DRC

Background
After a long period of economic decline following the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) independence in 1960, conflict erupted in 1997 when a coup brought a change in leadership and spurred rebels in the east to rise up against the new regime. The five-year conflict that ensued, and ultimately involved troops from five other African nations, is widely considered to have been Africa's worst modern war, claiming the lives of more than three million people and displacing two million others. The country’s social and economic infrastructure was shattered, leaving millions of people with no livelihoods; few churches, schools, or other support networks; and no access to health care.

In late 2006, DRC held its first democratic election in more than 40 years. Joseph Kabila, who had held the presidency since his father was assassinated in 2001, was declared the winner with 58 percent of the vote. While there is hope that Kabila will bring much-needed stability to DRC, the humanitarian crisis, which continues to claim over 1,000 lives each day, remains urgent.

What IMC Is Doing
IMC has been working with the ministry of health (MoH) and local community members to provide health care, nutrition, food security, gender-based violence education, and water and sanitation services to DRC since 1999. IMC is currently the only international NGO operating on a permanent basis in its areas of operations in North and South Kivu provinces. Today, IMC supports three district hospitals and 56 health centers there, serving more than 350,000 people, 80 percent of them displaced by the war.

In collaboration with the MoH, IMC builds the capacity of the local health system by providing essential drugs and medical supplies to health facilities, training staff, providing logistical support, ensuring quality service delivery and supervising activities. IMC’s programs include:

• Health system capacity building which comprises the collection of epidemiological data from all 59 health facilities and training for MoH staff and community-based health workers operating at health zone offices, hospitals, and health centers; increasing community mobilization and training for local health committees; establishing pharmacies; improving safety practices in service delivery; and providing free health care for vulnerable populations;
• Mother and child health services that include clinics for children under age five with routine immunizations, vitamin A distribution, de-worming, and systematic nutrition screening; and prenatal care clinics with systematic tetanus immunization, iron supplementation, health promotion, malaria prevention, reproductive health services, as well as improved emergency obstetric and gynecological care;
• An accelerated vaccination campaign that immunized more than 34,000 children under the age of five against diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis, polio, yellow fever, and tetanus;
• Therapeutic and supplementary feeding services and nutrition education at three therapeutic and 18 supplemental feeding centers, as well as community-based therapeutic care that treats the severely malnourished in their own communities;
• Nutrition and agriculture training and supplies, which provide the Congolese people with seeds and tools to cultivate staple crops, as well as guinea pig breeding centers which provide a nutrient-rich diet and improve prospects for long-term self-reliance;
• Emergency preparedness and response activities that formulate strategies and prepare drugs and supplies for potential disease outbreaks;
• Medical care for returnees is provided through escort convoys, health care at transit centers, and appropriate referrals.
• Rehabilitation of water sources and construction of latrines in and around health facilities to provide potable water and improved sanitation to patients, guardians, and health staff. This also includes creating and building the knowledge and capacity of water and sanitation committees that will maintain the facilities, as well as improving health facility structures; and
• Comprehensive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) programming, which involves identification and treatment of survivors, including fistula repair, rape kit provision, treating sexually transmitted infections, and trauma care; training for health care staff to recognize signs of SGBV and respond appropriately; mental health services for survivors, which facilitates the reintegration and stabilization of families within their communities; equipping and staffing facilities for the provision of quality SGBV services; and, ensuring, female participation in all program planning.

Success story:
IMC has also supported a local NGO, Initiatives for Promotion of Population of Bunyakiri, which helps ex-child soldiers reintegrate into society. IMC supported 40 ex-child soldiers to learn activities related to food security, environmental health and literacy. Upon graduating, IMC donated two rabbits and a bicycle to each participant: the rabbits for long-term income generation, the bicycles for transportation.