by Lwabanya Marx MD
Image courtesy of Unsplash
The following is a news article from Congo:
Our history in South Kivu
The Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The crisis is described to be one of the world’s deadliest, longest, unfortunately less spoken and happening for decades. It has resulted in massive internal displacement of populations without adequate assistance in many cases. At the same time the DRC is home for refugees from neighboring countries.
This evolving humanitarian disaster is largely silent on the global consciousness, yet the disastrous consequences are felt by all sectors of the population. The eastern part of the country has been the most affected for years by repeated wars and conflicts, resulting in thousands of victims surviving with physical and emotional trauma. The health providers who work in this humanitarian context face many challenges, including poor salary payment contrasting with a massive overload of work while remaining largely untrained in trauma-informed care, unprepared to deal with patients’ emotional stress, and unsupported in any endeavors they personally take on. Adverse effects linked to the instability in the region seriously impact the well-being of both caregivers and patients.
The Nundu Deaconess Hospital (Nundu Hospital), located in South Kivu, has been caring for thousands of Burundian refugees based in the Lusenda Camps since 2015. More recently, in 2020, additional waves of internally displaced people have arrived in the region seeking care, resulting from instability in the middle and high plateaus. Despite desperate needs for equitable healthcare, patients are often dissatisfied with the care they receive due to lack of staff training and support. A small team of international collaborators from the Atlantic Fellows program are seeking to address these issues with the project, “Hope, Healing, Home, Humanity: Strengthening Our Circle of Belonging”
The Program
A program training health care providers on Trauma aware / sensitive / Informed Care (TASIC) was initially developed for the Staff at NDH. However, due to the observed need in the Zone it was extended to all health providers of the heath Zone including 22 health centers and 5 referral health centers and the NDH.
This training is conducted under the project: “Hope, Healing, Home, Humanity: Strengthening Our Circle of Belonging” with the aim to promote inclusive health care that improve people well-being both physical and mental for patient on one side including those in particular contexts (refugees, IDPS, etc) and health providers on the other.
A kick-off meeting at Nundu September 1-6 brought together different stakeholders including local health officials, health providers, Community health workers, Civil society leaders, traditional healers, church leaders, local NGOs, etc these different groups gathered on table and shared their stories, perceptions, root causes of mental health problems in the Nundu community. The inputs from the groups led to the development of learning materials for health providers within five days. The participants recommended this training to be extended to their peers, and shared the commitment to make their work environment a better place for them and their patient.
Addendum regarding Dr. Lwabanya I. Marx
In April, Dr. Marx will be traveling to the United States, where he will be joining 3 other members in the Atlantic Fellows program. They will all be presenting in a major conference at Duke University on April 8-10. He then plans to remain in the United States and will be speaking at the CAHO conference on April 26-27 at the Spring Arbor. During the last half of April, he will be available to speak in churches, at groups, or at one of our Free Methodist Universities. If interested, contact normwetterau@aol.com