO Accounting Logistics head: Etoa Maguerite Communication Coordinator: Francois Bikoro Public Relations: Elisabeth Noubia

This statement will be communicated to the international bureau of WOCOTOMADI in the USA for documentation and information of the network members in other countries. WOCOTOMADI, PO Box 5035 New Bedford, MA 02742 USA Tel:781-249-6061 Fax: 508-297-3614 Email: contact@wocotomadi.org Long Live WOCOTOMADI, Long Live Cameroon After the installation of the the3 board of directors, the president was advised to start the admistrative procedure for authoritisation of existence since the Cameroon law oit is within the legal frame of national active organisations that there would be mutual and fruitful exchanges with other WOCOTOMADI branches around the world. For the expansion of the humanitarin work in Cameroon, make a donation and contact us to make a difference.Send your donation or contribution and email us at: camlink99@gmail.com or jafontem@yahoo.com for it to be highlighted in the records and publications. Remember that,"For everything we give we receive a hundred fold".