Healing Minds

MENTAL illness carries a heavy stigma in Cameroon, driven above all by social and cultural attitudes that leave the patient poorly understood and under-prioritized – both in national health policy and within communities themselves. At a community level it’s often seen as something magico-religious – a curse, a spiritual affliction – rather than a medical condition, a perception compounded by a severe shortage of trained staff and psychiatric facilities. In Yaoundé, one of the few places pushing back against that neglect, is the Benoît Menni Mental Health Centre.

“Built for no more than 50 patients, our center was receiving up to 300,” says Sr. Hortense Mayala, the center’s Head of Care. In practice, that meant between 300 and 350 people passing through its doors each weekday, and another 130 to 150 on Saturdays. By 2023, the pressure of that demand had pushed the Sisters to begin building a new medical structure, expanding both services and capacity. Construction was completed in early 2026 – but the new building stood empty because it still lacked the equipment needed to begin operating.

€16,350 needed

The center belongs to the Sœurs Hospitalières du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus – the Sisters Hospitaller of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – a congregation founded in Ciempozuelos, near Madrid, on 31 May 1881, by Saint Benedict Menni, an Italian priest of the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God, together with Venerable María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez, both Spanish. Pope Leo XIII approved the congregation as an institute of pontifical right in 1892, and Pope Pius X gave definitive approval to its constitutions in 1908. The Sisters describe their charism simply as hospitality lived in religious consecration, in continuation of Christ’s own care for the sick.

Seventeen missionary Sisters arrived in Cameroon in 1993 and began working across the dioceses of Yaoundé and Douala. The Benoît Menni center, named after the congregation’s founder, opened its doors in 1994. Beyond its walls, the Sisters run mobile care teams that reach patients too far from Yaoundé to travel, hold monthly consultations at Yaoundé’s prison, and operate a shelter for mentally-ill women found wandering the city’s streets with their children, working to stabilize them and reunite them with their families.

To equip the newly completed building, the Sisters turned to St. Anthony’s Charities. The total cost of the project was €20,350. After deducting the congregation’s local contribution of €4,000, St. Anthony’s Charities approved a grant of €16,350 for medical equipment, payable in two instalments.

Roger’s recovery

The first instalment was received on 12 March 2026, and implementation began four days later. “With this first tranche, we purchased part of the equipment,” says Sr. Hortense: an ionometer, nine hospital beds, five walking frames, two wheelchairs, and two electro-stimulators.

The final balance was received on 16 April 2026, allowing the Sisters to purchase the remaining equipment: an immunofluorescence reader, two examination tables, two care trolleys, two rehabilitation exercise bikes, two pulley cages, a biochemistry vortex mixer, and two traction tables.

The impact has been immediate. “This action will strengthen the quality of care for patients at our mental health center,” says Sr. Hortense. “The center will now be able to carry out medical examinations that previously had to be done at other, more distant centers” – a change that lowers costs for patients as much as it shortens the distance to care. The patients aren’t the only ones benefiting – the center’s 13 staff members also enjoy improved working conditions.

One patient, Roger, travelled 85 kilometers to reach the center, suffering from facial paralysis. “I am deeply moved by the welcome, the listening, and the attention that the Sisters and their team reserve for the patients who arrive here,” he says. “The center is well equipped with new, modern and effective equipment, and the cost of its services is affordable for patients from every social class.” He credits the center with restoring his health, and notes its reputation now draws patients from well beyond Yaoundé – from other regions of the country entirely, in search of care they can’t find closer to home. “I sincerely thank the Sisters Hospitaller and the entire team at this health center for their devotion, commitment, solidarity and generosity in serving the sick,” he adds. “May the Lord bless them – and may He bless all the donors who support them.”

Sr. Marie Germaine Sanla, Director of the Benoît Menni center, describes the impact of the equipment on daily practice. “Thanks to your contribution, we have been able to strengthen our services, particularly in the physiotherapy department, medical laboratory and observation rooms through the provision of beds, mattresses and other essential medical equipment,” she says. “This support considerably improves the quality of care, welcome and comfort for our patients.”

Deep gratitude

Care at the center is not free. Fees are set fairly, according to each patient’s means – a model the Sisters see as essential to the center’s long-term sustainability, built on the wider expertise in mental health care the congregation has developed across Africa.

Sr. Hortense concludes with gratitude on behalf of the whole community. “We wish to express our sincere and profound gratitude to St. Anthony’s Charities and the readers of the Messenger of Saint Anthony for the remarkable efforts made to improve our technical facilities in physiotherapy and in the laboratory,” she says. “These acquisitions go beyond their practical usefulness – they enhance our center, strengthen its reputation, and testify to your constant commitment to modernization and excellence.” Patients keep arriving at the center’s doors each week, and the staff’s dedication and competence has become an integral part of its daily care.