A "Health Education Day" took place in the Okola Health District lon Wednesday, October 2, 2013.

Villagers in the Mvoua community in the Okola Health District of the Lekié Division in the Centre Region have been sensitised on the HIV pandemic which keeps ravaging the world, particularly underdeveloped countries.

During the event that took place on Wednesday October 2, at Mvoua, some 130 km from Yaounde, hundreds of aged men and women as well as pupils from Mvoua Primary School, CES Ekalbita Tom and the Technical School, all in the Okola Subdivision, came together under the auspices of Plan Cameroon to exchange and share experiences about the HIV pandemic and how they can prevent it.

The Health Education Day which was organised by Plan Cameroon with support from Plan Canada, Plan France, the Council of Paris and Ile-de-France Region has the main of objective of preventing and caring for those affected or infected by HIV in one way or another so as to improve their status. The Representative of the National Director of Plan Cameroon, Powel Tchatat said the Plan Cameroon's HIV project is one of the biggest projects implemented by the organisation in the Centre region to assist Cameroon's government in the latter's efforts to curb HIV in the country. According to Powel Tchatat, the three-year project is to ensure that HIV does not affect the development of communities and children in particular.

Launched some 10 months back, more than 70 HIV screening campaigns have been organised, more than 100 community health workers have been trained as well as medical personnel on the thematic of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment and prevention of mother-to-child transmission as well as the mass distribution of female and male condoms. Facilitators of the project said when it was launched, they had difficulties educating the population since some of them believed HIV was a myth, but today the situation is not same as many people know about the disease and frequently participate in screening sessions.