April 2010 Bulletin

APRIL 2010 BULLETIN OF BCCSDR

The Management of BCCSDR is pleased to update you with what happened at the centre
in the month of April 2010 through this Bulletin. We hope the Bulletin serves the purpose for
which it is intended i.e. inform you of its activities.
Thanks again for your contributions to the center.

Membership
During April, we have been planning a membership drive which will occur during May
and June. Our goals include having each current member bring in one additional
individual member, inviting at least 20 organizations in the region to join, and having 3
new organizational members actually join.
You can now follow us on Facebook! Many thanks to Emmanuel who has set up an
exciting Facebook group for the centre. Join us now! There are great updates, pictures
and even video. Our goal is to get 100 members by the end of May. We already have over
20 members from many different places in the world.

Research activities:
Prevalence Study
Epi-Info software has been installed on two of the Centre’s computers for data entry of
the “Prevalence study”. Presently data is being entered and the work is progressing, this
process will take a couple of months to be completed. Epi-Info is a public domain
database and statistics program for use by public health officials (e.g. doctors, nurses,
epidemiologists, social workers) managing databases for public health activities,
conducting outbreak investigations, and performing statistical applications. Epi Info
allows the user to develop a questionnaire, customize the data entry process, enter data,
and analyze the data. Statistics, graphs, tables, and maps can be produced with simple
commands.

Best Practice Guideline Development
The Best Practices groups continue to work on their individual topic areas.
A focus group discussion held at the Centre on Friday April 9 to evaluate the first year of
the 3 year project of developing the best practice guidelines. Nine members took part in
the focus group discussion from the following committees; Hearing impairment, Family
Centres care, Vocational Rehabilitation, Visual impairment, Stroke Rehabilitation and
Accessible material for HIV and AIDS. Individual interviews have been scheduled with
other members who were not able to attend the FGD session.
The recommendations made during the FG discussion and interviews will be taken into
consideration as we strive to make the process better in order that we can come up with
good and easy to use BPG.

Staff report
The staff of the BCCSDR had an evaluation session with Martine Larochelle, student
occupational therapist on internship who was at the end of her stay at the Centre. This is a
standard practice at the Centre to sit with volunteers at the end of the program to evaluate
the services the Centre rendered to them and their contribution o the growth of the
Centre. The essence is to make sure that future volunteers are served better. We thank
Martine for her thoughtful insights and feedback.
Emmanuel Anjonga, the Administrative Assistant, is mobilizing persons with disabilities
towards the upcoming 50th anniversary of Cameroon’s independence as the Government
is keen on seeing every body participate He has held a series of meetings with the
President of the Coordinating Unit of Association for Persons with Disability
(CUAPWD) and other Disabled People’s Organizations. More about these activities in
the next Bulletin.
Emmanuel also assisted three student members from SENTTI on research methodology
and orientated them on how to use the library for research.
Adoh Yvonne, one of the Research Assistants, has been hired to enter the data into the
Epi-Info software.
We continue to work on the sustainability of the centre. We have submitted a proposal to
an international funding organization, and are presently working on other proposals. We
welcome suggestions of potential funders, partnerships and income opportunities.

Obituary
Management announces with regret the death of one of the research assistant Benedicta
Moyewoh Nyamsenkwen. She died on the 18/4/2010 and was laid to rest on Friday April
30 2010 in her native village, Bali.

Visits
A delegation from cbm who was in the country to evaluate the progress of the SEEPD
activities (Socio Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) was welcomed to
the Centre on Tuesday, April 16, 2010. Funding for some of research work comes from
this project. The 5 person delegation was made up of; Country Director of CBM
Cameroon – Mr. Peter Mue, the Manager of the SEEPD Program – Mr. Benuh Ezikiel, the
Programme Officer CBM Australia – Ms Susan McGowan, Designated Funding Officer,
CBM Regional Office, Nairobi – Ms Kate McGran, and the Country Director of CBM
Chad, Mr. Magloire. The aim of their visit to the Centre was to evaluate what the Centre
has done so far in the area of research as concerns the SEEPD Program. Their visit lasted
over 2hrs. They stated that they were satisfied with the results so far.

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