Cameroon: Sisters’ hospital is a point of reference for 95,000 people

By Francesca Sabatinelli – Ngaoundal

“Real poverty in this country is often due to parental ignorance. » This is what nurses and doctors murmur as they cross the courtyard dominated by the rooms and departments.

Earthy tones abound in this low-slung structure, with its many exterior corridors divided by flower gardens.

The tenderness of the hospital staff towards the child patients is almost disarming. The reprimands they address to fathers and mothers are not accusations but rather a painful observation. In Cameroon, people continue to die because they turn to the sorcerer rather than hospitals.

At the Ngaoundal hospital, in the Adamawa province, in central Cameroon, one of the main commitments is precisely that of saving lives by snatching them from the hands of healers.

Malaria, tuberculosis and malnutrition

Opened in 2016 by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret, the hospital is a reference for nearly 95,000 people, and it does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity or religion. The facility mainly focuses on fighting tuberculosis, which is very common here.

“The most widespread and frequent disease is malaria,” explains the hospital director, Sister Christine Richard, originally from Switzerland. “We also find numerous respiratory pathologies, and an increasing number of cases of tuberculosis. Another big protagonist is malnutrition.

“There are children who arrive here with edema, a sign of protein deficiency”, caused by the abject poverty in which families live in this part of the world, but also in some cases because of polygamy, which It's not uncommon in this country. , given that the majority of the population is Muslim.

“If there is no agreement between the wives, or if the husband prefers one to the other,” explains the sister, “financial resources are not fairly distributed and it is often the children who bear the brunt.” the results. »

Poverty is by far the most tragic wound in Ngaoundal as in all of Cameroon. “We have not received our reimbursements for 11 months and the government has a debt of around 46,000 euros,” explains Sister Christine.

Through the eyes of children

The children's eyes are penetrating, but also frightened. They are silent, even the youngest, their big dark eyes looking out at the world, despite the needle in their little arm, despite the fact that for some of them even walking is difficult, weighed down by the weakness caused by malnutrition and disease.

The hospital staff, doctors and nurses, lay people and nuns, are always discreetly at their side. With kindness and delicacy, with caresses, smiles and great compassion, they do everything they can for patients and families, because there is no mother who does not stay with her own children, day and night, providing the food prepared in the structure herself. built by the hospital.

“One of the reasons why we, as a hospital, do not offer food to the sick,” continues Christine, “besides the fact that it would cost too much, is that the people, who here are for Most Muslims do not want to eat what they have themselves. I didn't prepare.

The influx remains the great drama of this place which offers all types of support, including spaces dedicated to ophthalmology, dental care, radiology and laboratory analyses, as well as modern equipment. Two operating theaters, including one for emergencies, operate 24/7.

Support from benefactors

The hospital, adds Sister Christine, “is not well-known enough, even if people really benefit from it.” In 2023, the average contribution was equal to 33 percent of the annual capital of the establishment, which, explains the sister, “is far too little to allow us to live peacefully”.

Poverty, but also the problem of sorcerers, makes the hospital an option only when it is already too late to guarantee survival.

Moreover, often, after spending money on healers, the sick do not have enough to pay the fees. Sister Christine's face cannot hide her worry, but is lit up with gratitude.

“Our hospital was built with the help of different benefactors,” she concludes. “Among them is Gruppo India, without which we would not have been able to purchase some of the equipment, just as we would not have been able to build certain structures and wells, which allow us to respond to another important emergency, namely the dramatic need for water.