CASH transfer funds restore dignity to women in the Eastern Region.
Cash transfers help the women in the project to contribute in the prevention of retarded growth by promoting optimal maternal nutrition, giving birth in the best conditions, and giving themselves gifts for their well-being. The project is financed by Dutch fund.
If following up pregnant women through prenatal consultations and ensuring iron intake is a daily struggle to ensure their health and that of their babies, for health workers, reassuring them that they will receive some money after the delivery of a well-followed baby, is a fruitful strategy.
It’s a sunny day in the Garoua-Boulai district, and we are on our way to meet the beneficiaries of the programme to promote maternal nutrition coupled with cash transfer, set up in 05 health districts in the Eastern region, which hosts a large number of refugees.
In the distance, many children are gathered at the Koranic school and near them, three women playing with their babies to the music tunes from the noises made by these schoolchildren. Asta is one of them and her joy is infectious towards all the young mothers who are with her. She notices us as we approach, because she recognizes Marie, the health worker accompanying us.
Asta is a mother of two. The last one is called Seydou, born a few months ago at the Gado integrated health center. “When Seydou was born, we had a party and he was very well dressed, beautiful and so was I. I felt like a real woman in my community,” she tells us, smiling as she makes a small gesture of pride that amuses her neighbors. Only, this pride she feels today has not been unconditional. “Before Seydou was born, when I was pregnant, I was told about the project set up by UNICEF, which allowed the mother to follow her pregnancy normally and be rewarded at the end.” To be rewarded, Asta had to follow at least 3 mandatory antenatal visits and had to take iron for at least 90 days. During her prenatal consultations, she was able to receive nutritional and health advice, she knew the importance of giving birth in a health facility, deworming, taking iron tablets throughout pregnancy … An approach that seemed to her to be a Way of the Cross, she who had not often been interested in hospital visits, due to costs which she couldn’t afford. “going to the hospital, made me realize that almost everything was free: iron supplements, worm medicine, malaria treatment. I even received a free mosquito net which still helps us against mosquitoes,” she says with a smile still on her face. Asta having received the sum of 8500 francs after giving birth, was able to organize a party for her baby boy. She also bought the ingredients needed to make “Nougat” (traditional milk-based sweets) with the sum of 1500f and has started her small business that makes her a “businesswoman”.
Pregnant woman, woman of value: a modest sum that represents much.
8500 francs: this is the amount received by all the women who, like Asta, are registered in this project to promote maternal nutrition coupled with the CASH transfer. The goal of this project, financed by Dutch Fund, is to strengthen access to and to make use of nutrition and maternal health service packages, for the prevention of malnutrition within the first 1000 days and contribute to the fight against maternal and infant and child mortality in Cameroon. These interventions focus on iron and folic acid supplementation, use of treated mosquito nets, intermittent preventive treatment of malaria, adequate nutrition, anti-tetanus vaccination, ANC and assisted delivery. By coupling these interventions with cash transfer, the project stimulates the demand for services. “We may think that this amount is modest, but for these women, it represents a lot. Imagine a woman who barely manages to gather 500 francs for months, ends up with 8500 francs. Many of them are able to buy items they admired in others and some are even able to contribute to the household and take care of their husbands for several weeks,” says Maissa, representative of the refugee community in Gado camp. He remembers the wife of a member of his community, once humiliated by her husband who also had to take care of his children without a dime. “When Adjidja received the funds, she immediately bought food for her family members and bought school items for her children who no longer wanted to go to school,” he tells us. Today Adjidja has regained her smile and her lost dignity, just by giving life.
Asked what message he conveys to his community before separating, Maissa tells us something relevant: “The implementation of this project has helped us to understand some realities about our community, which we could not have known. The community is so fragile, financially weak and shame was one of the reasons of women’s low attendance at health facilities. Indeed, when interviewing several women, they confessed to us that they refused to give birth in health facilities because they even lacked appropriate clothes and underwear to present themselves in front of people, equally the lack of new clothes for their babies at birth stalled them as they feared the look of other women and nurses. With the funds received during their pregnancies, they can now proudly go to the hospital and not be ashamed, since they can afford loincloths and baby clothes and be respected like any other women.
By Fabrice Coula
