At the front-line of Humanitarian Action-Saving lives, Alleviating Suffering; WHD2020

On the World Humanitarian Day, I made a presentation to Open Dreams Scholars on “Humanitarian Activity” and drew inspiration from my sometimes 😊 exhilarating and sometimes arduous 😓 16 month field experience with the Nobel Prize-winning Humanitarian Organisation, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontières).

I commenced by highlighting what Humanitarian Activity was all about, walked through the 2020 theme and the principles that guide this benevolent activity; impartiality, neutrality, Independence, the respect of medical ethics.

In Bakassi

We progressed to talking about my experience in the throes of the hard-hit Momo Division of the North-West Region of Cameroon, precisely in Widikum and its environs. We talked about the multifaceted challenges we faced providing free medical care to the distressed population; security challenges , medical conditions that arrive at complicated stages; something not seen in routine health settings; challenges sometimes involving basic human needs like food and water and how the medical and logistic teams walked the tightrope providing medical care.

One of the highlights of the talk was my extremely challenging one-month experience as part of the Doctors Without Borders emergency response team to the Cholera outbreak in the inaccessible, neglected Bakassi peninsula of the South-West Region of Cameroon.

We went through iconography that depicted the deplorable hygiene, water and sanitation conditions that made Cholera rife in that area and the heroic actions of the skeletal medical, logistic and administrative teams to attend to patients in the specialized Cholera treatment Center that was set up at lightning speed.

I ended on a positive note, outlining the successes of our intervention, showed how we entertained/distracted 🕺🏼💃 ourselves with the resources at hand and threw light on how each and every one can play a part in the noble humanitarian mission.

Didien Meyahnwi, MD

Volunteer, MSF Mission , NWR Cameroon

#RealLifeHeroes