Santé Express team attending to locals in a community reach out event
By Andrew Nsoseka
Santé Express, an NGO with headquarters in Buea, has unveiled its operations and projects, which are aimed at taking free healthcare services to people and communities in need. The organisation says, from communities in Buea and Fako, it will expand to other areas in the Southwest Region, and then to other parts of Cameroon.
The Founder and CEO of Santé Express, Miranda Ekenjock, says the goal of her organisation is for people to know the state of their health with ease and from the comfort of their homes. To do this, she said, accompanied by a team of recruited nurses, they visit communities and groups in need, and carryout vital signs checks and educate them on health and disease-related issues. She said, from tests carried out, her team can then proceed to recommend those with worrying health issues to the hospital for proper diagnosis.
The Santé Express team says they also handout supplements and pain medication during community outreach programmes to help those in need. The team says they pay special focus on some particular illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases. To do this, they either go door-to-door in targeted communities, or liaise with community or Church leaders who mobilise their communities to participate in the free health activities.
Santé Express nurses and CEO Ekenjock at Buea office
Stressing that her team only educates, assess and refer, Miranda Ekenjock noted that “most of the tests we do for the people are free, and very few are paid for, at the least possible price”.
She said they have been able to reach out to most communities in and around Buea, and Fako. The Target of the organisation, she says, are communities and persons who cannot afford healthcare. “In the future, we are looking at a possibility of opening and operating mobile clinics. We want to work differently, making sure that everyone is treated in a humane way, irrespective of whether they are rich or poor. We are in Buea and those who need our services can simply call or visit our office behind the Molyko Police station, at Rovie Estates and we will attend to them,” Miranda said.
On her organisation’s source of funding, the CEO said, since 2022, when the organisation was launched, she has paid for everything, including the payment of nurses, purchasing of supplements and pain medication, as well as snacks for locals in targeted communities, from her pocket.
She revealed that an average outreach programme costs her a minimum of FCFA 500,000. On whether she intends to continue that way, she told the media that she plans to expand, and that in order to reach more communities, she will at some point look for donors, as well as seek partnerships and other collaborations that will enable her reach most communities in Cameroon.
Campaign took place today at Livanda village in Limbe.
In Santé Express’ recent community reach out event, over 200 people were schooled on STDs/STI, Hypertension and Malaria. They were tested voluntarily and given free medications, supplements and pain medications.
