Kick it to Cameroon

Benwie Kalawie, Bafut, Cameroon

To see the girls play click on this link
http://youtu.be/i2D_HZdlB5M

It started rather innocently. A small girl asking for a soccer ball.

Female volunteer trainers

It then snow balled into this campaign, called "Kick it to Cameroon". At least four different groups in Westchester including Mahopac, Yorktown  and New York City asked their kids soccer clubs to donate equipment. Betti Lewis, an AIDSfreeAFRICA volunteer, offered to help coordinate the collection and transport. Dr. Paul Winslow, a scientist running an educational non-profit called "Science 2 Students" was building cargo container crates for AIDSfreeAFRICA to ship drug production equipment. He stuffed the balls into the gaps and then built an additional crate for the soccer equipment. A shipper then accompanied the container to Cameroon, successfully getting it through customs without the loss of a single ball! A friend receiving diapers for his handicapped adult son, picked up the goods from Douala, transported it to Bamenda, and finally, myself and AIDSfreeAFRICA country representative Mr. Polycarp carried it off to the village of Esu.
 

Cameroon Pharmaceutical Industry, Cinpharm



click drawing to see company web site  

Cinpharm is a 24 million US dollar high tech production facility owned and operated by Cameroonians, CEO Mr. Celestin Tawamba. The factory went into production of 40 essential drugs and IV fluids with high capacity output.

Cinpharm signs collaboration agreement with AIDSfreeAFRICA  

Cinpharm signs collaboration agreement with AIDSfreeAFRICA. Picture from left: Dr. Ernest Tonye, Cinpharm; Dr. Efange, University of Buea; Dr. Issa Hamadjoda, Cinpharm; Dr. Rolande Hodel, AIDSfreeAFRICA.

In addition to asking for equipment, the company seeks to hire highly trained manangerial and scientific personnel, is looking for reliable cost efficient sources for raw materials and support with maintenance and trouble shooting.

AIDSfreeAFRICA is reaching out to the Cameroonian diaspora working in US as Pharmacists to return to Cameroon. We are also collaborating with the American Chemical Society and the Federation of African Societies of Chemistry to attract qualified personal.





Dr. Paul Winslow and Dr. Rolande Hodel

AIDSfreeAFRICA delivered analytical equipment worth ½ million $US. The used equipment was donated by US Pharmaceutical companies, collected and crated by Dr. Paul Winslow, head of a New Jersey based non-profit called “Students 2 Science”.



Four analytical instruments plus spare parts

Good Manufacturing Procedure or GMP, it is the standard followed in the Pharmaceutical Industry the world over. GMP requires that every batch of drugs produced has to be analyzed for its quality. One of the machines needed to comply with this standard is called a HPLC which stands for High Pressure Liquid Chromatography. It confirms that the correct active drug is in a tablet in the correct amount. It would also show if there are impurities present.

Cinpharm has a few of these machines but its growing manufacturing requires more of these expensive tools. Thus Cinpharm asked asked AIDSfreeAFRICA for one machine. Dr. Hodel came back to the US, asking for three, Paul Winslow offered four machines and much more. 



Fron Left: Dr. Issa Hamadjoda, Cinpharm,
Dr. Simon Efange, Universitry of Buea, Dr. Rolande Hodel

Opening Cinpharm's doors, literally, AIDSfreeAFRICA introduces  Prof. Efange from the University of Buea to Dr. Hamadjoda. Bringing people together, bringing resources, networking within Cameroon and across continents, is what Dr. Hodel enjoys most. 

The University benefited from the shipment by receiving UV-vis photo spectrometer, rotor evaporators, water purification units, glassware and more. Amazingly, whatever was not useful to industry was highly sought after by the University. Nothing went to waste, even the optical microscope, it went north to a small medical clinic.

 

                                             

Drug productionin Africa ? YES

Dr. Hodel (l) and DR. Issa Hamadjoda, Cinpharm

Six long years, since Dr. Hodel went to Cameroon and started talking to everyone who would listen that a continent as large and diverse as Africa needed it's own drug production. "It can't be done" was the response in the US and even from some Africans. At the end it came faster than expected: Cameroon company starts full scale production of solid oral drugs, antibiotics, antifungals and pain killers. Others are in the pipeline. Goal is 60 products on the market. The company called Cinpharm is full African owned and run. Approximately 300 Cameroonians have been trained to run production, take care of quality control following GMP - Good Manufacturing Practices - the gold standard of the Pharmaceutical Industry world wide. In The USA this is better known to people as the FDA, the Food & Drug Administration.  

AIDSfreeAFRICA is pleased. However, instead of Dr. Hodel going into retirement, her work has just begun. We will do our best to help to expand, maintain, train and troubleshoot. In addition to production, drug access is becoming an issue, and HR - human resources. The Universities need resources to train students to become the next generation of drug producers. 

A truly exciting outlook.    

In a blog of the American Chemical Society, editor Linda Wang raises the question: Can A Pasta King Bring Generic Drugs To Sub-Saharan Africa? 

The resounding answer is YES.

From Hillary Clinton to Kah Walla - Women running for President

Cameroon's Kah Walla Presses Her Presidential Bid

By Comfort Mussa

Women's e-News correspondent

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Source: Women's e-News, New York

Cameroon's sole female candidate in the October presidential elections isn't letting kidnapping or water cannons stop her. She says her most solid support comes from young people and she's trying to rouse the women's vote.

Walla's Priorities

She said her priorities, if elected, would be advancing the rights of women, the disabled and the linguistic and ethnic minority.


TO READ THE ORIGINAL STORIES click here:
Expats are able to vote in the October election.
"Cameroon expats to vote in presidential election," The Associated Press:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-5w3_cpRInGGGTdmMKJudDJ8yMg?docId=85026a363807497dbbad5f88b7018971

http://www.womensenews.org/story/campaign-trail/110809/cameroons-kah-walla-presses-her-presidential-bid

Take my picture, I am not afraid!

Looking into the Camera: volunteers Sih and Patience

Esu, Cameroon After six days of HIV/AIDS testing, I wanted to take a picture that shows the two best trained and performing volunteers, Sih and Patience. Thus I asked the lady who was there for testing if I can have her sit with her back to the camera to keep her privacy. She agreed, but when I showed her the photo she turned and declared "Take my picture, I am not afraid!". Indeed she was not.



She also is a wonderful cook, and her name is Rosemary. Also in the picture is a 10 year old boy. The youngest we tried to test was a 17 month old girl, but the mother could not make her understand to spit into the cup, she just stuck her tongue inside and licked the plastic. The youngest we tested was her 5 year old brother. I am glad the children both tested negative.

Rosemary is not scared to show her smile


During the six days of testing we had an opportunity to eat lunch at different places in Esu, called "restaurants". Rosemary was one of our favorite places. She had all the good foods Esu people like, egussy, eru, fufu corn, jama jama, beans and rice, okra soup, pepper soup, corn cow, to name most. The last day she even made chicken, because after 10 days without fish or chicken I was dreaming of chicken....

AIDS used to be a scary unknown and misunderstood disease. Today we know a lot, and with the help of antiretroviral drugs, people can live a long time, women can have babies that are negative due to Parent-Child-Transmission-Prevention-Programs, PCTP. Join Rosemary, don't be afraid, get tested and know your status.

The AIDS testing will continue and we are grateful for Immuno-Science who invented this handy saliva based test and is donating it to us. People really liked it when they learned that no one will poke them with a needle. They also like that they know their status within 30 minutes instead of having to come back next day.

But Esu needs a hospital, with 30-40 thousand inhabitants all they have is a very cheerful nurse, two nurse aids, an energetic lab technician, and a wonderfully able and engaged chief of post functioning as the administrator.
His name is Christian and he is a recent addition to this government run Health Center. The center is not an approved HIV/AIDS counseling and treatment center. A prerequisite would be to have a full time medical doctor on staff. Esu is so far "in the bushes" reachable only via terrible roads that have improved only gradually since I have been traveling this road. This and the lack of basic life comforts makes it hard to get an MD.

However, Christian has the right ideas. He offered to travel to the District Hospital in WUM to pick up the AIDS drugs for all HIV positive people of Esu that joined the newly Esu Family Health Association, an idea sparked by AIDSfreeAFRICA. This Association grew from 25 to 60 within a few month. However, we know many other positive people are still on the fence waiting, afraid to join. But in the mean time thanks to Christian's action, 60 HIV positive people are saving 2000 CFA, an equivalent of 4 US$ in transport cost.

In May while on a 12 day visit in Esu, Christian proudly announced that he is organizing a bus to bring HIV positive people to their bi-annual check up and CD4 analysis. Since getting the results of the test was unreliable, Christian also collects the results of this diagnosis directly at the WUM Hospital. This information is crucial to know if the patient is doing well on his or her AIDS drugs or needs to switch to second line treatment.

Briarcliff Manor, NY Rotary Club

Dr. S.C. Yuter and wife Elinor (left) efforts finally succeeded when Briarcliff Manor, NY Rotary Club invited AIDSfreeAFRICA volunteer Betty Lewis to speak about her experience in Cameroon and AIDSfreeAFRICA president Rolande Hodel to receive a $500 donation. See related story on the Rotary  Blog. Picture below shows Club President Dean Dykeman presenting the check.

Rotary Clubs focus their service mostly within their city communities, however, many also "adopt" an international project. NY and NJ Rotary Clubs of District 7230 have supported AIDSfreeAFRICA for years. However, Briarcliff promised follow-up and an ongoing collaboration.

Donations made to AIDSfreeAFRICA are invested in income generating activities, true to our motto to teach how to fish and not to just give fish....
AIDSfreeAFRICA is grateful for the good work Rotary is doing here in the US and abroad.

Scholarships available for on-line Green Chemistry Course at UC Berkeley

In collaboration with the University of California Berkeley, AIDSfreeAFRICA collaborator Chemists Without Borders is looking for suitable candidates to receive a scholarship to participate in the Universities on-line Green Chemistry program. Please pick up all needed information through the link provided here.
UC Berkeley Extension Green Chemistry program:

Steve Chambreau, VP at Chemists Without Borders has met with Barbara Peterson, the Director of the program, and they are looking for suitable candidates to receive scholarships to complete the Green Chemistry Certificate program online (Barbara says that all of the required classes will be available online within the next year). AIDSfreeAFRICA was asked to identify any potential candidates in Cameroon. Please contact us after studying the link.