Major Healthcare Boost For Cameroon With Large Medical Equipment Donation From TFC & Colors Of Roses Foundation

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

BUEA, Cameroon – The Friendship Circle, TFC, in collaboration with the Colors of Roses Foundation, have donated some medical supplies to some hospitals across the South West Region of Cameroon, in a bit to strengthen healthcare delivery across the troubled region.

The donations worth 399 million FCFA were distributed to 30 hospitals from the North West, South West, Littoral and Far North on Thursday, July 25 at the premise of the Buea Regional Hospital in the South West.

“The message that we have is simple. It's time for us to take responsibility as individuals, responsibility as young people, and responsibility as professionals, to share what we have. We have a responsibility to build this nation together, "Njukang Asong, President of The Friendship Circle, TFC told Pan African Visions.

“Whether it's in healthcare, farming, agriculture, business, or legal, all of us have that responsibility, and today, we just show that by example. We, you may see three TFC members here, but we are 25 strong. 25 members are watching.”

Free items for the community

This donation comes some months after TFC successfully shipped twenty containers of state-of-the-art hospital beds to multiple hospitals across the country. It continues its unwavering dedication to improving healthcare in Cameroon.

Njukang Asong added: “These items are for the community. It's free for the community, and it's a partnership that we are starting to make sure that we can keep growing every day and see how we can provide more services to provide person-centred care to improve the healthcare system in Cameroon. And as far as TFC is concerned, we are going to do our part to build this nation.”

“We have vitamins for kids, for pregnant women and lactation. We have lenses for males, and for females, unisex lenses. We have surgical gowns that protect professionals during surgery. We have face shields and face masks that protect our healthcare professionals during surgery as well. We have medications for hypothyroidism. We have medication for sores.”

“We have different sorts of medications for skincare just to make sure that our healthcare system improves. And this is one event out of many. One of our previous events, which was monumental as well, that just happened in January, was that TFC did supply hospital beds to more than five hospitals in Cameroon across the southwest and northwest regions,” Njukang Asong added.

Dr Sylvia Dassi, Founder of Colors of Roses Foundation said: “There are bigger things that we are going to do, extend this effort to other parts of the region. And also, what we intend to do is continue to equip, because what we are getting, equip medical facilities. What we are getting, the needs that we are getting right now is medical equipment. There is medical equipment that is very essential, especially the vein finder.”

“Our goal is to continue to carry out these assessments because with these activities when we go back to our donors and we give reports, they can trust us with even bigger opportunities.”

A well-appreciated gesture

Asongna Beatrice, a Nurse in Alou subdivisional hospital, Lebialem said: "During the crisis, our health centre was highly affected. Those our children in the bush destroyed the hospital and carried nearly all the equipment away."

“We are just opening the hospital now and we are grateful for these gifts our children have given to us. It will go a long way to help our patients. They have given us drugs and other items that will help the patients, especially pregnant women.”

"We are pleading that they should continue and next time, they should give us more. In our health centre, we lack so many things like beds and mattresses. This will go a long way to help the community."

Folefac Godlove, Chairman of Mile 16 Health Center said: "I am happy to see us chosen amongst the thousands of hospitals across the country. We have glasses and medical equipment and it is going to help Mile 16, which was looked upon as a place where people could not stay. The donation will see patient turnout increase, and it is going to make more departments in the health centre develop.

We had a low patient turnout because of the crisis. Patients would rather leave Mile 16 to the Buea Regional Hospital. We also had a lack of equipment, our labs were empty and we had limited materials. These materials will help the patients too because it is free and we appreciate TFC and its partners for such a donation."

About the Friendship Circle

The Friendship Circle was established in 2015 by a group of friends from Cameroon with diverse backgrounds and professions. We are a registered 501(c) (3) non-profit organization in the State of Maryland, to raise funds in compliance with the law and offer tax-exempt benefits for donations.

TFC's community outreach primarily focuses on empowering young people through executive conferences, skill-building, and competitions, and finding investment opportunities. TFC's charity efforts include donating clothing, shoes, food, home and hospital equipment, and merchandise to orphanages and other needy centres in Cameroon and across Africa.