23, May 2021
Cameroonians still adamant in getting Covid-19 vaccines 0
At a local Covid-19 vaccination center in Yaoundé, Cameroon just a few people have come to get the jab. Among them is Menan Germain an expatriate.
After learning about the procedure, he is ready to be injected with the Chinese dose, called Sinopharm. For him, taking this vaccine is a matter of trust.
Despite the struggle to get an appointment, Germain finally got through.
“We can’t destroy a whole population, so I’m confident about the vaccine. I tell myself that it is a safe product, otherwise it would not be put it on the market”, Germain said.
Like him, other Chinese expatriates have been jabbed here. Unfortunately, no Cameroonian in sight. 90% of those who come for the vaccines are non-citizens.
Chinese and the nationals of other countries were counted among those who received their dose during this first vaccination campaign, and according to a source at this regional vaccination center, Cameroonians were in the minority of those who took the vaccine.
For the few Cameroonians who come to be vaccinated, it’s only for travel reasons. As a result, out of the 700,000 doses that the country has received, only 45,000 people have been inoculated.
Dr. Shalom Tchokfe Ndoula is Permanent Secretary of the Expanded Program of Immunization of Cameroon (EPI).
“We vaccinated more than 45,000 people in Cameroon for the first phase of our vaccination campaign. In reality, this did not reach our maximum capacity to offer services, which means that we could have vaccinated more for the same period”, Dr. Tchokfe Ndoula said.
He said they’ve hardly reached the 10% of the expected numbers for this first month of vaccination. According to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), the low number of vaccination centers in the country, is due to the fact that social media users have managed to make Cameroonians believe that the Covid-19 vaccine is dangerous for people of color.
As a result, vaccination centers are empty and on the street, Cameroonians openly express their opposition to this vaccine. This is the case of Guillaume Paul Mouté, a believer in medicinal herbs.
‘’I find the vaccine very controversial. Because for most of the time for a vaccine there should be time, there is not enough time and barely 6 months we start to vaccinate people. When you go to the hospital you don’t find BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin, a vaccine for Tuberclosis disease), nor any other vaccine, but you find this one. Why do we give it so much importance?”, Paul Mouté queried.
Mass sensitization campaign
In addition to these poor results, an internal EPI survey revealed that 37% of doctors and medical staff are unwilling to receive any vaccine, casting doubt on its reliability.
The situation has prompted the EPI to review its strategy through a mass sensitization campaign, even if it means employing door- to- door campaign to explain to the population about the safety of the vaccines.
The campaign comes at a time when a report of the Cameroonian Chamber of Commerce has found authorities and ministers guilty for dubiously mismanaging funds intended for the fight against Covid -19 in this Central African nation.
While the country awaits a third shipment of vaccines to arrive, the program is concerned about what will happen if the first tranche is not utilized.
Source: Africa News
23, May 2021
Canadian mother of three trying to raise money to send her Cameroonian husband’s body back home after he was killed in a car crash 0
A mother of three young children is trying to raise money to send her husband’s body back to Cameroon after he was killed earlier this month in a car crash in Arnprior, Ont.
Franck Nana Ngassa, 32, died in hospital after rolling his car near Baskin Drive West on May 13, according to Ontario Provincial Police.
“He was a good father,” said Josie Pichette, his wife. “His kids loved him so much. Everybody, anybody that met him, loved him. He just had one of those personalities.”
The family is trying to raise about $19,000 to send Nana Ngassa’s body home to his central African homeland, so that his family can bury him according to local customs.
Pichette said she’d discussed with her husband his strong desire to be buried in Cameroon if anything were to happen.
“All of his ancestors are buried in the same place,” she said. “And that’s where he needs to go.”
‘I couldn’t breathe’
The two met in a grocery store in 2013.
Pichette said Nana Ngassa, a software engineer who moved to Canada to study at the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College, won her over with his bubbly personality and landed her phone number.
They were married nine months later.
A lover of cars, Nana Ngassa had bought one of his dream models, a E550 Mercedes-Benz, two months before the May 13 crash.
He had purchased the specific make and model for its safety features, Pichette said, but with that car in the shop, he’d taken a loaner out for a spin after she had gone to bed.
Pichette awoke to police knocking on her door at 1 a.m.
“I couldn’t breathe. I really could not breathe,” she said.
Pichette said it’s been difficult for their three children, Isaac, 6, Ethan, 3 and 11-month-old Makeba, who keep asking where their father is and calling his phone.
She said she’s been warmed by the Arnprior community’s outreach following her husband’s death, hearing from people she wasn’t aware knew Nana Ngassa.
That love, she said, is especially appreciated as people struggle with their own difficulties due to COVID-19.
Outpouring of support
Pichette is now determined to get her husband home.
While she may not fully understand the burial customs of Cameroon or the Banapeople he belonged to, Pichette said she knows her husband’s family wants to wash the body and prepare him for the afterlife.
With $3,000 raised so far, Pichette said she’s looking at remortgaging her house. She’s also sold some of her possessions, like the treadmill he gave her for Christmas, and said family overseas have also been raising funds to bring him home.
“It’s his last dying wish. That’s what he wanted,” she said. “I can’t not give that to him.”
Source: CBC.CA