Hospital of Bukavu
Africa - Democratic Republic of Congo
Support to the maternity; Relief-rehabilitation activities for the women who have suffered rape and violence.
Type of project:
Realization of a department of maternity; Promotion of activities of information about the health care rights; Sanitary sensitization for the women about the health of the newborns before, during and after the birth and the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmissible infections, malaria and endemic life-threatening illnesses; Protection and assistance for the women who have suffered rape and violence.
City / Location:
Outskirts of Bukavu, South-Kivu Province
Direct beneficiaries:
30 girls and women who have suffered rape and violence, 1000 women per year who benefit of services within the department of maternity.
Local staff:
8 (1 sanitary responsible, 3 physicians, 2 midwives, 2 nurses)
Starting date:
June 2008
Summary of the Project:
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the place of the deadliest war in the world today. All infrastructures have systematically been destroyed during the various wars happened during the last years. Within the Country there are about 1,3 million internally displaced people of which 400,000 are in North-Kivu’s Province. In 2007 have been recorded in the whole country more than 20,000 cases of cholera and 80,000 cases of measles. In average, one in ten children dies before one year of age. Only in the South-Kivu’s Province, of the 35 woman sexually violated every day, 43% are underage.
Bukavu is a town of the South-Kivu’s Region, to the east of the Country and to the border with the Rwanda and Burundi. Soleterre, in partnership with the local association MSAADA (Help), intends to promote the construction of the new department of maternity in the "Saint Vincent" Hospital Centre of Bukavu. The hospital has 40 beds available, the most part reserved to the pregnant women, but due to the continuous requests for hospitalization, two people are often obligated to divide the same place. For 40 beds, are available only 7 toilets. The hospital doesn't have a normal system of electric light, whose disbursement is guaranteed only for few times a day. Due to the overcrowding, the continuous applications of patients, the impossibility to widen the existing structure, it is necessary to build the new department of maternity. The "Saint Vincent" Hospital Centre is also a reference point for the women who have suffered rape and violence. Currently, in a small structure near the hospital centre there are about 24 women of all ages, some of them also pregnant or with babies, who need urgently sanitary and psychological assistance.
Co-financing bodies:
The project is waiting for the financing support.
Duration: 24 months