Elizabeth Asung, Public health adviser, Cameroon
Twenty-eight-year-old public health adviser Elizabeth Asung was one of the first volunteers to go to Cameroon through the UK-based organisation Africa Foundation Stone. The experience has left her not only more aware of issues affecting those in her country of heritage, but also committed to supporting UK community charities. This is her story.
My family is from Cameroon. I was born there and I was brought up in Britain. In terms of most of the things I relate to, I’m British. But in terms of my ethnicity, I think of myself as African and I see myself working in Cameroon in the future.
I’ve always wanted to give something back to Cameroon. My brother is a doctor in Cameroon and has a private practice there. I wanted to reach out to people who couldn’t afford medical care.
I was in Yaoundé, the capital, for three weeks with an NGO called DS Sida, working on HIV & AIDS prevention and care. I went on home visits to see whether people took their medicine, observed the counselling programme at the hospital and ran workshops on topics like stigma and discrimination.
In terms of HIV prevention, Cameroon can learn a great deal from other countries. People were surprised that some other parts of Africa are leading the way. I showed videos of what other countries like Uganda are doing. We also looked at the trends of HIV in Cameroon compared to the UK. Although prevalence is much greater in Cameroon, the issues are similar. For example, the same groups of people in both countries are not following their treatment regime.
For me, a highlight was a workshop with people living with HIV. I persuaded them to come to the office where we talked about how they could disclose their status to their families. Like diabetes, HIV is a long-term condition and needs to be properly managed. We watched videos from other countries, for example, of an HIV-positive Anglican priest who was open about his status to the congregation. Some of the participants left the workshop ready to disclose their status.
I’d never spoken to a person living with HIV before, and I was inspired to do much more than my job. It wasn’t a case of just coming from the West and telling them what to do. We both learned from each other.
The experience is helping my work back in the UK. In Tower Hamlets, I’ve joined a working group for World AIDS Day and now I understand more about the needs of African people in the borough. Now, when I look at the statistics I don’t get overwhelmed – I can identify more easily where people need to be empowered.
The people in Cameroon are part of me. This was both an opportunity to find out more about myself, and the opportunity to contribute to a society I care about.