Chantal Biya Foundation : Order Of Malta Promises More Support

“With our hearts, we will continue to seek better ways on how to provide health care to women and children. Our humanitarian actions in the next five years will focus on the health of women and children in Cameroon and the world at large.” The statement was made by the President of the Order of Malta, France, Ce?dric Chalret du Rieu yesterday June 5, 2023 at the Chantal Biya Foundation in Yaounde. This was during a visit to the Foundation by a delegation from the Sovereign Order of Malta in Rome and France. The First Lady, Chantal Biya, was present at the Foundation to receive her august guests in a visit that enabled the audience to understand the genesis of the Foundation, its activities and ways in which the health of women and children will be improved in Cameroon and beyond. 
Upon her arrival at the Foundation, the First Lady, immediately ushered her guests among whom the Grand Hospitaller of the Sovereign Order of Malta, H.E Fra’ Alessandro de Franciscis, the Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Cameroon, Jean-Christophe Heidsieck and Ce?dric Chalret du Rieu and other dignitaries to a hall where they received knowledge about the Foundation which she created in 1994. The Secretary General of the Foundation, Habissou Bidoung said the Foundation was created by the First Lady of Cameroon in order to raise national and international awareness on the fight against poverty, disease, misery and all types of exclusion in urban and rural areas. Noting that it is an apolitical, non-denominational and non-profit humanitarian association, Habissou Bidoung said the main aim of the Foundation is to assist vulnerable segments of the population and to combat hardship.  Over 29 years, it was revealed that the Foundation is working alongside the government in the domain of education through the creation of schools, social assistance to the needy and the Child First Centre which entirely hosts orphans and provides healthcare particularly to women and children through the Mother and Child Centre of the Foundation.
The Director of the Mother and Child Centre of the Foundation, Professor Paul Olivier Koki Ndombo revealed that the Centre is at the service of children 24/7. The Centre, he noted, has an Orientation Unit through which sick children are directed to the different wards depending on their health problem. The centre has a Neonatology Unit for full term new-born babies as well as those born prematurely. There is also a Nephrology Unit, a Diabetics Unit, Sickle Cell Centre, a Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, a paediatric Cardiology Unit, an Emergency Unit, a Paediatric Unit and a Haematology and Oncology Unit. 
The Haematology and Oncology Unit was the centre of discussion given that the Sovereign Order of Malta has been in partnership with the unit for the treatment of children suffering from cancer. According to Professor Angéle Pondi, a staff at the Paediatric Oncology Centre of the Chantal Biya Foundation, since 2000 through the signature of three partnership agreements, the Sovereign Order of Malta has f...