End HIV/AIDS in 28 Villages in NW Cameroon, Africa

Greetings To Our Donors And Sponsors;

As we begin the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior in the jungles of the NW/SW Regions in Cameroon, we would like to express our gratitude and thanksgiving for all of the support that you provided to our organization during this year.   For Thanksgiving we provided a hot meal and program to show our appreciation to our friends in the United States of America.  For our Thanksgiving Celebration which was a new experience for many in the jungle of the NW/SW Regions in which we had in attendance over 1,000 men, women and children in several of our villages.   We have expanded our programs using  zoom to Doula and to Liberia where they were able to celebrate this special Thanksgiving as well.

Our five Zonal Directors and affiliates from Doula and Liberia submitted a proposal for funding to host a Thanksgiving event in their Zone to include a primary school site in Doula and five churches in Liberia.   Also we were blessed to have a new PCC Pastor who was assigned to our church at our headquarters who came to us with a lot of new ideas and an agenda that is in collaboration with our vision and mission.  Working in collaboration with the PCC was a way and method of implementing our education and awareness concept to a large group of people who are still hiding in the jungles as a result of the Civil unrest.   This was a very successful way of getting a large group of people together in a small safe environment to share our health and sanitation goals and objectives as well as enjoy fellowship and a good hot meal. 

Our upcoming Toys For Tots and celebration of Christmas will go a long ways to help up share our health and sanitation program with the people in the jungles.  Our new Pastor has gotten the local people involved to help clean up the Guest House and Community Center which has laid vacant for the past five years due to the Civil unrest in order for the people to revive the programs and services that were provided before the Civil unrest by our Founding Father Pa John Ticha to include education, employent and health concerns.  As the word gets around, many people are expected to come out of hiding and enjoy some good safe and healthy fellowship and a hot meal just as they did for the Thanksgiving Celebration.  Now that the Guest House has been cleaned and in the process of being renovated the Pastor is scheduling various workshops for the people to include our health and sanitation programs in January 2023.  HIV/AIDS in Cameroon shows advances in treatment and remaining challenges to achieving epidemic control and we should consider using any means necessary for Cameroon's progress towards HIV/ epidemic control.   There were no violent incident to occur during these celebration.

We want you to know that any donation however small has allowed us to carry out our vision and mission to bring education and awareness to our indigenous population who are still dealing with the emotional and physical impact of the Civil unrest in our 28 villages in the NW/SW Cameroon, Africa.  We still have families who are victims of the conflict and they are still hiding out in the jungles because they are afraid to return to their villages for fear of being killed.  Ghost days and lock down are still the order of the day for those brave families who have chosen to return to their homes and villages and try to move on with their lives. 

Future donations will allow us to purchase a couple of motor bikes in order to provide a means of transportation for our volunteers to travel over rough terrain to cover the 28 villiages and provide them with the antiretroviral (ARV) kits and counseling needed to help them achieve viral load suppression.  With these kits we should also be able to provide services needed at the Guest House on a regular basis if the victims have a place to come and pick up the medication or participate in counseling for individual or work with a support group.

April 29, 2021 – ICAP today announced the release of the final report of the 2017–2018 Cameroon Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (CAMPHIA) which highlights key findings on the status of Cameroon’s progress towards HIV epidemic control.

Led by the country’s Ministry of Health with technical assistance from ICAP at Columbia University, the CAMPHIA survey focused on providing estimates of HIV risk and burden by measuring annual HIV incidence, HIV prevalence, viral load suppression, and level of achievement of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets.

The survey demonstrated that 3.7 percent of adults are living with HIV in Cameroon, representing approximately 500,000 individuals. The annual rate of new HIV infection among adults was 0.24, or 31,000 new cases per year.

Based on self-reported and antiretroviral (ARV)-detection data, it is estimated that, at the time of the survey, 55.6 percent of adults in Cameroon were aware of their HIV status; of those diagnosed, 93.1 percent were receiving antiretroviral treatment; and of those on treatment, 80.1 percent had achieved viral load suppression. Though there has been considerable progress in the nation towards achieving the second and third of the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets, HIV diagnosis remains a challenge.

CAMPHIA received support from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

From July 2017 to February 2018, CAMPHIA reached over 11,600 households and enrolled over 26,000 adults (15-64 years) and more than 7,000 children (0-14 years) in the survey. The survey offered HIV counseling and testing with return of results and collected information about use of HIV care and treatment services.

The survey found that HIV prevalence among adults was about two times higher among women (5.0 percent) than in men (2.3 percent). In addition, the survey identified a testing gap among young people aged 15-24 years: Only 20.7 percent of young people living with HIV were aware of their HIV status based upon self-report and ARV-detection data.

Results from the CAMPHIA final report will help inform national programmatic gaps and identify areas for intensified HIV response efforts, particularly in improving services to reach the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets.

With the opening of the Guest House at our National Headquarters and working with the newly assigned pastor from PCC for our villages and communities we shall implement our SMART GOALS and ACTION STEPS to work with the Ministry of Health to continue to focus on providing ARV kits that will help to reduce viral load suppression among the population cited in the survey above.    Using the PCC's Pastor's approach of re-opening the Guest House and providing other services such as jobs and training, employment and food will encourage many individuals with AID/HIV to come to the Guest House Center for services.  Therefore any donation regardless of the size will provide funds to obtain the ARV kits that will allow individuals to live a normal life without being concern that they might infect their unborn child or others.

Sincerely,

HIV/AID's Team