More than 3.5 million Congolese have died from violence, famine, or disease resulting from the ethnic tensions and eventual civil war that began in 1994 following the genocide and refugee crises in the Great Lakes region. Today, persistent pockets of violence still remain in the eastern part of the country. In June 2006, the country held its first nationwide elections in forty years.

Malaria is the number one killer of children in DR Congo, accounting for approximately 40% of child deaths. Close to 70% of all outpatient health care visits and an average of 30% of hospital admissions are malaria-related.

NetsforLife^® Implementing Partner

NetsforLife SM implementing partner in the DR Congo is the Diocese of Katanga. The diocese has embraced the challenge of providing not only spiritual support, but also the essential social services so desperately needed in the post-war era. Its integrated approach to development addresses a range of health care issues included malaria prevention, food security, trauma counseling for victims of war, and HIV/AIDS education.

Areas Impacted

NetsforLife is working in five districts of the DR Congo: Kalemie, Lubumbashi, Kasumbalesa, and Kapolowe, and Katanga.

• Clergy and church leaders have been trained and have held community awareness workshops in each district.
• Since women are the leaders in malaria control in the DR Congo, NetsforLife has focused on increasing women’s knowledge and leadership capacity.
  • A very successful pilot project in the Lubumbashi district focused on training a core group of women to educate mobilize community women's groups. This model will be replicated in other districts.
• A successful baseline study was completed in Katanga, still considered to be in a state of complex emergency due to persistent post-war violence. This study provides much needed data to guide program implementation so that the greatest impact can be made in this area which is vulnerable to an outbreak of epidemic malaria.

* Data on the Democratic Republic of Congo based on figures from RollBackMalaria Country Profiles, 2003.