Community visits, diagnosis and outreach directly in the households of Cameroon's West Region — complemented by health campaigns and a scientific conference on mental health.
Santé Communautaire — community health — pursues a simple goal: improve the health of people in Cameroon's West Region where it actually happens — in the household, in the neighborhood, in direct conversation. Together with our partner ACODEB and IFPS (the institute for training health personnel), we carried out a program of community visits, health campaigns and a scientific conference in 2024.
At the core of the project are the "descentes communautaires" — home visits for community diagnosis as well as information, education and communication (IEC). Trained staff go directly to families, assess health conditions on the spot, and provide information on risks and prevention.
Three community visits shaped 2024, each carried out by ACODEB in partnership with IFPS:
The home visits were accompanied by large-scale health campaigns and a scientific conference dedicated to literature review and document analysis — aiming to strengthen research by mental-health professionals.
Impact is measured by the share of people treated during the campaigns and the quality and number of scientific publications produced from the conference. Further community visits in additional neighborhoods of the West Region are being planned.
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