Hope for Pioneer Children Hospital in Cameroon gets Clearer
US-based Cameroonian born, Dr. Dan Gwan-Nulla is the bearer of a vision that children born in Cameroon and Africa deserve the same quality of care as those born in developed countries as the USA. The difference can be compared to darkness and daylight, but the highly skilled Cameroonian medic has a golden heart to light a candle in favour of children than curse the darkness and stay in oblivion.
His motivation is borne by the dismal statistics of infant mortality in Sub-Sahara Africa, the rate of kids dying before their fifth year is higher than anywhere in the world. “Personally, as I started doing mission work across Africa doing surgeries, I found out that children were not getting the kind of care they should; they were treated in Adult Hospitals that were not equipped to take care of them, so I found children dying of things they shouldn’t be dying of. At one point, I said I need to do something for my country, Cameroon which has the highest mortality rate in sub-Sahara Africa,” Dr. Gwan Nulla narrated.
This was the substance of a high-level meeting that was held on November 1, 2024, in the Chapel of Baptist Hospital Mutengene (BHM) to receive and listen to Dr. Gwan Nulla and a team of ten other experts in diverse fields of architecture, engineering, medicine, and fundraising among others to present their vision of a state-of-the-art Children Hospital to be built in a CBC Health Services facility in Mutengene. The team arrived in Cameroon on October 26, 2024, and had intensive working sessions with the CBC for the entire week.
The CBC officials led by the CBC Executive President, Rev. Nditemeh Charlemagne, and the CBC Chairman, Mr. Yosibom Mkong John listened keenly to the team who presented a Children’s Hospital that would be a novel in Cameroon and the African sub-region. Other officials included the Board chair of the CBCHS, CBC Directors of Health Services, Finance and Development, Women’s Department and the Education Secretary, CBC Field Pastors of Limbe and Fako, the pediatric doctor from Mbingo Baptist Hospital, the CMO of Baptist Hospital Mutengene and other key stakeholders like the media.
With open hands, the CBC chief executive, Rev. Dr. Nditemeh Charlemagne received the Children Hospital initiative. The EP pledged that the CBC will respect the sensibilities and sensitivities of the donors and requested them to do same to the CBC – referring to the organization’s values. He used the moment to present the organizational chart of the CBC beginning with the Executive President followed by the Chairman and Vice and Board Directors.
Like other speakers namely: The Director of Health Services (DHS), Mr. Ngum Samuel, former DHS, Prof. Tih Pius and the CBC Chairman, the EP, Rev. Dr. Nditemeh Charlemagne paid tribute to the team for leaving the comfort of their homes in the USA to come to Cameroon at this time. Prof. Tih felt privileged to be at the beginning of the initiative and remarked that the large number of the team, ten in number, speaks volume of their commitment. CBC Women’s Director, Mrs. Fubam Caroline described Dr. Dan Gwan Nulla as a ‘true son’. On behalf of the women and children of the CBC and Cameroon as a whole, she prayed God to bless him more.
Quizzed on how he came to know about the CBC Health Services, Dr. Gwan Nulla said he found the amazing activities of the organization on the CBC Health Services Website and he knew that someone serious was behind the activities leading the organization. He revealed that he contacted Prof. Tih Pius Muffih, Director of Health Services at the time with whom he started the discussions of a Children Hospital in the CBC.
One of the team members, Johan Verspyck, Director of Design, Building Health International said, they focus on health delivery structures in underserved communities in different parts of the world. He confessed that the CBC infrastructure that is in place in terms of organization is quite sophisticated and they are impressed with the organizational structure. According to him, what is missing is the physical infrastructure support staff, which is where they hope to come in to fill the gap. He believes that issues of immigration and migration around the world stems from inequalities. “The problems you have in Cameroon and across Africa are our problems as well, and we need to work in partnership with you to resolve those problems because we live in a global world,” he said emphatically.
The state-of-the-art facility has five main components: Quality of care, Operational efficiency, Technology and access to medication, Innovation and Sustainability. This makes the hospital a one-stop-shop where a child comes in and get the services of any specialist relating to the child’s pathology without referral to go elsewhere.
Funding to this project comes through the African Children’s Healthcare Fund. Before coming to the CBC Health Services in Cameroon, a similar Children Hospital has been constructed in Kenya.
