CBR, Determined to Fish out, Treat Children with Clubfoot in Noun Division

For the first time in the history of Noun Division, some 13 children are undergoing treatment at the Baptist Health Center, Ngounso thanks to the extension of the CBC Health Services Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Services to the Division in the West Region. CBR as a strategy in community development aims at enabling persons with disabilities and those at risk of acquiring disabilities have access to equal opportunities in order toimprove on their quality of life.

Less than 5 months of establishing the CBR services in the West and Adamawa Regions, 13 children with neglected clubfoot have been identified in the Noun Division with the collaboration from other community stakeholders.

CBR Field worker, Jab Moses who covers five Sub Divisions of the Noun Division, says he started penetrating into the community through the Divisional Delegate of Social Affairs who guided him on how he could initiate awareness campaigns. “I moved from one place to another including other Divisional Delegations as well as churches to educate the public on the clubfoot deformity and other disability issues, “explained the Field Worker.

His awareness raising exposed him to one child with clubfoot that he immediately referred to Ngounso Baptist Health Center for treatment. When the child started treatment, it became an eye-opener to other stakeholders and some community members who became vigilant in identifying other children in the community with similar cases. “This kept my phone busy as I kept receiving calls from the Delegation of Social Affairs and other people in the community on the children they had identified for treatment,” Mr. Jab noted with a smile.

To the Physiotherapy Assistant in Ngounso Baptist Health Center, Madam Wum Comfort Ndum, it has been a busy time for her in the clubfoot clinic as they have had continuous to  increase in the number of children with clubfoot referred to the health center. This has caused them to add the clubfoot clinic day from one to two days. Madam Comfort explained that she has been involved in the treatment of clubfoot cases but the ones she has been receiving in the clinic in Ngounso have been unique because almost all of them are neglected cases.

She attributed it to ignorance given that the community never saw clubfoot as a deformity that can be treated until recently. Even though it is challenging working with the parents due to the language barrier, Wam Comfort enjoys her experience in working with them given that they adhere to treatment by respecting all their appointments, which is facilitating the treatment of the children.

The Cameroon Clubfoot Care project has left no stone unturned, ensuring close follow up of treatment for the children by constantly supplying the clinic with treatment materials like POP and facilitating the availability of support staff who are more skillful in handling the neglected cases to support  Madam Comfort to ensure a better outcome.

This move by the CCCP Office and the CBR identification and referral strategy has been commended by the Chief of Center for Ngounso Baptist Health Center who noted that the treatment of the children in the Health Center has brought a lot of publicity for the health center because most people now talk about the additional services to the health center which is improving the quality of life for children with clubfoot. Mr. Shofola Emmanuel has praised CBM, CCCP Manager, Mr. Awa Jacques Chirac and his team for facilitating the ongoing treatment of the children with clubfoot in Noun Division.