Healthcare trainees from Equateur Province begin 3-month emergency medicine course
Dr Ilanga (left) and nurse Bosako from low-resourced Equateur Province have been funded to participate in a 3-month emergency medicine certification course in North Kivu Province. - Photo Dr Muller Mundenga Mutendi
Since 2015, HandUp Congo has been committed to facilitating emergency medicine education. Led by team leader, Dr Vera Sistenich, volunteer medical professionals have provided training for doctors, nurses and midwives throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2016, the DRC Emergency Medicine Association www.amurdc.org was established, and works closely with us. Its first president, Dr Muller Mundenga Mutendi, has now introduced a pioneering 3-month emergency medicine certificate course at HEAL Africa Hospital in Goma, North Kivu Province. The course includes skills training in how to lead a disaster response and how to care for patients in vital respiratory distress.
Dr Muller Mundenga Mutendi (centre) welcomes our first trainees Bosako Manga (left) and Dr Ilanga to the bustling city of Goma, population 780,000 vs Lotumbe’s population of 6000.
HandUp Congo is supporting the certificate course, and this year will fund 12 doctors and nurses to travel from Equateur Province to North Kivu Province. The first trainees have arrived in Goma, where HEAL Africa Hospital is located! They are Dr Yannick Ilanga Lomame from Lotumbe Reference Hospital and nurse Bosako Manga from a sister hospital in Bolenge.
We are confident that having healthcare staff trained in emergency medicine will help save lives in such remote, under-resourced villages as Lotumbe where the poverty and lack of accessibility results in poor health outcomes. Thank you for helping us change that.
Riverside hamlet
If you would like to support our efforts, you can make an Australian tax-deductible contribution by clicking the button below and designating your gift as EMERGENCY MEDICINE.