On 16 November. The 18th edition of the Fundación Dexeus Mujer Award was granted to Ly Dumas, president of the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation. The award ceremony took place yetesterday in the auditorium of the Joan Miró Foundation This NGO, founded in 2002, has been working for 20 years to improve the living conditions of the rural population of Cameroon, her homeland. Its headquarters are located in Bangoulap, in the northwest of the country.

The Dexeus Mujer Fundación Award is awarded annually to a person, work team or institution whose professional career or line of research represents a relevant contribution in the field of Health Sciences, especially in relation to women. In this edition, the award was presented by Dr. Pedro N. Barri, president of the Dexeus Mujer Foundation, to Mrs. Ly Dumas, who received it in person.

Ly Dumas has dedicated her life to preserving the craft traditions of African culture and promoting local economic activity in her homeland through the Jean Félicien Gacha Foundation. In addition to educational activities, she cooperates with hospitals, universities and local and international institutions to improve living conditions and access to health resources, which are limited in rural areas.

Thanks to her support, it was possible to carry out a humanitarian mission in Cameroon in February of this year, in which members of the medical team and healthcare staff of Dexeus Mujer and the Dexeus University Hospital took part. The aim was to provide urgent health care to the population and to train medical students, health professionals and local surgeons to expand their knowledge in the practice of complex gynaecological interventions. A crowdfunding campaign was carried out through the migranodearena.org platform, in order to cover the costs of the medicines, consumables and medical instruments that travelled to Bangoulap,

The Dexeus Mujer Foundation wants to continue this project in the future, as it will improve maternity care in this area, where it is common that, due to lack of monitoring, many babies are stillborn or their mothers have complications and health problems during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum.

In addition to the award, the grant that the Fundación Dexeus Mujer awards annually to young researchers who promote projects in the area of women’s health was also presented. This year the winner was Antía Figueroa Romero, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre promoted by the “la Caixa” Foundation, for the project: “Evaluation of the effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19 in pregnant women in Africa”, one of the areas of the world with the highest maternal and neonatal mortality.

ISGlobal aims to improve global health and promote health equity through excellence in research and the transfer and application of knowledge. Antía Figueroa Romero graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2020, she obtained a master’s degree in Global Health from ISGlobal and the University of Barcelona. She is currently a junior epidemiologist and predoctoral researcher at the Maternal, Child and Reproductive Health Initiative.

The research funded by the grant aims to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccination against COVID-19 in pregnant women in several African countries. To date, little is known about how SARS-CoV-2 infection affects this population, and no studies have examined the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. The results of this study are expected to be of great relevance, as they will provide the first insight into the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in this vulnerable population.

If you would like to collaborate with a donation for the humanitarian mission that our Foundation periodically carries out in Cameroon, you can make your contribution here.