Yolanda van den Broek genomineerd voor Impact Beyond Volunteering Award

We zijn ongelooflijk trost dat onze adviseur en betrokkene van de stichting Yolanda van den Broek is genomineerd voor een Impact Beyond Volunteering Award van de organisatie Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).

Tot 25 oktober kan er gestemd worden om haar deze award te laten winnen. We zouden uw stem enorm waarderen. Lees hieronder meer over haar nominatie.

Yolanda van den Broek brought her background in psychiatric nursing to a VSO volunteer placement 15 years ago in Babungo, Cameroon where mental health services were very underdeveloped.

After her initial placement, Yolanda has remained actively engaged in mental health initiatives in Cameroon. She has continued to support in particular the Babungo Integrated Mental Health Care (BIMeHC) centre, which was established to provide both traditional and modern approaches to care. In addition to mental health care, the centre provides education and first aid, as well as running initiatives in tailoring and eco-tourism, which improve the prospects of patients.

She is now involved with a charity back in the Netherlands, Stichting Babungo, which raises funds to support BIMeHC and its aims. She has also introduced various Dutch institutions to the centre, and has inspired interest in her home country in the treatment methods used in Babungo. Yolanda has even developed an active linking scheme between the University of Leiden and the Cameroon Mental Health Workers Institute.

Yolanda has been invited to share her knowledge and experience with various international NGOs and has helped shape mental health programmes in countries as diverse as Benin, Haiti, Liberia and Sudan.

In 2018, Yolanda was awarded a Dutch Royal Award (the Lid in de Orde van Oranje Nassau) for her long-lasting contribution to psychosocial health work in Cameroon and other countries.

Yolanda still takes time out of her work in the Netherlands each year to visit Babungo and the BIMEHC centre.