SUPPORT VULNERABLE DISPLACED PEOPLE FROM CONGO

With the far reaching effects of civil unrest, communities in Congo continue to suffer especially the women as they continue to migrate to other East African countries in search of jobs and better livelihoods. This has exposed them to human trafficking and other dangers. Kigezi Healthcare Foundation has empowered community leaders as regards  this evil and specific women counselors have been trained to  advise young girls when the need arises to go and search for employment as they are  at a greater risk of exploitation, sexual and gender-based violence, and human trafficking throughout their migration journey and upon arrival. 

 Once they get into the new area, very many people pounce on their vulnerability and force them against their will into occupations like prostitution where they are exposed to dangers such as contracting HIV/AIDS and any other sexually transmitted diseases on top of the psycho-logic trauma caused. Trafficking young people is a growing  business in East Africa. At times, these are often aides by respective Immigration officials to enable the transit of victims.

Kigezi Healthcare Foundation has, through periodic trainings, strengthened 75 women from five villages,  local councils and community leaders to monitor and report cases of exploitation and the sale of vulnerable girls in marginalized sectors  such as  refugees.  The 75 women were also trained in skills such as liquid soap making, baking so as to earn a small income without moving to other communities for employment. These skills are meant to be passed on to the different girl groups that they will interact with.

 More so, the trainees were encouraged to work hand in hand with the security personels and the different channels established by the government as that is  the  place for this purpose. However,  we call upon the government to continue  training of various levels of local councils  to ensure effective monitoring from the village to the sub-county levels. Mechanisms for the social protection of trafficked girls, such as safe houses, repatriation, provision of household-level economic support, and readmission into schools, must also be strengthened.

We continue to appreciate the numerous people that have supported us in this cause and we encourage more people to support communities to facilitate better livelihoods for everyone.

Congolese in DRC have been continuously displaced from their homes as they seek shelter and security. Being a refugee in another country can be very challenging and most of them prefer to be internally displaced persons within their country. This is has resulted into poverty, malnutrition, and ill health characterize life both inside and outside the resettlement communities. In the communities, food and clean water are scarce. Outside, refugees rent shelter in crowded, impoverished areas – when they can find someone who agrees to rent to refugees. Even then, those who do agree to rent homes to refugees charge more than what they would charge non-refugees. Language barriers and finances are obstacles to getting healthcare. And although legally refugees have the right to work, the reality is that very few find jobs and this further makes it hard for them to have a balanced life and hence the suffering. Most of the people are internally displaced in Congo

Two months ago, Kigezi Healthcare Foundation decided to provide medical services to refugee population Displaced inside Congo DRC and provided basic healthcare to over 200 while over 600 have been identified. The services offered were ante natal care services, screening for non communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, nutrition assessment, malaria testing and treatment and the rest of general medical services. A total of 241 people was recorded in our registers as those that were able receive the services. Of the 241 people, 39 were pregnant mothers who were able to receive the ever vital antenatal care services. We were able to ascertain their stand as regards HIV, syphilis, Hb levels and health education about diet and danger signs in pregnancy among other many services. This, we hope, prepares them to attend more frequently antenatal care visits as we stressed to them the need to have frequent antenatal care visits during pregnancy. Folic acid and malaria prophylaxis was given to them coupled with provision of mosquito nets so as to protect the pregnant mothers against malaria as malaria can cause miscarriages and other challenges in pregnancy. This was a timely visit as most mothers confessed to having no access to antenatal care as the nearest public health facility is a number of Kilometers away from their settlement which makes it very very difficult to get access. Others confessed to having had false beliefs about diet in pregnancy which made them miss important nutrients as they believed they were bad for the baby.

30 men were recorded, 54 were non pregnant women and 18 were children. The children were treated basing on their complaints and dewormers were administered to them. The local leadership in the refugee settlement were thankful for the timely effort as they made it clear that access to medical services is hard.

We thank our donors who have made it possible for us to impact communities through such programs (mobile clinics) and we call upon more people so as to have bigger and sustainable impact.