The day a nurse misses your vein and injects a substance into the wrong channel. The day a doctor misdiagnoses you and leaves you carrying a fear you may never fully recover from. That’s the day you’ll understand why you should never condone an unjust system. I’m not saying these aren’t genuine mistakes adequately trained professionals can do. But imagine it’s done by someone who wasn’t supposed to be in the service in the first place. An unjust system is never truly on your side. Today, its injustice may work in your favour; tomorrow, its injustice will work against you. And when it does, you’ll wish you had spoken up when the suffering belonged to someone else. Never mistake an injustice that benefits you for a system that serves you. A system that can be unjust to others can, without warning, be unjust to you.

The doctor-to-patient ratio in Cameroon is deeply concerning, and I’m not sure we talk enough about the systemic failures behind it. The treatment of medical personnel and students by the government and the educational system is disheartening. We continue to train doctors, many of whom eventually leave the country for better opportunities and working conditions. CUSS graduates hundreds of medical students, but where are the hospitals, the jobs, the equipment and the facilities to support them? What exactly is the point of training medical professionals if we cannot create the conditions for them to serve the population? We are turning medical education into an export industry while our own healthcare system struggles to meet the needs of its people. At this rate, you might want to start learning how to boil pawpaw leaves and ask your parents about those traditional methods 😭😂 Because in Cameroon, you’re very likely one minor illness away from death.