Snapshot* 

Population – 66 million
Internally displaced persons – 1.4 million
Refugee – 132,295 (Angola), 37,313 (Rwanda), 17,777 (Burundi), 13,904 (Uganda), 6,181 (Sudan), 5,243 (Republic of Congo)
Life expectancy – 54 years old
Median age – 16 years old
Infant mortality rate – 83 deaths for every 1,000 live births
Fertility rate – 6.3 children per woman
HIV/AIDS rate – 4 percent
Infectious disease risk – Very high
Literacy rate – 67 percent

Life in Democratic Republic of Congo

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suffered 20 years of relentless fighting that has led to an estimated 5.4 million deaths – more than any conflict since World War II - and displaced another three million. After suffering a drawn-out civil war, DRC held its first democratic elections in 2006. Despite the election and the relative pacification of much of the country, fighting in eastern DRC has continued, as the Congolese government and more than 23 armed militias struggle for power. In January 2008, these parties signed a formal ceasefire but the agreement has yet to stabilize DRC’s most volatile provinces.

The conflict has also produced some of the most horrific cases of sexual and gender-based violence in the world today, with approximately 54,000 women who have reported being raped since 2004. However, this number is likely to be much higher, as many women fear coming forward because they are often ostracized from their communities and forced to abandon their livelihoods.

Helping Communities Help Themselves

Bringing Relief
Since 1999, International Medical Corps has helped over 1 million internally displaced persons, returnees, and host residents in DRC, working with existing government health facilities as well as in camps to provide immediate assistance to communities made vulnerable by poverty and war, and to help rebuild local capacities. International Medical Corps supports existing government facilities through technical and logistical support to meet the health needs of vulnerable populations. Within camps, International Medical Corps creates temporary health facilities that offer immediate 24-hour care to displaced persons seeking treatment for malnutrition, disease, injury, and other sometimes fatal consequences of war. In both instances, International Medical Corps coordinates its interventions with local government actors and other implementing agencies. Through this bi-level aid network, International Medical Corps provides the following services to the people of DRC:

• Primary health care
• Secondary health care, including surgery
• Maternal and child care
• Expanded immunization
• Nutritional screening and therapeutic and supplemental feeding
• Water sanitation and hygiene promotion
• Sexual and gender-based violence counseling and education
• HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, and counseling
• Agricultural livelihood training

International Medical Corps supports and operates health facilities throughout North Kivu, South Kivu, and Maniema provinces. Working in transit centers, International Medical Corps is able to provide assistance to Congolese returnees and our mobile medical units are able to reach communities that have little access to health care. Its outreach efforts are expected to reach nearly 200,000 people, including 34,000 children younger than five years old who been immunized against common childhood illnesses.

DRC sees some of the most horrific cases of sexual and gender-based violence in the world. International Medical Corps helps support these survivors with services to meet their physical and psychosocial needs. International Medical Corps provides confidential physical examinations and, if necessary, a woman can be treated for injuries or infections. In very severe attacks, women can suffer from a gynecological rupture, or fistula, that can be fatal if left untreated. In these cases, International Medical Corps refers patients to the Panzi Hospital for surgical repair. International Medical Corps also provides counseling services and economic opportunities to help survivors recover emotionally and become self-reliant.

Enabling Self-Reliance

Training and education is central to International Medical Corps’ mission in DRC. The majority of International Medical Corps’ staff in the DRC is from the communities it supports – 80 percent are themselves displaced. To make its efforts sustainable, International Medical Corps’ program in the DRC trains partner Congolese stakeholders to fulfill the following roles:

• Community health workers – Educate peers in basic health, such as preventable diseases, including nutrition and safe motherhood
• Traditional birth attendants – Help ensure clean, safe deliveries for Congolese mothers and their babies
• Health care workers - Provide primary health care through International Medical Corps'-supported health posts, mobile clinics, and health centers, effective management of health facilities, as well as nutritional support in supplemental and therapeutic feeding centers
• Health authorities – Effectively manage health systems at provincial and zonal levels.

International Medical Corps also trains doctors to treat injuries relating to sexual and gender-based violence, including fistula repair.

In addition to building lasting change through local training and capacity-building, International Medical Corps helps to rebuild livelihoods and combat malnutrition through agricultural development programs. By distributing seeds to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as families struggling with malnutrition, International Medical Corps provides these vulnerable groups with sources of food and income.  

You Can Help Build Change That Lasts

With violence widespread, eastern DRC remains one of the most unstable environments in the world. Its people – particularly women and children - are susceptible to malnutrition, disease, injury and rape. For the three million displaced people in DRC, international support is critical. Please join International Medical Corps in its effort to protect and prepare those who have been left vulnerable by the ongoing Congo wars. Help DRC and other International Medical Corps programs worldwide.

*Statistics from U.S. Government