Cameroon - Collins Litika - 2014 Graduate

by Collins Litika

Rural Transformation Centre

submitted January 2020

Workshops on Natural Medicines

The Rural Transformation Centre organized a series of five workshops which trained 258 participants on the use of natural medicinal plants to cure tropical ailments.

https://gyazo.com/efc7a3c5a65fcf25faf4c4e2566565fd

Participants producing natural tooth powder

The Rural Transformation Centere (RTC)

RTC is an apolitical, non-denominational, non-profit organization that seeks to empower rural populations. It was introduced to natural medicine programming by Action for Natural Medicine (ANAMED), an international non-governmental organization in Germany. Since 2007, the Centre has been working with the people of Bui Division in the Northwest Province of Cameroon to raise awareness on the cultivation, processing and use of natural medicinal plants.

https://gyazo.com/05698549ef25b02683b7d9bf69caf08f

Collins teaching how to make a cough tincture

A public health crisis in the Northwest and Southwest of Cameroon

For the past three years, the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon have been experiencing serious unrest which has degenerated into an armed conflict. This has resulted in the loss of human lives and property, restrictions on movement through frequent lockdowns, and ghost towns. The lone water source for the town of Kumbo and its environs was vandalized, leaving the people to fetch water from very doubtful sources. More people now are suffering from water-related diseases such as typhoid.

In Kumbo, the crisis was devastating to public health. Since the escalation of violence, many more people are dying from preventable or curable diseases. With the frequent lockdowns and roadblocks, most of the hospitals and health facilities around the Bui Division could no longer regularly obtain medical supplies. Even when medical supplies reach hospitals, the cost is often too high for average people to afford.

Peace is not just the absence of war, but much more – living in harmony with God, your neighbor, yourself and the life-giving earth.

Natural medicines are available and affordable

Natural medicines are available and affordable. Most often people die of common ailments because of a lack of knowledge of how to harness the riches of natural medicinal plants. Nowadays many people in our communities spend huge sums of money in hospitals for a disease they could easily cure themselves. Or, in some cases, hospitals refer patients with tropical diseases which the hospital cannot handle to traditional healers. Traditional healers, for their part, need to be aware of proper hygienic procedures and dosages in formulating their medicines. RTC workshops brought together health personnel, nurses, traditional healers, community members, and even health-commission members to share ideas for better health care.

https://gyazo.com/c12ee21ad4fc0e51134b42b46da7327d

Sharing of participants' own knowledge and use of medicial plants

Participants’ expectations

Each of the five training sessions opened with prayers and the sharing of Bible passages related to health and healing. Participants then said what they hoped to learn during the three days. Among the most common expectations:

Identifying and learning to use locally available medicinal plants

Learning to produce medicinal oils and ointments that can be stored for longer periods

Knowing how to prepare the medicines in proper hygienic conditions and how to formulate proper dosages

Acquiring medicinal herbs that are not commonly available locally, so as to cultivate those herbs year-round

https://gyazo.com/41c2da32c6d9bf640411eb5216682829

Production of healing oils and ointments

Water sanitation – construction of a simple affordable water filter

The first lesson during each training workshop was hygiene and sanitation. A key topic was water sanitation and the production of a simple and cheap water filter. The most common ailments are the result of drinking impure water. For the three seminar days, participants and facilitators drank water from the newly constructed water filter.

https://gyazo.com/d5bdee3d30ebdbd1493e80c213bf80cf

Simple affordable water filter

Cough treatments

One of the ailments that pose a menace both to adults and children here is coughing. In the dry season especially, coughing is very common, yet difficult to treat. There was a whole session on the production of various tinctures. Eucalyptus globulus cough tincture was produced on the first day, then drained on the last day and distributed among the participants.

Awareness of the dangers of skin bleaching

Another session raised awareness on the dangers of using skin-bleaching cosmetics made with dangerous chemicals like mercury and hydroquinone that are destroying the melanin in our bodies, exposing us to skin cancer and damaging the human reproductive system. As a sustainable alternative, participants were taught how to produce body lotions using locally available tropical plants which are nourishing to the body.