FSPA brings nursing experience and friends’ support to Cameroon

For Sister Genny Morrissey, mission trips to Cameroon serve as a reminder to appreciate everything she has at home and truly helps her to separate “wants” from “needs.”

Sister Genny, a registered nurse, made her third trip to Cameroon, West Africa, in late 2010. For three months she volunteered five to six days per week in the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis’ Shishong Hospital pharmacy. There she prepared medications and refilled prescriptions upon request.

“The Shishong Cardiac Center pharmacy does not have a pharmacist. They have one sister trained to oversee the pharmacy program but rely on the staff to dispense medications,” Sister Genny explains. “When someone is not there volunteering in the pharmacy the hospital has to pay a staff member and, of course, funds are very limited.” Sister Genny adds that for most of the hospital staff the work week includes six days at eight hours per day. “Some sisters put in a lot more time because they’re not able to hire more staff.”

In Cameroon, medicine, including aspirin, is very expensive. In Douala, about a six-hour journey from Shishong Hospital, “two thirds of the medicines on sale are often available on the streets from Nigeria and can be ineffective and harmful,” according to a report posted online at www.intercare.org.uk. About Shishong Hospital, the website explains that “this is the largest Catholic hospital in the English-speaking part of Cameroon and some patients travel up 300 miles from the coast because of its very good reputation.”

Before she leaves for Cameroon, Sister Genny packs baby aspirin, aspirin and non-aspirin pain reliever to help stock the pharmacy. “While they have access to this medication, it is very expensive for the patient and they just don’t have the money,” Sister Genny says. “We spend a lot of time cutting the extra strength pain relievers into smaller pills—so they get more. For example a 500 milligram pill can be cut into four pills and remain effective for the patient.”

Sister Genny takes more than her nursing skills when she visits Cameroon. She takes with her the efforts of her fundraising skills, too. After her first visit in 2006 Sister Genny learned that one of the biggest needs in this area is tuition money for children and young adults to attend school. “They have food and clothing—neither is so much a need as is education,” says Sister Genny. “After my first trip I started writing letters to friends, explaining the situation and asking if they would sponsor a child. In the first year eight friends were sponsoring 12 kids. Today I have 23 sponsors who make it possible for more than 30 children and young adults to attend school.”

Most of the children and young adults helped by Sister Genny are relatives of a Tertiary Sister of St. Francis. Several students come from single-parent homes. Sister Genny’s friends, the sponsors, contribute $150 per year toward the students’ tuition. “We ask for that amount, which pays about half the total fee, so the family takes responsibility for their child’s education, too.” Sister Genny explains that without a sponsor “these kids wouldn’t go to school.”

About visiting Cameroon again, Sister Genny says, “As long as I can work I’d like to have the opportunity to volunteer there again. It gives me an appreciation. I come back and say ‘I don’t need half of what I have.’ I always ask ‘is this something I really need or just something I want.’”