Initially intended for the children and adolescents living in the Salesian center, the dispensary began to provide primary health care, offering a complete package: maternity, consultation, laboratory services, hospitalization, prevention, pharmacy, nutrition... The urgency of the situation made this necessary.
In the infirmary of the Salesian "Don Bosco Ngangi" Youth Centre in Goma, which for weeks has been transformed into an emergency hospital for the thousands of displaced persons who have flocked to its premises, 36-year-old Dorcas Ndibungo gave birth to triplets (a boy and two girls) under the supervision of the center's medical team.
The woman has been at the Don Bosco Ngangi center for displaced people since November 2022. She fled the war with her eight children from Kibumba village in Nyiragongo territory, about 30 km north of Goma.
The medical team is now fully involved in the preventive and curative care of the displaced people at the Salesian site and the vulnerable local population it hosts.
In the first two months of receiving IDPs, the Salesian dispensary treated 1,702 IDPs, and in the last week of February and the first week of March alone, it received 766 IDPs and vulnerable people from the area. A total of 16 women gave birth, nine patients were referred to more specialized facilities and 18 were hospitalized.
Initially intended for the children and adolescents living in the Salesian center, the dispensary began to offer primary health care with a complete package: maternity, consultation, laboratory services, hospitalization, prevention, pharmacy, nutrition... The urgency of the situation has made this necessary.
The reinforced medical team includes a doctor, a laboratory technician, a physiotherapist, a clinical psychologist, two hygienists and five nurses. Clearly, an adequate emergency response requires materials, equipment, medicines and medical devices.
Where do the resources come from to meet the needs of the displaced? Father Jean-Pierre Muhima, director of the Don Bosco Ngangi center, replied: "Wherever there is need, misery, violence, suffering... Don Bosco must be there! We started with the means we had at our disposal. Providence then provides a number of benefactors in the field of health, including Salesian mission offices around the world, NGOs such as the International Volunteer for Development (VIS), Save the Children, the International Committee of the Red Cross...".
Source: JAMBO VIJANA AFC-EST, a magazine published by the young people of the Salesian Works of the Eastern Delegation of Central Africa (AFC-EST).
