The head of this 22^nd team, doctor Qin Haili in a short interview granted to the author of this article, has reaffirmed the commitment of Chinese doctors alongside their Cameroonian colleagues to step up the China Cameroon medical cooperation in multiple domains including experience sharing, mutual learning, skills transfer as well as more social awareness on health issues among young and old people. “We want to put our skills at the service of the population through curing patients both at hospitals and in localities, especially for those having financial difficulties, that is our first mission here”, said Doctor Qin Haili. “Our second mission is to popularize the traditional Chinese medicine to help build the image of our country”, she continued. “We also want to impact the Cameroonian society, especially the youth with our social actions such as training the youth to emergency first aid and raise the awareness of basic life-saving behaviors. That was the purpose of our lecture to Cameroonian students studying Chinese languages and culture in the Confucius Institute at the University of Yaoundé II”, pursued doctor Qin Haili.

Lecture given by the Chinese medical team at the Confucius Institute of the University of Yaoundé II on emergency first aid

The head of the 22^nd Chinese medical team in Cameroon wishes to further up their social actions in primary and secondary schools, and help build the friendship and people-to-people trust with the youngest as well. Of course, live in Cameroon for newly come Chinese doctors does not go without challenges and good surprises. There is certainly a cultural gap between the two countries in terms of foods, environment, peoples and languages differences. The medical team have to adapt to their new home despites some challenges. On behalf of her colleagues, Doctor Qin Haili acknowledged above all the welcoming and enthusiastic spirit of Cameroonians people of all ages vis-à-vis the Chinese. “When Cameroonian see us in the street, they shout, ‘chinois’, ‘ami’, ‘amigo’… Cameroonians are very nice with us and thanks to the help they have provided us since our arrival here[….]. As doctors, we need to communicate with our patients, at the beginning we needed a translator who was helping, but with times we learned to feel and understand the people. We have received some specialized language training to get us ready for our mission here. Moreover, Cameroon is a bilingual country, even though our French is very poor, we can still use English with which we are more familiar since our middle school education”, she said.

Officing at the Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital of Yaoundé, the medical team are putting the best of their expertise to serve the people while improving themselves alongside their Cameroonian colleagues.

The 22 Chinese medical team and their Cameroonian colleagues of the Gynaeco-Obstetric and Pediatric Hospital of Yaoundé

Chinese and Cameroonian doctors Working hands in hands for a prosperous Sino-Cameroonian medical cooperation