Close-up action medeor

Safe Water from Lake Tanganyika

In several villages along Lake Tanganyika, water levels are meters high: natural disasters like this have become a sad norm. Shortly after the floods, action medeor employee Sebastian Hecker traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to assess the extent of the damage. “There is no longer a distinction between toilets, sewage, and drinking water. Everything has been flooded,” explains Immaculée Kabahima, who works for action medeor's local partner. When women in the region go to fetch water from the lake, the helper adds a precisely measured chlorine solution to each container to kill germs and make the water safe to drink. This is a blessing for mothers like 28-year-old Vumiliya, who is shouldering a container of lake water: This measure significantly reduces the risk of disease for her and her children. “Sometimes even such low-cost measures can have a great impact,” Sebastian Hecker observes with satisfaction.

Harvest More, Stay Healthy

During his journey through the region, Sebastian Hecker also sees the progress of long-term project measures. In a conversation, he learns the story of Christine Njabuka Leniya: Her four-year-old granddaughter Furahisha was life-threateningly malnourished when Christine brought her to a health post equipped by action medeor. Now the granddaughter is healthy again – and Christine is being supported by us with seeds, tools, and agricultural training to achieve higher crop yields. In this way, we help many smallholder families in the region prevent malnutrition. Christine’s last corn harvest was already a great success: “We now have enough to eat.”

To reduce the alarmingly high maternal and infant mortality rates, action medeor also finances the construction and renovation of maternity wards, provides medications and medical equipment, and trains health personnel. Thanks to better prenatal care and obstetrics, Furaha Matumaini also safely gave birth to her son Fabrice at the new maternity ward of the expanded Sange-Cepac Health Center.

Difficult Times Ahead for Families

Many are now looking ahead with concern to the coming months: More severe floods are threatening, the next harvest season is delayed, and a severe Mpox outbreak is gripping the region. Here, too, the youngest are particularly badly affected: According to the WHO, 80% of all Mpox deaths reported in the DR Congo are children. We are therefore implementing further measures to combat the spread of Mpox in the region: healthcare facilities are being equipped with suitable protective materials such as infection prevention kits or handwashing facilities, and health personnel are being trained in infection prevention and control (IPC). Additionally, we are educating the population about transmission routes, setting up isolation facilities, and providing medications and medical equipment for the treatment of the infected. However, further efforts are urgently needed to protect families’ health from the current threats and to ensure the success of project work.

Every Euro Helps!

• 25 is enough, for example, to make more than 1,000 containers of lake water safe to drink.
• 100 Euros costs, for example, a delivery kit that enables safe births for mothers and babies.

“Assistance can also be sustainable in a crisis region like the DR Congo. For this, we must respond flexibly to emergencies, as structural improvements and acute emergency aid must support and complement each other.”

Sebastian Hecker
Programme Manager Democratic Republic of the Congo