‘If Poverty had a name, it will be called Tansa Rose’, commented in a
melancholic mood a reporter of Cameroon’s public Radio (CRTV). Tansa
Rose is this 35 year old woman who died while giving birth to 4 babies
in Kumba-a populous city in the South Western Region of
Cameroon-recently. As shocking as this news is, it is common place in
Cameroon to hear of women dying while giving birth so much so that
nobody is surprised that in the 21st century; 3 years to the so much
talked about 2015 dateline for the achievement of the millennium
development Goals(MDGs) and not too far from 2035-the year Cameroon
dreams of becoming an emerging nation.
In Cameroon, far from being neglected, Maternal Health has been at the heart of politicians’ manifestos and development policy documents. But the importance of maternal health has never been translated into concrete actions by these politicians once elected into office. After all, which Cameroonian will not remember the famous “Health for all in the year 2000 “slogan and the now ever present “emergence by 2035” argument?
One will never really know how sincere those politicians and policy makers that created such lofty slogans as those above were but one thing one can be certain of is the fact that women like Tansa Rose die while giving birth at home because they are too poor to get prenatal and postnatal care.
Tansa Rose as 1/3 of women in developing nations was the sole bread winner for her family and her children like all those whose mothers die while giving birth to them are 3-10 times likely to die before their second birthday than those whose mothers survive according to the UN in its We Can End Poverty 2015 report and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) State of the World’s Children 2007. This coupled with the uncertainty of what the future holds for late Rose’s babies in terms of health, education, and opportunity for them to live worthy lives revolts me as while precious resources are being invested in white elephant projects that are doomed to failure, thousands of Cameroonians continue to die because they cannot afford the services of health care professionals or stay in remote areas with the nearest health facility hundreds of miles away. This is shameful and must be change if Cameroon is to ever become the emerging country it so much dreams of becoming because a nation whose women and children plagued by ills of all sorts cannot achieve any development worth its name.
Access to health care for men, women, and children of a nation’s present and future generations must be at the heart of any nation’s development policies. For, “People are dying unnecessarily because they do not have clean water, enough good food, or basic medical care-which is what economic development means for us. The most basic human right of all is the right to life itself, and a life which is not made miserable by hunger, ignorance, or preventable disease”, argued Julius Nyerere in his Plea of the Poor to the world.
In Cameroon, far from being neglected, Maternal Health has been at the heart of politicians’ manifestos and development policy documents. But the importance of maternal health has never been translated into concrete actions by these politicians once elected into office. After all, which Cameroonian will not remember the famous “Health for all in the year 2000 “slogan and the now ever present “emergence by 2035” argument?
One will never really know how sincere those politicians and policy makers that created such lofty slogans as those above were but one thing one can be certain of is the fact that women like Tansa Rose die while giving birth at home because they are too poor to get prenatal and postnatal care.
Tansa Rose as 1/3 of women in developing nations was the sole bread winner for her family and her children like all those whose mothers die while giving birth to them are 3-10 times likely to die before their second birthday than those whose mothers survive according to the UN in its We Can End Poverty 2015 report and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) State of the World’s Children 2007. This coupled with the uncertainty of what the future holds for late Rose’s babies in terms of health, education, and opportunity for them to live worthy lives revolts me as while precious resources are being invested in white elephant projects that are doomed to failure, thousands of Cameroonians continue to die because they cannot afford the services of health care professionals or stay in remote areas with the nearest health facility hundreds of miles away. This is shameful and must be change if Cameroon is to ever become the emerging country it so much dreams of becoming because a nation whose women and children plagued by ills of all sorts cannot achieve any development worth its name.
Access to health care for men, women, and children of a nation’s present and future generations must be at the heart of any nation’s development policies. For, “People are dying unnecessarily because they do not have clean water, enough good food, or basic medical care-which is what economic development means for us. The most basic human right of all is the right to life itself, and a life which is not made miserable by hunger, ignorance, or preventable disease”, argued Julius Nyerere in his Plea of the Poor to the world.
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