2007 has seen continued expansion of DWWs operations and work in DR Congo. Two further rural Maternity and baby clinics are currently under construction. Around 100 babies per month are currently being delivered in our various clinics often in the only clean, quiet and medically supported facilites women will have access too. Through the same clinics around 400 children per month are being vaccinated, with the majority of the 400 out-patient consultations being paediatric cases of malaria and diarrhoeal illness.
Whilst we have already been teaching medical and nursing students from Lubumbashi at our facilites for the past 3 years, the plan is to make more formal links with the university hopsital in Lubumbashi and begin a programme for DWW volunteers to partcipate in it teaching programmes and clinical teaching in the hospital.
Besides these overtly medical projects it has been recognised that poverty, poor nutrition and lack of education are major stumbling blocks, as such DWW provides food for 700 poor families per month to allow there children to enter educational establishments, these same children will be placed in a health screening programme. A one off distribution of Qurbani meat to 4500 needy families was also completed across large parts of DR Congo.
As off April 2007, a dedicated full time country representative Jibril Kasongo has been appointed to further enhance DWWs capabilities and ensure the contiued success of the many and varied projects, including HIV prevention education, support for HIV orphans, micro-credit schemes and others currently being run in conjunction with DWWs partner RADEM.