DR Congo: Wrapping up AXxes Project

IMA World Health successfully wraps up massive health care project in DR Congo

Imagine having a serious illness or medical condition – perhaps you have a high fever, or are in labor – and your family has to physically carry you many miles to the nearest hospital for care. Then imagine finally arriving at the hospital to learn that it didn't have basic medications, or beds, or electric lights—and you even have to provide your own medical supplies and food.

This may be difficult for us to imagine, but for many years it has been the reality for millions of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the health conditions are some of the most troubling in the world. Years of violent conflict destroyed much of the infrastructure of the country, leaving its people without adequate health care, medical supplies or health education.

Under Project AXxes, 629 spring caps were constructed to provide safe drinking water.

From 2006 to 2010, IMA World Health played a major role in revitalizing the health care system in eastern DRC by leading the massive USAID-funded Project AXxes. Project AXxes was designed to increase access to primary health care among a population of over 8 million people in the remote North and South Kivu regions.

In this area, more than two thirds of the health facilities and basic infrastructure were nonfunctional or severely under-functioning at the start of the project in 2006. Some clinics were abandoned or overgrown. Safe drinking water sources and sanitation systems were scarce. Clinics lacked the supplies to provide even basic care, and health care workers lacked adequate training to meet the extensive health needs of the people who desperately needed care.

IMA—supported by implementing partners Catholic Relief Services, the Protestant Church of Congo and World Vision—spent the past four years renovating clinics and hospitals, training health care workers, equipping hospitals with essential supplies and medicines, and increasing the health care services available to the population.

A few of the many accomplishments of Project AXxes included the following:

• Rehabilitated 217 health facilities.
• Trained more than 33,000 health workers.
• Constructed 629 spring caps for safe drinking water.
• Built 196 facility latrines and 6,313 community latrines for proper sanitation.
• Vaccinated 818,368 children for measles and detected/treated 37,823 cases of Tuberculosis.
• Provided HIV counseling and testing to 200,000 pregnant women and 13,555 partners/husbands.
• Prevented 983 babies from being born with HIV through prevention of mother-to-child transmission treatment for HIV+ women.
• Distributed more than 1 million insecticide treated nets to children and pregnant women to help prevent malaria.

"Project AXxes was one of IMA's most significant projects to date," said Rick Santos, President and CEO of IMA World Health. "Literally millions of people have benefited from this project—especially women and children, whose health is most affected by conflict and poverty—and they will continue to benefit for years to come. Our goal at IMA is to train and equip the communities where we work so that they can continue advancing health long after our involvement is over."

IMA is proud that its work through Project AXxes will continue advancing health for the people of Eastern DRC for years to come