Cameroon, the Congo and Zaire, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, participates in the care of lepers, and the construction of several facilities for the handicapped. In the Congo, “Le Centre Immaculée Conception” has 293 children orphaned or abandoned children in foster care to relatives or people of goodwill who keep them as children. The Congregation also manages a school for Blind Children and an institute for Braille Production.
As a support for the Baka Pygmy Population: This project consists of a series of social, education and sanitary services provided for the tribes of the Baka Pygmies who live in camps in the equatorial rain forest in the southern part of the Cameroon (DJA and Lobo Departments).
The functional retrieval and rehabilitation of physically disabled children: The undertaking which favours the disabled is provided in two different scenarios. The children can be admitted to a home (up to about 200 at any one time) or they can be cared for at home in their village (up to 800 at any one time). These children live mainly in the southern provinces of Cameroon: Yqaoundè, Sangmelima, Ebolowa, Kribi. The services are mainly sanitary (searching for cases and disease prevention, therapy and care for the disabled and the preparation and provision of prosthesis and orthesis). Education (pre-schools and introduction to public schooling) and social (the involving of the families and institutions).Another important project is the school for the blind situated in the Promhandicam Association at Yaoundé. The Promhandicam is the non profit making body of the CFIC in the Cameroon and is an association for the social development of the disabled. Each year there are about 30 children/adolescence who attend this school and they are taught using Braille.
Centre de Santè “Ngondo Maria” The Ngondo Maria Centre is in Makala district of Kinshasa. It opened its doors on the 18th January 2006 to a local population of about 253,000. The health services are provided by a doctor and a team of nurses, the centre currently performs many different tasks. Over the years this health centre has made a significant contribution to health needs of the local population who in general live in poverty and general degradation. The congregation manages the health service facilities together with a local partner – L’OSPEOR (ŒuvreSociales Pour la Protection des EnfantsOrphelinsed de la Rue).
The FréreMaino Centre and PereMonti Foyer are both family shelters and were set up to alleviate the conditions in these shanty towns. Their main tasks are to house and rehabilitate abandoned children and orphans both socially and psychologically, with the aim of reuniting them with their families. The centres are designed to assure these children the three fundamental human rights of, food and shelter for healthy growth, an education and healthcare.