Humanitarian Actions – Chantal Biya In Partnership with China

20 July 2011

While accompanying the Head of State to China, the First Lady will be interacting with partners in her charity domain.

One cannot enumerate all the social and humanitarian actions that the First Lady of Cameroon, Chantal Biya, has carried out over the past fifteen years. Whether acting as wife to the Head of State, as Founding President of the Chantal Biya Foundation (CBF), Circle of Friends of Cameroon (CERAC), or as an active member of the Pan-African NGO, African Synergy against AIDS and Suffering, of which she is the founding president, Mrs. Chantal Biya has made it a priority helping the poor, disaster victims as well as vulnerable and marginalised groups of people in Cameroon and beyond. The First Lady’s actions have not only earned her meritorious awards such as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Social Inclusion, but also admiration and support from foreign powers such as the People’s Republic of China. During her stay in China, Chantal Biya will certainly have much to discuss with her Chinese partners.

On January 13, 2009, at the East Wing of the Unity Palace, Mrs Chantal Biya received the than People’s Republic of China Ambassador to Cameroon, Huang Changqing in an audience during which the Chinese diplomat did not only congratulate the First Lady on her remarkable humanitarian efforts which are leaving no one indifferent, but also stressed the constant support of the Chinese government to the social activities of the First lady, notably at the Chantal Biya Foundation. After the audience, the Chinese diplomat promised that the cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the First Lady’s humanitarian actions will be intensified as he gave assurances that the embassy and the government of China will always accompany Mrs Biya in her fight against human suffering. This promise was not in vain.

Even before the promise, in 2003 and 2004, an association called La fédération des femmes de Chine offered sewing machines to the CBF to promote the wellbeing of Cameroonian young girls as well as medical equipment. La fédération des femmes de Chine has continued to assist Mrs Biya’s goodwill gestures. Recently a Chinese association “l’Association du peuple chinois pour l’amitié avec l’étranger (APCAE) offered gifts of didactic material, computers, foodstuffs, etc. to the Chantal Biya Foundation. The event took place in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Xue Jinwei and the Secretary General of the Foundation, Habissou Bidoung.

The different wives of Chinese ambassadors to Cameroon have also not been indifferent to the actions of the Circle of Friends of Cameroon. During their stay in Cameroon, they have all joined the diplomat wing of CERAC in weaving the fabric of solidarity in combating poverty in rural areas, supporting charity and health care organisations as well as sensitising national and international opinion to the sufferings of underprivileged. While in China, the First Lady will certainly have people to talk on common issue such as how to reinforce assistance to the needy and sick people in the society.

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