The “No baka without health” project, promoted by the Navarrese Juan Uranga Solchaga and Ignacio Zúñiga Gaztambideand the Majorcan Sergi Carulla Gonzálezstudent of 5th year of Medicine at the University of Navarra, was winner of the first edition of the “Álvaro del Portillo Solidarity Prize”.
This prize, which rewards the best solidarity initiative led by university students During the 2023-2024 academic year, it will be allocated 5,000 euros for the solidarity project.
He objective of the initiative of Juan, Ignacio and Sergi is to strengthen access to health care for the Baka pygmies in the Djoum region, in the south of Cameroon, through the implementation of a mobile health strategy.
The project, which began last June and will end in June 2025, aims to generate habits of access to public health care programs among Baka pygmy population currently unsupervised, through door-to-door visits offering basic health consultations, assessing health needs and referring to a health center or hospital, if necessary.
Volunteers will address public health issues that primarily affect this community, including malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and monitoring of pregnant women. Likewise, the objective is to provide health letters to the Baka community so that at the end of the project they will be connected to the public health services of Cameroon, thus guaranteeing the health continuity of this ethnic group made up of around 600 people.
The project promoted by medical students has the collaboration of NGO Zerca and Far and the local parish of Nkolembembe. Based on the dialogue between local ZYL officials and university students, the Afanavoto region was chosen, as it is a particularly isolated area due to its location, which aggravates its situation of marginalization and vulnerability.
10 solidarity projects in 8 countries
In this edition of Álvaro del Portillo Solidarity Prize In total, 10 projects were presented, in which 60 students participated. Three of them in Gipuzkoa and Navarra, and the rest in countries like Cuba, Honduras, Tanzania, Uganda, El Salvador, Cameroon or the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The price is Founders Week framesa week in which the academic center organizes various events to publicize the figure of Saint Josemaria, founder of the University of Navarra.
