Acquisition of multilingual competencies for medical and health students in Cameroon | #LeadingSDG4

Dr NKE Ekanni Bertrand Marie is a pharmacist, assistant lecturer, and passionate humanitarian activist from Douala, Cameroon. He co-founded the Village sans Frontières, a humanitarian organization dedicated to promoting health and education in Cameroon-, and serves as the president of ASSEMBPOL, a medical, pharmacy and biological student association in Lekié, Cameroon, which organizes health campaigns in rural areas. He is also a member of the SDG4 Youth and Student Network. Growing up as the second of six siblings in a moderate family, he developed a strong commitment to education and community service. 

Dr Bertrand is an advocate for health education in Cameroon and together with his team at the faculty of medicine and pharmaceutical sciences of the Douala University have designed effective programmes which have supported the communities in Cameroon to acquire health education.   

Around the country, when a health personnel is sent to a region where the local communities do not speak or write in the national languages, English and French, the health personnel face difficulties in communicating. Hence a linguistic and cultural barrier is created. 

To remedy this situation, youth and young students at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy in Douala designed a multicultural programme functioning within the university and whose main objective is to improve literacy acquisition in all the languages of the country. This programme also seeks to reinforce multicultural awareness. 

This helps in such a way that, after your graduation from school, you can find it easy for you to talk, write and understand people from different parts of the country. Every youth in this program learns in more than two minority languages. Therefore, they are ready to face different languages and cultures.

When asked what he could say to other medical or health practitioners that live in a multilingual country, Dr. Bertrand encourages them to “[…] establish associations that bring together professionals from various linguistic backgrounds. This collaboration can foster mutual learning, allowing us to share not only languages but also cultural insights. Embrace multilingualism as a valuable asset, rather than a limitation. […] It’s vital to maintain on-going communication and organize activities within your institutions that promote linguistic integration. Consider hosting regular meetings that encourage interaction among individuals from different linguistic regions and arrange opportunities to travel, facilitating cross-cultural exchanges. Together, we can celebrate and enrich our diverse languages and cultures in the health sector.”