Langwa Elizabeth
Fikela, coordinator of the Saint Elizabeth National Residential Home
for the ageing and for rehabilitation has disclosed that apart from just being
a residential nursing home, the centre rehabilitates and also takes care of
abandoned orphans. She says the desire to care started from childhood
and emphasizes that it is a gift from God. As she grew up, this tendency
to gather old helpless people and take care of them grew. She begins by
explaining how this urge pushed her into nursing. She was interviewed by Ekongang Nzante Lenjo.
From childhood I loved to care so I think it is a
gift from God. This pushed me into Nursing especially Geriatric Nursing which
focuses on the old. You cannot only take care of the old people and leave the
young behind. Experience has shown me that there are many old people with no
one to take care of them and at the same time they have orphans of their children
with no one to take care of them. We also come into contact with some aged
people who are suffering from stroke and this is usually challenging to the
family especially when there is no one to actually sit and take care of such
cases. At the Rehabilitation Centre we also come into contact with mental cases
and with cases of stroke and people in this state usually put the family down
because there is usually nobody to sit down and take care of them. When you meet old
people they are usually with the orphans of their children with no one to take
care of them. That’s why I take care of old people and orphans.
So
what is the first thing you do when you meet such cases?
When we meet them, the first thing we do is that we
take them to the rehabilitation centre and try to rehabilitate especially the
mentally unstable ones to try and come back to their normal condition and while
in their unstable mental condition they also feel cared for. This stops them
from feeling as if society has abandoned them.
Tell
us something about the origin of this institution.
We started in Babungo and while there we covered
Babungo, Baba and many other neighbouring villages. We had about 15 elderly
people and around three to four orphans that we were taking care of. We take
care of some of the people in their homes. Some families love their dear ones
usually prefer that such care should be given to them at home. In such cases we
arrange and send workers to go there. In the morning they can bath them and
wash their clothes and in the evening another person can go there to take care
of them at night. We still have people who come from Babungo and Baba. Once we
came across an old man of about a hundred and fifty years in an abandoned house
in the bush. We took him and brought him to the center and we are offering him
care. When he started staying with us he became stronger. This pushed the
relatives who had abandoned him to become interested in him again and they took
it as a challenge and decided to take care of him.
Where
exactly is your rehabilitation center?
Presently we have transferred to Sop in the Jakiri
Municipality in Bui Division. Sop is located between Jakiri and Kumbo. There
are many families with people who fall in the category of people that we cater
for. The message I have for them is that they should stop thinking that it is
only in the developed countries that these services are provided for. We also
notice that in our society most old people are abandoned to themselves with
nobody to take care of them and they die in very deplorable conditions. The
disabled people also have the right to be catered for and to live normal
healthy lives. In Cameroon we don’t offer this care. I use this medium to tell
the people that we have a place to take care of those people suffering from
mental instability, old people who are unable to take care of themselves,
abandoned orphans and those suffering from stroke with no family member to take
care of them.
Do
you have some partners who support you?
I thank the Ministry of Social Affairs especially
the Divisional Delegate of Social Affairs for Ngoketunja Division. We have
worked with them for a long period and they have been so supportive providing
us with wheel chairs. We equally thank the Regional Delegate of the Northwest
Region. I also thank the individuals who always come and support us with food
and the churches especially the Catholic Christians that have been coming and
offering support to us. I also encourage anybody who is in a position to help
to support us in any way possible. There are some that are abandoned and we are
just helping them. Some need clothes, shoes among other things. The orphans
that are here are going to school and there is nobody sponsoring them. Some
don’t have shoes and uniforms with which to dress and go to school. If the
spirit of God touches you that you should come and support this center then you
are welcome and God will bless you.
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