Dorothy York Senior Center
The first project completed as part of the CDVTA and iN2L partnership was the Dorothy York / Hannah Thomas Senior center. Hundreds of individuals across the United States made contributions ranging from $25 to $5,000 over the course of one year, and the center was opened on April 22, 2017. The center is the first of its kind in Cameroon and since its inception has been used as a gathering place for elders throughout the villages. Activities undertaken at the centre include a community nursing project for Dementia awareness education, HIV/Aids prevention education, advice on hygiene and sanitation best practices. There is also goat rearing, ointment, wash powder, body lotion and ginger powder production for income generation as well as micro-credit loans schemes for elderly group members. The centre also promotes intergenerational skills sharing exchanges between elders and children for shared learning. Finally, the centre hopes to engage international exchanges with seniors in the USA in future using skype communication to share their cultures, daily lives and learn from each other’s care best practices. The construction of the center was overseen by CDVTA, and was built on time and under budget.
Front Porch Project
Front Porch, an innovative family of senior living communities throughout California, was the first senior living organization in the Unites States to partner with CDVTA. With guidance from Francis, they partnered with Abuh village in North West Cameroon and raised over $14,000 to fund a project dedicated to farming.
Tools, seeds, goats, and multiple other farming necessities were procured for the village, which has led to significantly higher output of crops. Front Porch was so impressed with the outcome of that project that they have raised an additional $20,000 for CDVTA.
WDI Nursing Project
In 2018, the first community nurse in Cameroon was hired by CDVTA. Working from the Dorothy York Center, the community nurse oversees a program that provides specific advice, resources and assistance to older adults and their caregivers that includes wellness programs, nutritional support, educational programs about health and aging, dementia education, palliative care and support to elders and their families. Specifically, the nurse handles issues with respect to improving health, hygiene and sanitation among elders. Direct day to day follow up and contact with patients enables her to do basic screening for simple vital signs (including diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia signs and symptoms, etc.). This allows her to keep the health of the elders in check in order to avoid crisis situations in the future. In cases where the situation is aggravated, which can only be detected by her, she knows when and if a referral can be made for the elder to see a doctor and be attended to appropriately. Funding is still needed to continue this project.