I was born in Yaounde, Cameroon and for the most part of my life, lived in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon where I went to school and developed. After high school I left my hometown for Pharmacy school in Yaounde, the Center Region.
During my pharmacy school years, I developed a growing interest in first aid and CPR because of the increasing number of people who died as a consequence of ignorance regarding first aid principles. I became a CPR trainer and started providing a few trainings.
Over time, with the evolution of the ‘Anglophone crisis’ in the North and South West Regions, the reports of instability, increased hunger and poverty, every visit to the place I called home was full of sadness and tears. I started seeing more and more malnourished children and wondering how I could help. With that new burning desire, once I graduated from school and got the opportunity to work in any nutrition related area I embraced each opportunity, developing myself, reading, researching, training and availing my services till I got my golden opportunity working with a Health and Nutrition based in Buea. While with them we were able to treat so many children and change their lives, and mine more than ever. My passion grew daily till I got frustrated wanting to do more. Seeing the great need in very hard to reach and insecure areas, made my team and I melt in sorrow as our safety and security was of premium importance, inhibiting us from accessing such areas for multiple visits and follow up of these vulnerable children.
This feeling of helplessness gave birth to this idea to develop the Beri-nut nutrition status and management application. This application is intended to simplify acquisition of nutrition status information such that community health workers or representatives can be trained to be the intermediary between health care workers and the community. The idea of developing an application which can enable the community health worker comfortably move within their village areas, where we do not have access, obtain and follow up malnourished children with direct assistance and instructions from the application and health care workers gave me a new purpose.
With this focus, I left the Organization to find a team I could work with to bring this to reality. As at now we have developed a prototype and are working tirelessly to see this project come to full realization to facilitate malnutrition case finding, treatment, follow up and data management.