By Moma Sandrine
The Bamenda Regional Hospital, has welcomed a new unit to its structure known as the Listening and Orientation Unit, LOU. The unit that seeks to handle cases of gender based violence (GBV) was inaugurated on September 26 by a nongovernmental organisation, Médecins du Monde Suisse in collaboration with the Bamenda Regional Hospital.
Following several cases of GBV that have been recorded in the North West Region, the need for an orientation unit became eminent as the director to the Regional Hospital, Dr Kingue Thompson explains: “we have been having so many cases of GBV. Last year alone we saw close to a hundred. Before, we didn’t have a standard protocol to manage such cases. This unit is going to improve on the quality of care given to these patients and take them out of their depressive state.”
The ongoing socio-political crisis in the North West Region has recorded an increase in the cases of gender-based violence especially against women and children reasons why the North West Regional Delegation of Women’s Empowerment and the Family (MINPROF) with Wirba Asan as delegate invited Médecins du Monde to come ameliorate the situation. Médecins du Monde Suisse is a Switzerland International Medical NGO which is currently working in Cameroon to strengthen access to sexual and reproductive health, reduce infant and maternal mortality rate, support pediatric palliative care programs and to support initiatives to fight against GBV on children and women. The need for a listening ear to victims of GBV served as a pull factor to Médicine du Monde to set up the LOU in the Bamenda Regional Hospital as the Project Officer, Nfor George Kisob explains “over the years the North West has recorded several forms of GBV and Médecins du Monde has come to support the initiative of service providers who have been working on GBV and its related issues. The inaugurated unit will serve as an entry point to survivors of GBV. There they will have psychosocial first aid before they enter what we call the intervention chain”.
The North West Regional office of Médecins du Monde Swiss has as overall objective to contribute to the improvement of child protection against GBV and strengthen victims in the region, particularly in Bamenda.
Some 45 staff who had been trained to manage the LOU received certificates on the day of inauguration. One of the trainees Mr Teteh Kingsley spoke to the press “the training helped to enlighten us on the fact that the psychological aspect of each victim of GBV is very important. The training has helped us to know the steps to take to reach with the diagnosis that someone is suffering from a psychological trauma”.
With a well-equipped team to manage this Unit at the Regional Hospital, it is hoped that the psychological trauma associated with GBV victims will be well managed.