WeCCARE Foundation was engaged in a vast reconstructive
plastic surgery campaign in Tokombere (Maroua) on Children, Men and Women with
cleft lips and palate, sponsored by Smile Train a USA based organization
The WeCCARE Foundation team made up of more than 15 persons from different regions of Cameroon all converged in Maroua, en route to Tokombere on the 22nd of February 2014 after travelling a distance of more than 1000 miles. Different means of transportation were used to bring our material and person from one place of the nation to the other, Littoral, South West, Center, Adamawa, North and Extreme North regions of Cameroon. After a short sleep of 3 hours for there was no time to rest as morning quickly approached, we all woke up for Breakfast and a lightning visit to one of the churches WeCCARE helped roof their building. From church we drove to the new WeCCARE Maroua office. Arrangements for the campaign started weeks before with trips to Maroua and recruiting of people to bring in clients with cleft lips and palate. These were sent to the six Divisions of the Far North region of Cameroon and did excellent jobs in sensitizing people and bringing them from their homes to Tokombere Catholic private hospital were the campaign was to be carried. WeCCARE took care of all the transportation of the cleft lips and their guardians.
The WeCCARE team led by Dr Oben Sammy Orock, had four surgeons, two anesthetist, one pharmacist, three nurses, an interpreter, WeCCARE representative in the Maroua and many other members working in different departments .In Maroua we took the first set of cleft clients and their family, rented a bus and drove a distance of 50 km before getting to Tokombere where the surgeries were to be done in partnership with the Catholic Private Hospital Tokombere. On arrival we were received by the Tokombere catholic hospital staff and taken to our resting place and place of work. No time to rest was the new life style we started living, after a brief meeting, screening and clerking of the first cleft persons, all arrangements for surgeries to begin on the 24th were done with, and so we finally stopped work at 10pm had dinner and off to our rooms for a merited rest. At 5 am the cocks of Tokombere aware of our mission woke us as they became our natural alarm. After cleaning up, breakfast, work continued with client clerking and number codes attributed to them. Before long the first person was on the surgical desk and our cleft lips and palate surgery began.On the first day of our campaign 16 persons were operated and 64 more persons were clerked. We worked the whole day from 8:00am to 11:30 pm. On the second day 24 cases were operated and more were registered we worked again from 8:00am till past midnight. So far all seems to be fine and little or no complications. The difficulties with had was operating people who were malnourished and malaria stricken. On day three we operated 20 persons and the last day 16 persons were operated making a total of 76 surgeries all together. Many lives were changed as we all received a lot of| “ossouko” thank you in Fulfulde. At the end of our campaign we had consulted more 230 persons discovered more than 10 NOMA cases, therefore we plan on doing reconstructive surgery for the NOMA patients when we get the sponsors necessary to fund these. WeCCARE is also planning a MARC Missions in these areas were we will consult people and give them free medications and mosquito nets etc to help them but most importantly we will give them nutritional food to help build them up.
WeCCARE is planning another mission in Maroua in June and many more will follow. Your help and support and encouraging words and prayer have been beneficiary for us God bless you for all the endeavors and support in all kind. Thank you. We Thank God for making all the WeCCARE FOUNDATION cleft care project possible, we also thank Smile Train for they are the sponsors and our gratitude also goes to the Tokombere Private Catholic Hospital, The Cameroonian Government for all the support they have given us in making the project come true. We cannot forget Dr Roxanne Chick for her contribution helping baby Marie Emmanuel, we are very grateful for all the endeavors you are making to change the lives of many in Cameroon and Africa God bless you and we want to say we love you all. We are privileged to work with you.
Locating Dada an aged woman of 112
years old was not easy. We drove back and forward in the villages Tokombere to
Maroua trying to find out from the villagers where she stayed. After showing
some pictures of her to the villagers which we had previously taken during our
last visit, she was recognized and we were then taken to her house, she was
famous in the small community where she lived. As we got close to Dada’s home,
Dr Oben recognized her hut and we all went in to greet Dada with a small
present the WeCCARE team had prepared for her, a bag of rice and 20000frs(40$).
Overwhelmed Dada cried though the dryness of the place, her old withered body and
hunger will not permit tears from flowing down her eyes. She blessed us and
thanked for the present all the while, making us understand she had had no food
for more than 24 hours. When we met her she was trying to cook some few grains
of beans which she had reserved for the hard days like the one we met her in.
WeCCARE Foundation moved with compassion for her has decided to take care of
her feeding on monthly bases which sums up to 30000frs (60$) . We all the same
are counting on partners and donors like you to support and help us in this
endeavor.
