Ly Dumas, president of the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation, won the 2023 edition of the Dexeus Mujer Foundation Award. In a moving ceremony, which took place in the Joan Miró Foundation auditorium, Ly Dumas received the prize in person. It is a well-deserved recognition of her love, generosity and care for her compatriots and of her mission to encourage the younger generation to feel pride in their culture and roots. The award also consisted of 7000 euros, which will help solve some pressing women-related issues in line with JFG Foundations’ philosophies.

The Dexeux Foundation is one of the largest and most important European non-governmental organizations dedicated to women’s healthcare and spreading the latest advances in obstetrics, gynaecology and human reproduction. This prestigious award is granted annually to an individual, team or institution whose career or line of research represents an outstanding contribution to Health Sciences, mainly focused on women.

Ly Dumas’s lifelong commitment to improving living conditions and access to health care in rural African communities sparked her cooperation with local and international hospitals, universities and institutions. As a result, in February 2023, the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation teamed up with the Foundation Dexeus Mujer. Besides providing urgent medical support to the local population, the Spanish medical team trained Cameroonian medical students and health professionals in complex gynaecological interventions and procedures, in an unprecedented exchange of experience with their local counterparts, all given to the local population for free.

The wonderful, selfless team of Spanish gynaecologists led by Pedro N. BARRI, president of the Dexeus Mujer Foundation, is the best in its field. Of the many communities around the world that would benefit from their help, thanks to Ly Dumas’ well-known devotion to the welfare of her people, the doctors chose to spend their 2023 holiday in the Bangangté region of West Cameroon, operating eighteen hours daily. They performed seventy-two surgical procedures and treated gynaecological conditions affecting women in these communities, with the indispensable assistance of Léandre TABUE, Director of the Bangwa Protestant ospital.

Surgery was sometimes performed under heroic conditions, with doctors operating by the light of electric generators and even candles. The soul of this team and the project initiator was Elisa Beltrame, a great lady and friend of the JFG Foundation. She gave us the gift of many hours of her time, her fantastic energy and her ability to bring people together, creating links across continents and oceans. Assisted by Soemy Nougay and Sophie Aubert, from the JFGF, she put together this incredible life-saving program that brought many women back from the brink.

The project will endure in the future, as it ensures progress in maternity care in areas where women experience health problems during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum. In addition, the JFGF will continue its efforts to educate on topics such as early marriage, child nutrition and the prevention and treatment of associated diseases.