Democratic Republic of Congo
Malaria is the number one killer of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. With your help, NetsforLife® is working to increase knowledge and prevent malaria deaths.
Progress Indicators
- Nets distributed to date: 161,047
- Community members reached: 2,177,471
- Community volunteers trained: 3,605
- Nets to be distributed in 2011: 102,500
- Population:
- 61 million
- Reported malaria cases:
- 23.6 million*
- Cases among children under 5:
- 90,000*
- Reported Deaths:
- 96,000*
* Data on DR Congo based on figures from WHO’s World Malaria Report 2008.
More than 3.5 million Congolese have died from violence, famine or disease resulting from the ethnic tensions and civil war that began in 1994 following the genocide and refugee crises in the Great Lakes Region. The crisis is ongoing: violent outbreaks continue to plague the eastern part of the country and force people to flee their homes.
Malaria in the DR Congo
DR Congo accounts for 11% of all the malaria cases in Africa. Twenty-three million people are at risk of contracting malaria.
Malaria is the number one killer of children in the Democratic Republic of 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® implementing partners in the DR Congo are the Diocese of Katanga and Diocese of Boga.
The dioceses have embraced the challenge of providing not only spiritual support, but also the essential social services so desperately needed in the post-war era.
This integrated approach to development addresses a range of health-care issues, including 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 and 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.