African Reproductive Health Services Bamenda

 «MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD STILL SEE FAMILY PLANNING AS A TABOO TOPIC » 

-CEO AREPHS Bamenda

Mr David Ayem is a Reproductive Health Expert. He has worked as a Midwife for about 20 years. He later on decided to specialise in Reproductive Health as a whole Midwifery included. David Ayem is equally a PhD student at the University of Bamenda in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. He is the Chief Executive Officer of AREPHS : African Reproductive Health Services Bamenda. He begins by stating the raisin d'etre of his establishment. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante.

Excerpts

AREPHS is an establishment which deals with health in general but with a special focus on Reproductive Health. We are talking about Health in relation to the Reproductive System. The Reproductive organs, their functioning, their processes and problems therein. For example, understanding the Menstrual Cycle and directing somebody on how to understand the Menstrual Cycle. Other aspects include understanding the fertile period within the Menstrual Cycle and periods that are not fertile, being able to determine if  a lady is ovulating or not, whether her Phalopian tubes  are open and active or not, whether the womb of a woman is safe or not, whether a woman is capable of getting pregnant and safely carrying the baby till delivery. My specialty also includes infertility. This is when a man finds it difficult to make a woman pregnant and when a woman finds it difficult to get pregnant. 

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Is Family Planning within your specialty ?

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Yes it is. There is a lot of misconception about this. I am one of those persons that anyone from anywhere in the world can meet for clarifications on issues concerning Family Planning. A cross Section of people in the world still see Family Planning as a Taboo topic. That’s why you can find someone saying I am a Christian or I am a Catholic and we don’t talk Family Planning. This is simply ignorance because you will see the same person struggling to get married. You sometimes find the same person struggling to make babies. Family Planning helps you acquire knowledge on how to even have sex. There is usually a lot of misconception about Family Planning because people believe that it is all about contraception. Contraception is that aspect of Family Planning that deals with prevention from getting pregnant through the usage of natural methods, artificial methods, hormonal methods, barrier methods amongst others. Many people as such think that when you talk about Family Planning, it simply means methods to prevent pregnancies. That is why somebody may tell you that they are Catholics and they don’t prevent pregnancy. Such people however do not know that Family Planning also includes issues like -having safe sex -having a satisfactory sexual life -having a satisfactory marital life -having healthy children -creating a happy and responsible family, being able to determine the sex of a child amongst other things.

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Do some clients come asking for children of a particular sex ?

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If people come to me saying that we wish to have a boy child, I will sit them down and teach them Sex Determination. That’s Family Planning.

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We understand there is training going on here. How is it done ?

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We created the Vocational Training Department of this establishment. My aim is to mould people that can help me, help themselves and help the community. I say help me because as a specialist in Reproductive Health, I always feel alone. The profession seems to have been reserved only for women. I have grown in the profession and have not seen other men joining me. That’s why I have a feeling that I can mould others to join me.It doesn’t mean that they will help me as an individual. It simply means that they will help me disseminate the information to a greater segment of the population. When we drew up this Programme, we proposed it to the Ministry for adoption since the Ministry has never had a one year training programme on Reproductive Health. I was advised in the process by the Regional Delegation for Vocational Training in the Northwest Region. 

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What is the aim of this training programme ?

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Our aim is to teach people who can inturn organize seminars in their villages to teach people Sex Education -the Menstrual Cycle -Infertiliy and fertility -Family Planning -Sexual and Reproductive Health and anything that is related to reproduction and Reproductive Health.

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What kind of people do you train ?

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We train any adult. Even a primary school graduate can be trained in one year. Our teaching approach which involves a lot of practical work can turn them into very useful animating asserts during workshops. We have noticed that the government has training schools but that these schools are limited at the level of GCE A level holders. The majority of the people who have left school do not have the GCE A level. We teach people from 17 years of age. Even if somebody as old as 70 can be trained here. I don’t even want to specify that there must be the First School Leaving Certificate because there are some of them who can benefit from this package who have no certificates. They simply need to show proof that they can copy what we write on the board and that they can understand what we explain to them. I also want to particularly emphasise on the fact that the Diplomas and degrees of Health Practitioners who are already in the system are not enough. We have many of them in the country but reproductive orientation is not there. You find someone with a Master Degree but with no reproductive health orientation. This category of people can benefit from us enormously. Here we have compressed a Midwifery course that normally takes three years into a year. 

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When do your training packages begin ?

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We have two sessions in a year. One session begins in March while the other begins in September. As we speak, the March Session begins on the 23rd which is a Tuesday. Registrations are going on and we have noticed a marked improvement in the rate of registrations. There will be room for late registrations this March. This is because some of them may get the information a little late. Those who were trained in the September Session wrote their exams early this March. They will all be doing their internships at the Nkwen District Hospital (former PMI). As the March Session begins the first six months will be reserved for intensive class work after which examinations will be written. This will be followed by a three month period of practicals in the hospital.

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Any last message ?

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We have many domains. You are not coming here only to do Reproductive Health. We thought it wise that those who have never been nurses before should come and do our Nurse aid Programme which takes a year. This makes you better qualified for the Reproductive Health Programme. You can also do Laboratory Technology, -One year assistant lab -One year physiotherapy -One year Mortuary Attendant and -Pharmacy attendants.

Interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante

AREPHS Bamenda

Hotline

+237674605469

+237694353141

CAMEROON HOSPITALS AND DOCTORS

EMAIL: camhospitalsandoctors@gmail.com Tel: + 237696896001 / + 237678401408 / + 237671262198