If there is an organization based almost completely on partnership in community, HEAL Africa is it. The conflict in eastern DR Congo has broken down the infrastructure and fabric of life to the extent that to be successful, any public health initiative must take into consideration nearly every aspect of a community's life. Relationships between teachers and students, medical staff and patients, rulers and ruled, husbands and wives, parents and children, ethnic groups have been manipulated for power; justice has been denied because of impunity of the powerful.
HEAL Africa has been able to pioneer initiatives that are comprehensive and interconnected, bringing development aid and changing attitudes through the central organization in Goma, and through a network of partnerships that link faith groups, government hospitals and clinics, schools both public and private, and local organizations in far-flung villages. These initiatives address specific issues: HIV, high mortality of women in childbirth, gender-based violence, or lack of access to justice. Their impact leads to critical awareness and analysis of behavior, and sometimes, causes change. Students become champions of gender and justice issues and HIV prevention, and become peer educators who teach others. HEAL Africa is preparing for peace by building healthy individuals and communities.
HEAL Africa focuses on innovative ways to engage communities in addressing health and poverty needs. Central to HEAL Africa's approach to health is synergy. Anchored to the core training and tertiary reference hospital in the city of Goma, HEAL Africa's programs work in over 140 communities in North Kivu and Maniema provinces and partner with over 90 rural health clinics. The hospital's highly trained staff, with a strong emphasis on continuing education, works closely with community leaders and activists to inform, analyze and act. HEAL Africa believes that the strength of the people is stronger than the barriers created by poverty, conflict and disease.
Twenty-eight women's resource centers are spread throughout North Kivu and Maniema, the central nervous system of community options for change. Staff and community leaders develop targeted, relevant programs that address the unique needs of individual communities. All too often by the time someone makes their way to a hospital, it is too late or their problems are much more severe than if treated earlier. Local nurses and doctors learn new skills from HEAL Africa staff who visit regularly and often bring equipment and medicine. By training, equipping and linking local nurses, traditional birth attendants and doctors, trusted information is spread through village committees and activists. Success is being passed from community to community, project to project as learning is shared.
The synergy continues internationally as HEAL Africa partners with Universities, Hospitals, Faith Groups, Corporations and other Non-profits from Europe, North America and Australia to integrate the resources of our alliances with the innovative and culturally relevant solutions of Congolese program and medical staff and community leaders. Every day HEAL Africa teams are working in cities, in villages, teaching, encouraging, connecting to build a new future for Congo. One life, one village at a time.
www.healafrica.org
