Health care campaigner, Fanny Etong Bessem has been honoured with the Commonwealth Point of Light Award by Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth for her outstanding work in healthcare provision.
She was virtually presented with her award recently by the Countess of Wessex, on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, during a meeting with the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth Network.
“I lack the words to say with respect to this award, the things we do, not knowing someone is watching. I am very humble to be recognised for our little contribution. To think how I had to be begging doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, to travel all day and spend their own resources without complaining, their off days running between Bafoussam and South West, from Yaounde to Batoke, travelling all through the night with all the risk involved. Yet they did it,” Etong Bessem said.
Co-founder of the ‘Favour Low-Cost Health Care Foundation’, Fanny Etong Bessem has been working to provide free medical equipment and over 2000 items of PPE to health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This award is for my team who volunteer their time and resources to make sure the vulnerable have free healthcare services. To think: just one month from giving birth at the peak of COVID-19, I was in the field with my team responding to COVID-19, distributing and educating the population, giving free ANC to pregnant internally-displaced women and delivering their babies – and someone was watching our effort. I can go on and on, but thank you to the British High Commissioner for putting a huge smile on our faces with this recognition. I thank our partners and international partners for supporting my call when our country needed it most,”she added.
Fanny has become the fourth Cameroonian to be honoured with the Commonwealth Point of Light award.
Previously, Dr Georges Bwelle became the first Cameroonian to honoured when he received the 78 Point of Light Award in November 2018 while other winners have included gender campaigner Comfort Mussa as well as humanitarian crusader Noella Lyonga.
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