DR Congo: Knowlegde is the key in the fight against diseases
Kayeny Rutha is a Community Health Worker for Malteser International. Armed with knowledge and information, she fights for her community’s health. Over the years, Kayeny Rutha has witnessed a lot of change in her region. The people of the north-eastern province Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), where her home village is situated, are exposed to hunger and poverty caused by decades of conflict between armed rebel groups. The harsh living conditions have made many people more vulnerable to the various - and sometimes life-threatening - infections that occur regularly in the DR Congo.
This is Kayeny’s story
“My name is Kayeny Rutha. I am 45 years old and live in Muguma Village A, Ndaru Health Area in Angumu Health Zone. My husband is alive, and we have five children of our own. We also live with my sister-in-law’s child. My husband is a pastor. We do small-scale farming, and I run a small business that sells charcoal, cassava flour, and sardines. I am also a Community Health Worker.
Several years ago, our village, Muguma, didn’t have as many houses as it does now. There was mostly bush cover. It has changed so much! There are many more people and therefore many more houses. They moved here after being displaced by war and flooding caused by Lake Albert.
As the number of people increased, so did the problems. The biggest problem is that there are now many cases of illness. People were constantly getting Typhoid, Malaria, Cholera, Schistosomiasis and other illnesses. There used to be very many cases of Schistosomiasis, which is caused by parasitic worms. The worm larvae live in freshwater streams and lakes and pass through the skin."
The only water source is contaminated
"People who bathe and wash their clothes at the river, drink river water, cultivate close to or work on Lake Albert – fishermen, for example – would get infected very often. The water also carries viruses for typhoid and cholera. Despite being contaminated, everyone in my village had to fetch their water from the river simply because there was no other water source. Also, latrines were few and they still are up to now."
In theory, a national policy is in place to combat zoonotic and neglected tropical diseases in the DR Congo. As part of this, the government provided the clinics with the relevant medicine for the population. Due to the difficult political situation in the DR Congo, the support by this program has become irregular, both concerning medial material and information. The population, again, needed to resort to unsecure health information. Many turned to the black market to buy medicines, which sometimes were of poor quality and expensive. Malteser International aims to alleviate this situation with our programmatic health work in the DR Congo.
Training and infrastructure bring change
"I attended a sensitization meeting by Malteser International. The training was done together with our health zone officials and the local health center staff. We were trained about hygiene, including hand hygiene, how to protect the water sources, the importance of constantly cleaning the water jerricans and how to keep the water in the jerricans clean. They also talked about the importance of maintaining a high level of hygiene inside and outside the house to keep rats away. I also learned first aid measures in case someone is bitten by a dog with rabies. Malteser International also supported the vaccination of our dogs.
Malteser International worked with local organizations to support our health center with medicine against Schistosomiasis. My village was also supported with a safe water source and additional latrines. Now fewer people are fetching and using water from the river. Before, a month would not go by without five to six Cholera or Typhoid cases. Community Health Workers like me informed people about ways to avoid infection. The information I received has enabled me to train other community members, too. The cases of Cholera, Typhoid, Schistosomiasis and other disease have been reduced significantly.”
The vital job of Community Health Workers
In the DR Congo, the community health system is decentralized and operates across five levels: national, provincial, health zone, health area, and community. Community Health Workers are the main cadre of health workers operating in the DR Congo. They are volunteers whose roles vary depending on individual training, and they provide reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services. Their training and services include integrated community case management for malaria, diarrhoea, and respiratory diseases, nutrition counselling, water, sanitation and hygiene, HIV and AIDS education, and disease prevention. They conduct home visits, provide referrals to health facilities and do community-based surveillance.
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