While Cameroon is peaceful compared to its volatile neighbours, its relative security means thousands of refugees flee across its border each year to escape violence back home. In recent years tens of thousands of people from Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Nigeria have fled into Cameroon. Though stable, an estimated 40 percent of Cameroon’s population lives below the poverty line, making it difficult to support the stream of refugees looking to rebuild their lives inside its borders.
International Medical Corps works along Cameroon’s eastern border, where thousands of refugees from Central African Republic have settled. We provide basic health care, including maternal and child health care, immunisation, and supplemental feeding services in the Djohong, Meiganga and Tibati districts of the remote Adamaoua region. We also deliver health care via mobile medical units (MMUs) that make services available to approximately 12,000 people. To help address the prevalence of malnutrition among refugees, International Medical Corps provides nutritional supplements to mothers and young children. We are also helping Cameroonians to strengthen local health care capacity by training traditional birth attendants and other health care providers throughout the country.
Primary Health Care
International Medical Corps works in rural and underserved areas, providing basic health care services to both refugee and host populations via 25 Mobile Medical Units, supporting Ministry of Health (MoH) clinics and hospitals, as well as training local health workers to strengthen capacity.
Our health care services in Cameroon include:
- Preventive and curative services through Mobile Medical Units
- Referrals to district health facilities for patients requiring more comprehensive care
- Reproductive health services, including ante-natal and post-natal care
- Insecticide-treated net distribution
- Malaria and acute respiratory illness case management
- Oral rehydration salts to treat diarrheal disease
- Provision of vital drugs and medical equipment to Mobile Medical Units and to other Ministry of Health facilities
- Outreach and awareness campaigns to communicate the range of medical services offered
In addition, International Medical Corps prioritises the training of Ministry of Health staff, birth attendants and community health workers to help Cameroon move towards self reliance.
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
International Medical Corps provides support and access to quality health services for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) in Cameroon’s Djohong district. Additionally, we implement community awareness campaigns to prevent further sexual and gender-based violence. In addition to providing emergency medical and reproductive services for GBV survivors from both refugee and host populations, International Medical Corps coordinates with local social workers to ensure that survivors are given ongoing care and support.
We also work to prevent sexual and gender-based violence and to reduce the stigma surrounding discussion of the topic through educational outreach and advocacy sessions in local communities. We help children and teen survivors reintegrate into schools and communities, whilst providing income-generation activities for older survivors.
In Djohong, International Medical Corps also trains paralegals to maximize the protection for survivors through the justice system. Working with local people – particularly community leaders – we also devise effective community-level strategies to prevent sexual and gender-based violence.
Nutrition amongst refugee populations
In response to high malnutrition rates within the refugee populations in Cameroon, International Medical Corps began a comprehensive, nationwide nutrition programme. Our services include nutrition screenings and supplementary and therapeutic feeding activities for children under five and for pregnant and lactating women. We also improve household nutrition practices through community outreach. Our local teams work with Ministry of Health staff to offer nutrition education and cooking demonstrations. We teach families how to get the most out of the food they have, and have also helped initiate community vegetable gardens to promote families to grow and eat more nutritious foods.
