The Salisa Project is sponsoring a hospital/maternity/orphanage centre being built for the poor population of Masina, a suburb of Kinshasa in the Republic of Congo.

The project is based on a report by our team based in Kinshasa since 2003. The Office for Charity and Development of the Catholic Parish of Masina has confirmed the information contained in this report.

It acknowledges the grave deterioration of living conditions for the residents of Kinshasa , especially in the Masina Commune:

• A high rate of unemployment can be found, affecting more than 70% of able-bodied inhabitants, according to the Central Bank of Congo. The consequences of this situation are that the majority of parents in this community are unable to provide an education and basic subsistence needs for their children, etc.

• A steady augmentation in children abandoning primary and secondary education. The Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Kinshasa (OCHA), reports a sharp decrease in admissions (of children) in secondary schools. This figure dropped from 44% in 1987/88 to less than 20% in the year 2000.

• This result in a sharp increase in rates of infant/child malnutrition from 4 years old. According to our sources, the rate of global malnutrition within the Commune rose from 20% to 30% of children between 1999 and 2003. (The Save the Children Fund: Vulnerable children in Kinshasa, 2001, Rapid Household Food assessment in Masina Commune-Kinshasa, 2000, the Action Against Hunger: Nutritional Research in Kinshasa Town, February 2003).

• The number of 4 to 18 years old taking to the street is rising fast. According to the findings of research undertaken by the Faculty of Economics and Development at the Catholic University of Kinshasa, 50% of street children found in the central market and main areas of the city, come from Kinshasa originally.

This situation is exacerbated by the spread of the AIDS virus in the Masina Commune and a rise in the number of children orphaned due to that disease. Our organisation has therefore recorded a sharp increase in the number of people seeking our help.

The aims of the project consist of expanding and reinforcing the activities currently undertaken by Salisa Project in the Masina Commune, Democratic Republic of Congo, by:

• Hosting approximately 50 orphans;
• Taking responsibility for their medical treatments, clothing and subsistence;
• Educating those of school age with a view to affording them the same opportunities as all other children;
• Providing professional/vocational education to those above school age, with a view to helping them find or create employment as a means of earning a living.

In order to succeed, the project have to:

• Buy land and construct an.........m2 building, to include a dormitory, a canteen and a centre for vocational/professional studies. The building will be erected in the Masina Commune.
• Select a pilot group of 50 beneficiary children for the project. This will include the 16 children currently in the care of Salisa Project together with another 34 currently fed by our organisation, but not yet fully supported by us due to a lack of adequate financial means.
• Register the 10-year old children in primary schools within the Commune and pay their school costs/expenses.
• Buy the necessary learning materials, recruit educators, and offer vocational education in masonry, carpentry, sewing and design to children over 10 years old.

Beneficiaries

The first beneficiaries will be the population leaving in the immediate surrounding of the hospital. It will offer treatment to a minimum of 3000 family (with an average 9 members per family). All together we hoped to provide care for 30,000 people who live in extreme poverty, who are in majority young people unemployed with little resources.

Hospital

The motivation behind this project is the dilapidation states of the majority of the hospitals within the capital itself due to the on/off civil war which has been cursing the country for the last couples of years. These hospitals are often far in between and prove unaffordable to the majority of the population.

( see http://www.foreignpo licy-infocus.or g/ briefs/vol5/v5n10congo.html).

The suburb of Masima is one of the most needed. Its hospital is under-equipped and the staff are totally de-motivated and under paid if ever paid at all. Medicines are unavailable to most and some disease spread due to a lack of initial care and resources.

We must be able to assess the gravity of the cases and if needed re-direct them to foreign hospital and be able to recognise and treat the damage caused by malaria, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Having access to our own chemist on the premise is a must.

We should be able to treat the patient and to recruit doctors, nurses, midwife, maintenance and administration personnel when needed.

Our aims is to give the local population the right to be heal.

Maternity

• Women gives birth at home due to the lack of facilities. Complications and lack of medical care often result in their death during childbirth and an increasing amount of orphans being abandoned.

Our aim:

• Offer women the opportunity to be followed up during their pregnancy and provide medical assistance at the time of birth to minimise the risk of death for both mother and child.

• Offer new mothers some medical advice following the birth.

• Being able to inform the female population of the risk of AIDS and other sexual transmissible decease. * UN warns women face Aids threat ** :Young women are becoming the main victims of the global HIV/Aids epidemic, the United Nations warns. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/health/3545157.stm

• Specials care is to be given to the new-borns for the first few years of their life and immunisation is to be offered and encourage.

Orphanage

Orphans whose mother died giving birth have a precarious future without any family support. Most of them will die in infancy and the eldest will be thrown at the street mercy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3888753.stm

Our goal

• Welcome orphans from 0 to 5 years, help finding them a new family and offer them protection for the time when in our care.

Conclusion:

The Executive Committee and all Charity members will have to raise funds for the building work to be completed within the time scale agreed.

They will have to help the local economy by training et offering jobs to the people who need it most, offering them the possibility to learn a trade that would bring money to their household.

They will need to support the local population by giving them access to social workers and promote Children’s right within the family with the help of lawyers and human right activist.

Family planning is another big issue for them to tackle: often girls as young as 15 have children.

Finally, they will have to offer a safe haven to women and children alike when in need.

Activities and Services of the Organisation in the UK

The Salisa Project provides services and organised activities in may areas including:

• Provision of information, advice and advocacy on such issues as health, domestic violence, child protection, welfare, housing, education, training, care and employment.

• Provision of translation and interpretation services on the above mentioned issues.

• Compassionate visits to members of target communities who may be in hospitals, prisons, detention centres and similar institutions.

• Provision of information on HIV/AIDS including information on prevention, care and treatment.

• Translation an dissemination of informational leaflets on HIV/AIDS into the local languages Lingala, Kikongo, Tshiluba and Swahili. The Salisa Project also publishes its own new leaflets in French language.

• Accompanying clients on appointments to GPs, Laval Centre, Solicitors etc.

• Organising appropriate social events and recreation activities, particularly for families.

• Liasing and networking with other services providers in order to share information and skills and avoid unnecessary duplication of services.

• Making referrals for specialist services, where appropriate.

• Works as a link between the community and other services providers, including those in the mainstream statutory and voluntary sectors.

• House-working and friendship.