Running a health center in a conflict zone
I am in my hotel room
in Mbujimayi, in the Oriental Kasai province
in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the past year, more than 1.4 million
people had to flee their homes because of continuous armed conflict. The crisis is not easy to understand and has
multiple causes. But what is clear is that people are in urgent need of
assistance in this unprecedented humanitarian crisis. A study conducted[1]
by our team shows that internally displaced people’ need support in all areas
of life.
People do not have enough to eat, they often
don’t have a safe place to stay, they often lived through traumatic experiences
and need medical and psychological help. When I met nurse Freddy in one of the
health centers CARE is supporting, I realized just how difficult it is to provide assistance in an ongoing conflict,
when health clinics themselves become the target, medication and technical
equipment is not available and staff are not always trained for the difficult
tasks ahead of them.
“We are
experiencing lots of serious problems in our health center, as we had to
support many internally displaced people who were wounded during violent
clashes. We used to have two or three patients per day, the numbers are three
times as high,” says Freddy. Last January, Freddy and his team themselves had
to flee the violence. They heard shots near the health center and ran to a
nearby village. Armed groups were on their way to the health clinic. “We spend
an entire week in the bush. We did not eat, we did not sleep,” Freddy
remembers.
When he and the
others returned to the health center, it had been looted. No more medication,
no scissors, no technical equipment. “. The small boy had been bitten by a
snake. We could not do anything for him. He came for help, but there was no
medication we could give him,” Freddy recounts.
Every day Freddy and his
colleagues treat children who are suffering from acute malnutrition and women
and girls who have been raped. Freddy and the other staff have been trained by
CARE on how to support survivors of gender-based violence. The training
provides the staff with a holistic approach, including medical treatment and
psychosocial support. “In the past, we had many cases of girls and women who
have been raped and we helped as much as we could. But we lacked the training
and equipment to give them the care they needed. CARE’s training helped us a
lot. Those women have already suffered so much. It feels good to be able to
help them at least a little bit.”
Freddy’s
health center does not only deal with survivors of sexual violence. The poor
health and sanitary conditions have led to a spike in disease, especially malaria, diarrhea, and waterborne diseases. This health center and so
many others I have seen urgently need more specialized support. People need
equipment and medical supplies to better cope with undernutrition and injuries.
Trainings are urgently needed for sexual and psychosocial health care for
people who have experienced gender-based violence.
By Stépha Rouichi, Advoacy Manager for CARE DRC
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