Eloisa Pentecotisa was begging on the streets of Yaoundé, hearing voices and eating out of bins, when a team of health workers came across her and suggested she go with them. The 28-year-old had no idea how long she had been sleeping rough in Cameroon’s capital.
But with severe mental health problems and no immediate family to take her in, she received threats, abuse and risked contracting diseases such as cholera. Acutely mentally ill people like Pentecotisa are often rejected by their families, their conditions exacerbated by being left to roam the streets alone.
