By Kini Nsom
The Minister of State for Planning, Programming and Regional Development, Augustin Frederic Kodock, has described the International NGO, the Yaounde Initiative Foundation, YIF, as a solution to socio-economic impediments in Cameroon.
"The YIF will fight vectors of human diseases like river blindness and malaria which constitute an obstacle to socio-economic progress in riverside areas," the Minister stated while launching the foundation in Yaounde on June 28.
The foundation was launched at the Bastos residence of the British High Commissioner to Cameroon. The NGO aims to overcome key practical constraints on socio-economic development in rural communities in Africa.
According to its frontliners, YIF's goal is to improve the health and well being of communities. They intend to control insect vectors of human diseases such as malaria and river blindness spread by mosquitoes and s black flies respectively.
Besides, they will fight to improve agricultural production and environmental protection.According to the Minister, malaria remains the number killer in Cameroon. He said in the tropics, one million people, especially children, die every year because of malaria caused by mosquito bites.
Kodock painted a more pathetic picture of people living along the river Sanaga region. Here, he said, human vector diseases are behind diseases like river blindness, elephantiasis and epilepsy that are common in the region.
He said the socio-economic impacts of such diseases are far-reaching because farmers are completely rendered inactive. It was for this reason that Kodock called for massive support for the initiative.
Kodock, who is the President of the Foundation in Cameroon, said the initiative has come just in time to compliment government's efforts in the fight against malaria and river blindness.
During the launching ceremony that was preceded by a press conference, the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, H.E. Richard Wildash, said the initiative was in tandem with Britain's commitment to search for solutions to Africa's problems.
He said Britain was mobilising civil society NGOs and the G8 to make issues of Africa's development a priority in the agenda of the international community in 2005.
According to Prof. Graham Mathews, the Foundation's Technical Director from the Imperial College London, YIF was born out of an African Union Agricultural Pest Management Project initiated in 2000. The Food and Agricultural Organisation funded it.
He said the initiative gave birth to the concept of an independent non-governmental organisation, the Yaounde Initiative Foundation.
YIF was endorsed in March 2003 in Yaounde at a conference of Pan African States that was hosted by Augustin Frederic Kodock who was then Minister of Agriculture.
"Since my last visit in February, a survey in 131 villages in 11 rural councils has shown that due to the state of houses, mosquitoes do have very easy access to houses," Prof Graham said.
He held that because of the lack of bed nets in houses, the anopheles mosquitoes easily bite people while they sleep. He said the black fly was causing discomfort, limiting work output and also causing blindness.
The official said the foundation would develop training for key people in villages, so that information is disseminated to everyone and make them aware of the cause of their problems and empower them to implement appropriate solutions in their villages.
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