Youth and technology : YOHEDA connects Polytechnicians

Students at the École Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique de Yaoundé are exploring new horizons. Indeed, as part of the extension of the 58th edition of the National Youth Day, Dr Hèmes Nkwa, president of the Youth Association for Health and Development of Africa (YOHEDA), in collaboration with the director of the National School higher polytechnic of the University of Yaoundé 1, Professor Raoul Ayissi, organized on February 16, 2024, the first edition of the “Youth for Health” conference, on the theme: “Youth for health” and the sub-theme: “youth , technology and universal health coverage in Cameroon. This merger is made possible thanks to the convergence of a set of technologies and medical and social practices which offer opportunities to Cameroonians, as part of the progressive implementation of Universal Health Coverage in Cameroon.

Dr Hèmes Nkwa, an ingenious woman passionate about medical sciences, has several strings to her bow. Since 2017, YOHEDA has been the laboratory for strong health actions, technological innovation and environmental protection for sustainable development in Cameroon. It is an association made up mainly of young people, engaged in health and development actions. This February 16, 2024, it was an opportunity for this dynamic team to display its know-how in lecture hall 200 of the Polytechnic School of Yaoundé. “The personal objective was to highlight everything that youth can do to improve health and technology, not only in Cameroon, but also in Africa,” said the president of YOHEDA.

This first edition of the “Youth for Health” conference aims to enable Cameroonian youth to be ambassadors for health promotion. This meeting will allow polytechnicians to seize the opportunities that present themselves in the field of health, in order to realize their full potential. Presentation of vaccine hesitancy, its causes, the way forward and the role of young people in changing the status quo. A presentation by Dr. Adalbert Tchetchia.

The facilitators

For the success of the event, facilitators were associated with the conference. We have among others: Georges Bediang, associate professor of medical informatics, he was the keynote speaker, Professor Judith Torimiro is one of the facilitators of the Youth for Health conference. The second facilitator was Marie-Victoire Vénus-Ploton. She is an ambassador for Africaine de Solutions and president of the association “Les Entretiens de l’excellence, Cameroun. She spoke as a panelist at the round table. “Yoheda Health”.

We also have Didier Demassosso. He is a clinical psychologist, cyber psychologist and expert in public mental health. Jacques Jonathan Nyemb is a business lawyer, teacher and founder of the think do thank “The Okwellians. Subsequently, Dr. Noudji Simon, is serving at the Ministry of Public Health and he holds a master’s degree in public health. He is the communications manager for universal health coverage in Cameroon.

We have Nancy Saiboh, development expert and founder of Actions of Development and Empowerment, Dr Chrys Kaniki, public health specialist and senior technical lead for strategic programs, Micarême Nzeko’oh, humanitarian psychologist, teacher and researcher passionate about mental health. We are honored to count her among our facilitators.She is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Yaoundé 1. Ingrid Simo is a junior consultant in monitoring and evaluation. She holds a master’s degree in public health and advocates for gender equality.

With a view to providing a tentative solution to this problem, YOHEDA, with funding from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), worked on the one hand to set up a free digital platform, through which these vulnerable people will be able to interact with qualified and previously trained staff; and subsequently have reliable health information, all this in total anonymity and strict respect for data confidentiality, and on the other hand to organize capacity building workshops for health personnel and vulnerable people , with the aim of raising awareness respectively on issues of human rights, mental health and sexual and reproductive health. The conference ended with the signing of a partnership between ENSPY and YOHEDA.

Elvis Serge NSAA