Adelaide BIH is a Clinical biologist and the president/co-founder of the African Initiative for Health and Research Promotion (AIHRP) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
After experiencing the devastating effects of water scarcity in her childhood, Adelaide BIH resolved to make a difference. In fact, the lack of potable water made her suffer episodes of intestinal parasites and typhoid. She was also devastated by the loss of a classmate to Cholera and could not help but wonder if she would have survived had there been access to potable water.
These tragic events motivated her to pursue medical studies. Upon the completion of her Master’s degree in Clinical Biology, she had the opportunity to serve through several internships and sensitization programs in communities stricken by epidemics of waterborne diseases. She volunteered for 6 months at the Central Hospital in Yaoundé and worked as a Laboratory Scientist at the Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, in Bamenda where she rose to the level of Deputy Quality Manager and Document Controller. When the Anglophone Crisis hit Bamenda, like many of her colleagues, she was forced to flee, especially when a fellow colleague was killed in a crossfire.
She fled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates where she found a job as the Medical Representative at Bioimmun Diagnostic Laboratory, a vendor of highly specialized medical equipment, where she was responsible for the on-boarding and training of laboratory scientists of client organizations. While in Dubai, she nursed a profound desire to give back to the communities which had shaped her as a person: marginalized and conflict-affected communities.
When she returned to her native Cameroon, she co-founded the African Initiative for Health and Research Promotion (AIHRP) to provide high-quality pro bono healthcare services to survivors of conflicts and low-income persons. Since 2019, when she started AIHRP, she has achieved not only significant impact but also recognition. The CleanHands-Cameroon project she initiated to help curb the spread of Covid-19 earned her The Pollination Project Grant which equipped her with resources to create free water points served 5000 people in a Yaounde slum, where water was so scarce that few could use their hard-earned water for handwashing. This campaign did not only provide water for handwashing but also helped to curb many waterborne diseases. Along with her co-founder who is a Medical Doctor, she runs a medical cabinet where she has offered free and subsidized healthcare to more than 500 conflict-affected and marginalized persons.
Listed as one of 50 African Women in Development by Nigerian based organization, Donors for Africa and featured as a lioness in Africa by South African media company, Lionesses of Africa, Adelaide has become a prominent voice in health practice and policy in her country. She co-convened the first Mental Health and Psychosocial Disability Policy Forum (MEPPOF) in her country and has been called upon to participate in other initiatives organized by Plan International, the ABCD institute and the British High Commissioner to Cameroon. Her mid-term goals are to duplicate AIHRP centres in all the ten regions of Cameroon and across Africa, launch a Health Vlog and establish a health research centre for medical students.