Fighting epidemics: Red Cross training field workers to serve communities.

The exercise to end today, January 9, officials said, is to strengthen frontline action against cholera and other epidemics.

Participants comprise 30 community volunteers and two supervisors. The training, officials said, is supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC. 

Organisers said the training is part of the implementation of the Cholera Early Action Protocol, EAP, an approach designed to anticipate outbreaks and trigger timely, life-saving interventions at community level.

Enhancing participants’ ability to prepare for and respond effectively to epidemics, with cholera used as a case study, experts said, is a prime objective of the training. 

They noted that the investment seeks to reduce morbidity and mortality through coordinated, multi-sectoral actions that place communities at the center of prevention and response efforts.

Participants are strengthening their capacities in key thematic areas such as: communication for behaviour change and community engagement.

This, resource persons said, will enable volunteers to promote preventive health practices and foster trust and cooperation within communities.

Emphasis, they said, is also on protection, gender and inclusion principles to ensure responses are equitable and adapted to the specific needs of all groups, particularly women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.

The training, they said will also ensure the evaluation of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH, interventions programme through which volunteers are being equipped with practical tools to improve access to safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene to prevent the spread of especially waterborne diseases.

The training, officials further revealed, is programmed to cover psychological first aid, recognising the mental and social toll of epidemics on the population and the importance of psychosocial support in strengthening community resilience.

According to experts, the training comes against a worrying epidemiological backdrop with figures presented during the tenth meeting of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control.

The figures, they detailed, show that Cameroon currently has 19 health districts affected by cholera, with 21,182 cumulative cases reported and 506 deaths, representing a case fatality rate of 2.39 percent.

The World Health Organization, WHO attributed the persistence and spread of the epidemic partly to insecurity affecting four of Cameroon’s ten regions. 

The WHO said insecurity forced many people to flee to major urban centres such as Yaounde and Douala. Displaced populations, it noted, often live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, with limited access to clean water and adequate latrines with risk of cholera transmission.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3668 of Friday January 09, 2026