Physical Health Cameroon Project #50508

Aviva Lilia Bernardo Kullberg Women in ScienceFund

by Open Dreams

Aviva Lilia Bernardo Kullberg Women in ScienceFund

Project Report | May 5, 2022
The Aviva Scholar Program

By Akaba James | Country Director, Open Dreams Cameroon

The Open Dreams Family in Yaounde at the hospital

It's always an honor to reach out with words of thanks to you all who make our work possible through donations.

On April 24th 2022, The Call for Applications for the Aviva Women in Science Program incorporating the Aviva Scholar Program was launched. It took four months of dedicated work spearheaded by a team consisting of four Medical Doctors, three members of the Open Dreams team to set the terms of and the tone for the Aviva Women in Science Program, one of our most cherished initiatives.

The Aviva Day 2021 was marked under the theme: "A Dream Deferred" and below is one of the messages we sent out: "What happens when the high expectations of a bouncy baby, especially for a new couple, turn out to be a long stay at the nursery of the hospital or frequent hospital visits, as a result of the baby being born with congenital anomalies? What can we together do to improve on maternal and child health? How can we improve on survival and wellbeing for infants? How can we reduce neonatal mortality? Catch up with some members of the Open Dreams Family as they explain the concept of the Aviva Day in this video and this one." We had weeklong community engagement activites, most of them centred on providing assisting for health care and giving out health talks.

At the moment, we are visiting universities and institutions and seeking oppportunities to promote research and community outreach programs as contained in the launch of the Women in Science Fund. We are all at the peak of it all.

Thank you for believing in us. Together, we work on promoting maternal and child health and human development.

A Dreams Deferred - getting to the mountain top

Resilience: Our strategic engagements

Links:

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Nov 12, 2021
Fresh Impetus

By James Akaba | Country Director, Open Dreams, Cameroon

December 2020 was a remarkable month. For the first time, Open Dreams Scholars in Bamenda, Buea, Douala and Yaoundé - Cameroon went deep into the hospitals with assistance to parents and kids enduring birth challenges. The outreach was unique and full of lots of lessons to learn. The scholars engaged medical practitioners, pediatricians, nurses, hospital authorities, social services and health-care providers on the major challenges they face while helping pregnant mothers to deliver safely. It's been a year long period of studies, research and engagement in medical education. Several communities where only basic medical services are available have been visited and health talks delivered alongside essential handouts. We have stepped up discussions on sexual reproductive health on the media while encouraging parents to take it as a duty a home; we also encourage schools to have that as part of their curriculum. The climax of that occurred as part of our team of scholars, had the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, chair the launching of a manual for schools in Cameroon which they authored.

This year, we have a focused group of female doctors who have taken up this cause. Some of them have had admission into graduate program on full scholarship. They are extremely active in community education on social media, TV/Radio Channels and community visits (volunteering).

As December 2021 approaches, we are looking into several outreach programs, accessing new communities and delivering essential medical assistance and sensitization. We are also looking into supporting more girls in medical schools working in the area of preventing maternal and infant mortality. All of these programs are planned for December 2021 and January 2022 and we are so excited about the prospects of working on this life-saving endeavor at a higher level. Your support to keep us going is so essential. Thank you for enabling us to serve the community in very impactful and life-saving ways

Dr. Gwanyama leading Reproductive Health talks

A photo after a health talk

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Jun 1, 2021
Girls taking the lead to curb neonatal fatalities

By James Akaba | Country Director, Open Dreams

Open Dreams Scholars at a hospital in Yaounde

According to OurWorldInData 2019 Statistics, 15,000 children die everyday, one-quarter of infants die in their first year of life and 1 in 27 children die before they reach the age of 5. Child Mortality is an everyday devastating tragedy of enormous scale that rarely makes the headlines.

In the celebration of the life of an Angel, Aviva Lilia, the Open Dreams Families in Bamenda, Buea, Douala and Yaounde visited the pediatric units (nurseries) of hospitals to comfort and celebrate Christmas with babies and children striving to survive infancy.

During the visit as part of their community engagement, Open Dreams Scholars listened to parents and medical personnel while drawing inspiration and reflecting on what we can all do scientifically, socially etc to reduce child and infant mortality rate and to improve survival and well-being.

The SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 were developed to promote healthy lives and well-being for all; to end preventable deaths of newborns and under-5 (#SDG3). By 2030, the target is to reduce infant mortality to as low as 12 per 1000 live births in every country, and to reduce under-5 mortality to as low as 25 per 1000 in every country.

To achieve the goals, we must co

Often times, loving and dedicated parents do their best to keep their babies alive after birth, but neonatal health complications, sometimes beyond our understanding, beyond our science and beyond exisiting medicine, lead to innocent lives ending too soon, as loved ones watch helplessly. According to OurWorldInData 2019 Statistics, 15,000 children die every day, one-quarter of infants die in their first year of life and 1 in 27 children die before they reach the age of 5. Child Mortality is an everyday devastating tragedy of enormous scale that rarely makes the headlines. In the celebration of the life of an Angel, Aviva Lilia, the Open Dreams Families in Bamenda, Buea, Douala and Yaounde visited the pediatric units (nurseries) of hospitals to comfort babies and children striving to survive infancy.

During the visit as part of their community engagement, Open Dreams Scholars listened to parents and medical personnel while drawing inspiration, reflecting and taking notes on what we can all do scientifically, socially etc to reduce child and infant mortality rate and to improve survival and well-being. The SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 were developed to promote healthy lives and well-being for all; to end preventable deaths of newborns and under-5 (#SDG3). By 2030, the target is to reduce infant mortality to as low as 12 per 1000 live births in every country, and to reduce under-5 mortality to as low as 25 per 1000 in every country.

To achieve the goals, we must commit to more medical research and innovation. It is on this basis that:

1) We have stepped up focus on medical research to curb neonatal fatalities. There is a specialized unit of medical scholars at Open Dreams across hospitals in Cameroon and beyond, doing research at the local level and making presentations to the Open Dreams Scholars at the Yaoundé Center on a regular basis.

2) We have a partnership with CORE Africa, an organization out to strengthen health research capacity. Over the past 5 months, we have held over 8 workshops.

3) Five members of the Open Dreams Family who are medical practitioners shall be heading to the UK and the USA to study specialized programs in the areas of population health and curbing infant mortality rate. Two others, are studying health programs in Ghana on a fee-paying basis, all with enormous financial support from Open Dreams. In all, there are 5 girls in the study program.

4) Some scholars returning for the summer holidays will be carrying out internship programs in the local hospitals, most of them focused on the causes of child mortality while seeking ways to reduce the rate.

5) More Open Dreams Scholars are taking an interest in health research, a priority area for our programs, which encourages innovation and solutions to community challenges.

With continues support and donations, we plan to assist more young girls into medical fields and to promote research on human development. Thank you for kick-starting it with your donations

Open Dreams Scholars at a hospital in Douala

Open Dreams Scholar-medics and others

"Thank You" - by Hospital Representative

Scholar Offers financial package to a hospital

Packages for sick babies

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