Enhancing the Health and Education of Deprived Children: Implications for Sustainable Development in Cameroon

Abstract

Issues related to children and youths’ access to health and education in Cameroon greatly impact their development. Unfortunately, some if not most contexts of development have excluded children in Cameroon from gaining effective access to resources providing good health and education facilities. Yet they survive and those around them do not even know much about their resilience as they cope with these challenges. A more holistic understanding of children’s health and development is important to enable society search for ways on how to help and uphold the dignity and rights of all children. All children have potentials though in most cases some may be deprived of the basic psychosocial and physical amenities to cope with life challenges. This chapter addresses culturally relevant social support services, challenges faced by the government in the implementation of the SDGs related to health and education, challenges for deprived children and addressing challenges using Mutual Reciprocity as a strategy that emphasizes children’s capacity to manage, and direct their access to health and education facilities through their socio-cognitive processes. Socio-cognitive process is illustrative of mind theory on how children in difficult situations express and harness their thoughts, feelings and actions based on their perceptions. The expression of the theory is seen in the processes employed to address emerging life challenges.