Cameroon Link Joins Madam Chantal Biya In “MY BET FOR 2030”

By Helen Ayamba, Email: camlink99@gmail.com

The Executive Director of Cameroon Link, James Achanyi-Fontem and the Administrative Assistant, Ms. Helen Ayamba, represented their Development and HumanitarianNGO during the three-day intense training organised by Synergies Africaines in Douala the economic capital of Cameroon to launch activities which will lead to eliminating HIV and AIDS by the year 2030. Synergies Africaines contre le SIDA et les souffrances is a PAN African Organisation of First Ladies led by Cameroon’s First Lady, Mrs. Chantal Biya. Mrs. Chantal Biya, the Founder of Synergies Africaines is also UNESCO Ambassador of Good Will and Special Ambassdor of UNAIDS.

Representing the First Lady at the launching of the training in Douala, His Excellency, Governor of Littoral region, Samuel Ivaha Diboa, told participants that after thirty years since the discovery of the first case of AIDS, it is still a public health threat all over the world. Despite the efforts made here and there and despite downward trend, the pandemic persists, Governor Ivaha Diboa emphasized.

The Policy Declaration of the United Nations Organisation on HIV/AIDS is a clarion call to the international community, which pushes Synergies Africaines and Cameroon Link to get engaged in the struggle for eliminating HIV by 2030. The Secretary General of Synergies Africaines, Jean Stephane Biatcha, told participants and top level authorities at the training that the 2015 deadline that had initially been setfor the eradicstion of AIDS is passed and no country on our planet has achieved the set objective. This is why the United Nations Organisation set the new deadline to eliminate AIDS by the year 2030. In order to achieve this new objective, all means must be put in place to fast-track the response. It is within this context that the training was one of exchanging experiences and testimonies to guide the participants in view of building action plans and strategies that work within their different communities. The campaign dubbed “MY BET FOR 2030” was decided by Mrs. Chantal Biya, Founding President of AFRICAN SYNERGY to express her will to join UNAIDS initiative, which is to FAST-track to end HIV and eradicate the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The objectives of this new phase of activities are expected to: Ameliorate prevention of VIH Promote screening of HIV and other STI Create cells for caring for the HIV infected and affected with enterprises and communities. Focal Points have been trained and they now have to train community health relay agents across the country. “MY BET FOR 2030” initiative looks ambitious and promises to have durable impact within all communities in Cameroon. For a start, three cities of Cameroon were selected as the first targets and these are Douala in the Littoral Region, Bafoussam in the West Region and Bertoua in the East Region. The training in Douala brought together 125 Civil Society Leaders and the target is to train 300 in the three regions before the end of the first phase of Mrs. Chantal Biya’s action to fight against AIDS and eliminate suffering within African communities. Pr Joseph Pierre Fouda, Director of Yaoundé Central Hospital and an expert of Synergies Africaines made a presentation on the programme of “MY BET FOR 2030”, in which he said the initiative of Mrs. Chantal Biya, Special Ambassador of UNAIDS translates her will to render concrete the poliyical decision on HIV and AIDs prevention in Cameroon by accelerating the riposte of the epidemic by 2030 as endorsed during the conference organised in New York, USA in June 2016.

In effect, all stakeholders will have to accelerate sensitisation on screening for a better care of infected and affected persons through essential actions for meeting the international objective. Some indicators justify this decision, especially as the prevalence is 4.3% in Cameroon, but the screening rate remains low: 46% for women and 58% for men. There is also the weak knowledge on the means of prevention of HIV. Only 26% for women and 35% for men aged between 15 and 49 years have the knowledge and this has to be increased with multi-partnership which is more practical with only 29% for men and 6% for women. This can be improved with the vulgarisation of the actions of focal points through capacity building yraining on HIV and AIDS.

Adhesion to voluntary screening initiative needs to be accelerated, promotion of activities at the level of enterprises and facilitation of the 90-90-90 objective by 2020. The strategy put in place targets specific groups which include leaders of women’s associations, leaders of NGOs like Cameroon Link with activities that focus on HIV prevention and the promotion of wellbeing, focal points in municipal councils, and leaders of professional associations of young persons like bike riders, drivers, call-box operators, barbers and hair dressers with senior staff of enterprises. The outcome of this programme is expected to lead to the organisation of several mass sensitisation campaigns with the environment of focal points after the training in the first three regions. Thiswill see an increase in the number of persons who go for voluntary testing and return to receive their results.

Another key outcome would be to see at 10 enterprises in each of the regions engaged in the fight against HIV by putting in place structures for carrying out activities with their institutions. The trained focal points are expected to assist in orienting management and persons who are in need of assistance for HIV and AIDs care. It is understood that the participants of the training by Synergies Africaines now have the capacity in the areas of sensitisation, counselling and communication in matter related to HIV and AIDS. The participants also have the capacity of transmitting to their pairs the information and knowledge gathered during the training in Douala. The participants received all the necessary tools to organise activities on HIV prevention in their different areas of jurisdictions, especially as its concerns scouting for funds and materials to facilitate their work and orient persons in need of doing the HIV test and receiving their results. It is expected that the managers of companies and enterprises will put in place 50 more units in each region for management of activities related to HIV and AIDS. The outcomes would highlight impact in the enterprises for greater productivity and benefits. The take away message was that HIV and AIDS is like any chronic pathology. We should ameliorate the rate of persons who engage in doing their HIV test and orient any person in search of HIV and AIDs information and create HIV counselling cells within the communities.

Official Ceremony Videos Representative of Douala ity ouncil https://youtu.be/iJBt8ehghJA Oga animates training of Synergies fricaines in Douala https://youtu.be/Ia1dGn4wK8g Jean Stephane Biatcha addresses participants during HIV Prevention workshop in Douala https://youtu.be/iv-H6ZR6veg Jean Stephane Biatcha calls for involvement of women and youths in HIV prevention campaigns https://youtu.be/PbA_60rknP8 Governor Samuel Ivaha Diboa presides over ynergies Africaines IV prevention training in Douala https://youtu.be/HrTddidVFds Governor Samuel Ivaha Diboa invites all to join Mrs. Hantal Biya in her humanitarian mission https://youtu.be/jdicZDoY6m0 Suivez l'intégralité de la formation des leaders socioprofessionnels dans la lutte contre le Sida, qui s'est tenue à Douala du 27 au 29 septembre 2016. Jour 1 (Cérémonie de lancement et début des enseignements) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCCSgJTQZiA Jour 2 (Suite des enseignements) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fS47VNC4Ys Jour 3 (Fin des enseignements et remise des attestations) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx4L5HWM2Eo