Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
Emmanuel Kendemeh
7 March 2006
Since yesterday, March 6, government officials, as well as some Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), youth associations and the civil society have been undertaking activities within the 2006 Commonwealth week that takes place under the theme, "health and vitality, a Commonwealth challenge". Information from the Commonwealth Secretariat states the organisation's goal in the health domain being, " to strengthen health systems and programmes on HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality, infant mortality and the migration of human resources in health".
The government has manifested its full support for this year's Commonwealth Day on March 13. Under the coordination of the Commonwealth Department at the Ministry of External Relations, a series of activities mostly to enhance healthcare are being organised. The officer in charge of press matters at the Commonwealth Department, Njoka Godlive said that early this morning, the CRTV radio programme, "CRTV m'accompagne" will focus on cardio-vascular diseases. The Ministry of Public Health is an active partner in the week's activities. As such, he said health experts from the Ministry have to participate in the programme to drill the population on the various ways of preventing and treating diseases such as blood pressure, weight, diabetes, cancer, etc. The Ministry of Public Health will on Thursday organise free screening at the Yaounde Gynaecological, Obstetrics and Paediatrics Hospital in Ngoussou.
The Commonwealth officials say the activities organised during Commonwealth week mostly target youths. It is for this reason that youth associations and NGOs are involved in a series of activities during the week. Under the coordination of the Ministry of Secondary Education, there will be clean up campaigns in schools nationwide tomorrow morning aimed at inculcating the spirit of hygiene and sanitation in the students.
The Commonwealth week in Cameroon this year seeks to dwell address health information from the Commonwealth Secretariat that, "two thirds of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS are Commonwealth citizens and nine of the most heavily infected countries are in the Commonwealth". As such, besides educative talks on drug abuse, bird flu, etc , experts will on Thursday, March 9 drill youths on HIV/AIDS. For the nation's capital, this will take place at the Multipurpose Centre Madagascar, Government Bilingual High School Essos, Government Bilingual Practising High School and Mevick Grammar School at Etoug-Ebe. Officials at the Commonwealth Department say that in order to let Cameroonians master the theme of the Commonwealth Day, there will be a CRTV radio network programme on Friday morning with participants from several horizons.
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