The Grand Hospitaller of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Joseph D. Blotz, has recently visited Cameroon where he went to several of the humanitarian projects of the Order, present in the country for over half a century.

Accompanied by the Order of Malta’s Ambassador to Cameroon, Jean-Cristophe Heidsieck, on 7 June the Grand Hospitaller held institutional meetings at the highest levels with Prime Minister Joseph Dion-Ngute and Apostolic Nuncio José Avelino Bettencourt. Both lauded the Order’s activities in the country, encouraging it to continue its assistance to the most vulnerable.

Joseph D. Blotz attended a gala evening with First Lady Chantal Biya as guest of honour to raise funds for the Saint-Jean-de-Malte hospital in Njombé-Penja (south-west of the country), the Rohan-Chabot Health Centre in Mokolo (Far North region) and the Chantal Biya Foundation Centre for Paediatric Imaging Oncology, in Yaoundé, the country’s capital. During the evening, the Grand Hospitaller stressed the Order of Malta’s long-lasting and profound link with the Republic of Cameroon, the first country in the African continent with which it opened diplomatic relations in 1961. It initiated humanitarian activities in 1969. “A relationship that is founded not only on words, but on years of cooperation in healthcare, humanitarian aid and care for mothers and children,” he said.

After a Solemn Mass on Sunday, 8 June, in the Mary Queen of the Apostles Basilica in Yaoundé, the delegation went to the Paediatric Oncology Centre promoted by the First Lady, visiting the next day the hospital Saint-Jean de Malte in N’Jombé, a surgical centre of excellence with 126 beds and 170 staff, as well as a flagship for medical and paramedical courses.

Ordre de Malte France has been present in Cameroon since 1969, engaged in combatting Hansen’s disease and treating infectious diseases. It runs the Saint-Jean-de-Malte hospital, with maternal-infant health specialties, the Rohan-Chabot medical centre and supports nine healthcare centres nationwide. Its professionals and volunteers cooperate with the national health system in the paediatrics, HIV/AIDS and malaria, ophthalmology, physiotherapy and cardiology sectors.