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Congolese Community Comes Together to Improve Child Health

To improve child health, MCSP is helping to establish community care sites, train health workers, and provide basic medicines in areas of the DRC that previously had no such access or services.

For years, Basomboli Bolese, a mother and fisherman, lived eight hours from the nearest health center. Four of her 10 children died from infections during this time, which she believes could have been treated with better access to medicine and care. Today, in her village of Yatutu, Basomboli lives near a community care site run by two MCSP-trained health workers and her fellow community members.

This ready access to basic medicines and services has made an enormous difference in the life of her family, she says: "I have used the services of the health site several times – I can’t remember how many. I went when my youngest was sick for different things. One child had diarrhea, and another had fever, coughs, things like this. [The community care site] has been very good for my children, because they have all got better. Before, there was nothing and we had to go to Isangi. Now we can get help here."

MCSP has been working to improve child survival in DRC by training community health workers at 119 community care sites and 106 health centers throughout the country. Since January 2017, more than 137,000 sick children have been seen at these Program-supported sites . The Program also supports provision of family planning, nutrition and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services at these sites. Bati Bobubela (pictured above) and Boue Ndelondi Leonard are MCSP-trained community health workers serving Yatutu village.

Leonard (pictured above) and Bobubela share the responsibility of providing vital health services to the community’s 2,800 people, such as integrated community case management. They were trained to use this approach to identify danger signs in children – such as diarrhea and symptoms of pneumonia – and treat these illnesses, thereby reducing child deaths in the community. Educating community members on preventing disease has also been a priority for health workers. Above, Leonard discusses vaccinations and hygiene with a group of mothers in Yatutu.

Community care sites like the one in Yatutu are allowing communities to become more self-reliant and ensuring that more children can quickly access lifesaving health services ."Now that we have the [community] care site, less children are dying and they have access to health services,” said Leonard. “I like this job because we are caring for our community and this is important.”

Congolese Community Comes Together to Improve Child Health

Posted April 30, 2018

Despite its resource-rich land, there are still thousands of areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that lack accessible healthcare.

A dearth of transportation and distance from adequate care keep the country’s infant and child mortality high. Congolese families will travel great distances to treat illnesses like malaria and diarrhea. Tragically, many newborns and children do not survive the trip.

Reporting and photography by: Kate Holt / MCSP
Story by: Nicholas Ansai, MCSP Communications

Congolese Community Comes Together to Improve Child Health

Posted April 30, 2018

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