CECPES Graduates 9th Batch of Social Workers
The Center for Clinical Pastoral Education and Social Services (CECPES) under the umbrella of the Cameroon Baptist Health Services (CBCHS) has trained and graduated the 9th Batch of Social Workers. The 52 graduates received their certificates during a colourful ceremony on July 30, 2021 in the Director of Health Services (DHS) Hall in Bamenda.
These trainees have been well equipped to attend to the many psycho social needs of the community through intensive and extensive courses, and intense practicum sessions. As a requirement, the social workers also wrote and defended Practicum Reports on their experiences in the field. The training of this batch comes to add to the many batches already graduated from the school. The needs of the community especially the psycho social needs of Cameroonians within the context of the double crises in the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon is timely. The two crises in question are the armed conflict and the Coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Nfor Emmanuel, representative of the DHS at the ceremony, challenged the graduates to put to use the skills they have acquired to bring solutions to the many psycho social issues our society is facing nowadays.
The training involved about 15 different modules, with intensive and extensive students. Students for the intensive training course came every day for six months while those for the extensive training course came three times a week.
“The crisis has come with several challenges including psychosocial trauma, people who have lost everything, as well as people with suicidal thoughts. It is very necessary because the trainee will be able to go out there in this context of the crisis and COVID-19 and help the victims in terms of their psycho social needs,” explained Dr. Nfor.
The Director of CECPES, Rev. Dr. Ndongndeh Godlove also called on the graduates to carry on a good image and transmit values that are representative of the institution they emanate from.
Handing over their certificates, the Director of CECPES encouraged them to shine the light in a dark world.
The excitement with which the class representative presented their speech was evident to the fact that the graduating students had been well trained. They took their pledges of confidentiality after before receiving their end of course certificates.
Lolo Mirabel Ngum, one of the extended course student shared her experience, “The training has impacted my life tremendously. I have got to see many people going through psychological issues due to the crisis during my internship and I was able to provide them with psychological first aid. It makes me feel happy seeing the change I could impact in the lives of distressed people, and see many people smile because of the psycho social counseling I offered. I have come to realize who I am and the environment in which I live also helped me to learn coping strategies. I am happy that today, I can impact people’s lives”.
The occasion was graced by Stakeholders like Plan International and Caritas among others.
This year’s batch has been Christened, “The Batch of Excellence”.