Since it started in 2008, Spreading Health has worked in collaboration with SHUMAS to adapt to meet the needs of communities and the students as these have changed. With your help this is what we’ve achieved so far.
The scheme is now embedded with:
Monthly meetings with SHUMAS for all students at which they may present a case study and receive support.
A hardship fund for students
Pastoral care for students in training
Financial help with exam fees and thesis preparation
Support for post-qualification nurses re-integrating into communities in their new professional roles
Shumas had identified a need for health workers who could work in communities that had been displaced by the civil unrest. Spreading Health trustees felt this was a good use of funds, following the WHO Community Health Workers (CHW) training programme, 24 CHW were trained for Fungon, Wum, Batibo and Widikum health districts.
Because many people are now displaced, pregnant women who previously would have delivered in a health centre are now forced to give birth in the bush.
For this reason SHUMAS and SH discussed the provision of ‘Safe Birthing Kits’. On our visit in 2015, Julie Cotton, one the SH team and herself a lead nurse in UK, had locally sourced materials and created such kits which were dispensed as necessary.
Then in 2022 SHUMAS added a few items to the list making it a ‘Birthing and New Born kit’ and SH funded 260 of them.
Sadly there was a delay to the training and kit issuing due to lock-downs, ghost towns, road blocks and insecurity in most of the communities of the North West region of Cameroon where SH has been most active. Gradually the plans have been implemented and by the summer 50 CHW had been trained and 160 birthing packs distributed.
We aim to work in partnership with rural communities in the developing world who want to develop the health care in their villages.
UK Registered Charity Number: 1131624