The Bluffton Rotary Club was host to two distinguished gentlemen from Cameroon, West Africa on June 4, 2008. Professor Martin Nkafu, Traditional Ruler of Bellua Foreke Fontem, in the Republic of Cameroon, introduced a proposal for USA Rotary Club(s) to sponsor a matching international grant with the proposed host Rotary Club of Limbe, also in Cameroon. The proposed project is to build an infirmary to provide education and medical care to pregnant women and infants in Bellua Foreke Fontem and surrounding villages in the Republic of Cameroon.
Following his responsibility of always remembering where they come from, Dr. John Nkemnji from the University of Wisconsin discussed the living conditions in Cameroon as he presented a slide show of life in the villages of Cameroon.
Professor Nkafu's ongoing mission is to bring awareness of the lack of minimal services which many villagers in Cameroon and other third world countries live. The only source of water is from the rivers running through villages, so there is no purified water available for drinking, cooking or personal hygiene. They exist without basic medical care, mosquito netting, and polio vaccines and suffer from high infant mortality rates. Establishing the proposed infirmary would benefit not just the pregnant women and babies, but the entire community of about 25,000.
