It is a country as large as Western Europe, but even if anyone here notices it at all, it is rather because of the conflict in the east of the country, in the neighbourhood of Rwanda. Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are indeed written into history in letters of blood: Rwanda in 1994 as an example of the enormous failure of the international community, which was unable to prevent a genocide, the fastest in modern history. The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the beginning of the 21st century, in turn, as an African "world war," in which six other countries "settled" their own interests and access to mineral resources. As a result of the fighting, but also of malnutrition and disease, an estimated three million people died in the Congo. The humanitarian organisation Magna Deti v núdzi, which focuses its projects in various corners of the world mainly on medical and social care, nevertheless decided to focus on the west of the Congo – on the capital city of Kinshasa. "Most of the world's attention is turned rather to the east of the Congo. The fact that people in Kinshasa have no access to medical care and suffer from malnutrition there is overlooked," explains one of its founders, Martin Bandžák, regarding the organisation's decision. The growing Kinshasa has an estimated eight million inhabitants. The vast majority live without sewerage, without stable access to drinking water, and without medical care. "It struck me as a depopulated city when I saw the empty hospital buildings. Without people and without equipment," says M. Bandžák. The local doctors provide medical services as a private business; payment is required for every procedure. People who live from hand to mouth, that is on less than a dollar a day, thus cannot afford medical care. "We witnessed a situation in which a woman who had given birth was locked in the building together with her child. She had no money to pay," he adds. Last year Magna Deti v núdzi opened a long-term mission in the Congo which, as in other countries, is focused on stopping the transmission of the HIV virus from mother to child, on providing treatment to people with HIV, and also on improving children's nutrition. "A million children suffer from severe malnutrition, which likewise contributes to the Congo being the third poorest country in the world," emphasises Andrea Stránska, field coordinator of Magna Deti v núdzi in the Congo. An estimated more than a million people in the Congo live with the HIV virus. Compared with other countries of equatorial Africa this is admittedly not a dramatic proportion (approximately 4.2% of the population), yet only about four percent of adults aged 15 to 49 have undergone an HIV test. After the first recorded case in 1983, the Congo (then Zaire) was among the first countries to introduce measures to combat HIV/AIDS. As a result of conflicts, instability and poverty, however, it today conversely belongs among the countries where insufficient attention is paid to the HIV virus and to stopping its spread. "Our programmes for preventing mother-to-child transmission of the virus have a 96-percent success rate. Children whose mothers have the HIV virus have a chance to be born and to live without the virus. Why, then, should we not try to help them?" adds the executive director of the organisation Magna Deti v núdzi regarding the plans in the Congo. The Congo in figures:
- of every 1,000 children born, 129 survive to their first year of life
- of almost 70 million inhabitants, 70% live in the countryside
- a million children suffer from serious malnutrition
- 92% of people in cities have no access to sanitation, to toilets
- for every 10,000 people there are on average 9 hospital beds and 1 doctor
- 33% of women have access to a programme for preventing mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus
- 10% of people with HIV have access to medicines - ARV therapy
Source: http://www.magna.sk
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The article was published in the bulletin Rozvojová pomoc - Jar 2010. It is published by the Platforma mimovládnych rozvojových organizácií (MVRO), which is an association of legal entities - the umbrella organisation of 31 (23 full members and 8 observers) Slovak non-governmental organisations that deal mainly with foreign development and humanitarian aid.