1. Posted on Monday 4 July 2011 - 12:00

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   Walter

   

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   Walter Wilson Nana, AfricaNews reporter in Buea, Cameroon

   Thousands of workers in the ministry of public health in Cameroon recruited in the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative Project (HIPC) and the French Fund for Development (C2D) in 2007 have programmed a sit-in and hunger strike beginning Monday, July 4, 2011 across the West African country.

   

   This information is contained in a memo dated June 23 2011 and addressed to the Prime Minister Philemon Yang. According to the twenty-six delegates and the various regional focal point members of the aforementioned recruitment projects, who signed the memo to the PM, they are expressing disgust amongst other issues, their non-integration into the public service of Cameroon and non-payment of twenty-two months of salary owed them by the government.
   
   A portion of the memo read: “After incessant efforts by the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda to resolve our problems with the Ministry of Public Service, we are giving you prior information for our strike actions because of the precarious situations in which we and our respective families find ourselves in after working for 22 months without a salary.
   
   We are unhappy with the laxity and nonchalant manner in which our documents for integration are being handled. There is some uncertainty that 981 members of personnel recruited in the initial 2,481 HIPC and C2D Projects may not be included in the first list of 1,500 recruits due integration.”
   
   From this background, the disgruntled health officials wrote; “Beginning Monday, July 4 to 6 2011, we will go in for a peaceful strike action, with minimum services to be offered, only with our colleagues at the hospitals and health centres. The rest of us will move to the regional delegations of Public Health across the country and sit in there. If no solutions are sought for our grievances after the first three days, we will proceed to pursue the strike actions after every two weeks, beginning August 1 2011.”
   
   One of the over 200 members of personnel of the HIPC and C2D Projects working in the Southwest Region, precisely at the Southwest Regional Delegation of Public Health, Paulette Ngum Fru said they are going in for a hunger strike and they are ready to die if the authorities do not wish to hear their pleas.
   
   “We’re not happy, we cannot live a decent life, still perching with our relatives, we cannot rent a house of our own without a salary. We are telling the government that we cannot continue like that. Something must be done to salvage our ridiculous situation,” she mentioned.
   
   The furious health official said the strike actions are coming after many meetings with the Minister of Public Health have not yielded any fruitful actions on their part.
   
   “I am sure with the strike actions our worries will be given the attention due. We intend to be organised about it. We will not disturb other people from working. Our colleagues who are not part of the HIPC and C2D Projects will go on with their regular activities. We will move to our various regional delegations of Public Health and sit-in peacefully. We don’t need the police around us. We will not open our offices and we will not eat. People may die. We already have a colleague who has died in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, because of the hardship the person went through, without resources to take care,” she explained.
   
   The 31-year-old Administrative Assistant said they have not lost faith in the government of President Biya but they are still hopeful that he will listen to their request and take pressing actions to give them smiles on their faces and their families.
   
   However, she expressed bad faith on the Ministry of Public Service for not giving close attention to their integration files and making sure they received their salary after twenty-two months of service to Cameroonians.
   
   “It is absurd to hear that 25,000 people will be recruited into the Public Service while we’re still there without a future. Other people have been recruited into the Ministry of Public Health after us and they have been integrated into the Public Service. We can’t understand why we’re being sidelined?” she fumed.
   
   The dejected health personnel noted that some of them have given up other options, especially in the international scene in order to serve their fatherland, yet they are being treated with such disdain. “We want to serve our country, but when you come to the field and experience what we are going through, it is very frustrating and aching to the spirits and morale,” she added.
   
   As the rest of the HIPC and C2D Projects personnel in the Ministry of Public Health go in for the sit-in and hunger strike beginning July 4, their colleagues in the Far North Region of Cameroon had started the sit-in since Monday, June 27 2011 and will go on till further notice.
   
   This information is found in a letter of theirs dated June 24 2011 in Maroua and addressed to the Minister of Public Health via the Governor of the Far North Region and the Far North Regional Delegate of Public Health. Their worries are not different from those earlier mentioned.

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