By staff
In response to the escalation of needs and worsening conflict, direct relief has issued emergency funds to health centres operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to support medical needs and personnel.
Jericho Road Wellness Clinic in Goma, DRC will receive $25,000 from direct relief to help locally purchase important emergency medical products, including antibiotics, essential supplies and chronic disease control drugs. The grant is intended to cover the immediate medical needs of clinic patients until regular shipments are able to reach the Jericho Road team.
Clinics that provide important medical services have seen an increase in patients. Many of them are internally evacuated or IDPs. Hundreds of thousands of people displaced due to anxiety lived in IDP camps surrounding Goma until recently, but the camp was evacuated and destroyed, and once again expelled people as Goma and the surrounding area were affected by anxiety from recent rebel groups.
Jericho Road staff reported that they have confirmed that medical personnel sleeping at the clinic can consistently provide services to patients sleeping at the clinic as transportation with the clinic has been interrupted by military checkpoints.
Goma Airport was closed after Goma was captured by the M23 militia at the end of January, blocking the regular flow of supply to Goma's Jericho Road and other direct relief partners. When the airport was closed, six direct relief freight was underway to Goma. These shipments will now be re-routed to the Kigali airport in Rwanda and trucks to Goma.
Fidel Menabanza, Chief Compliance and Global Health Officer at Jericho Road Community Health Centre, said:
Direct Relief has supported Goma clinics since 2016 and recently funded the MPOX prevention programme implemented by Jericho Road, which supports education, outreach and prevention efforts in the large camps of internally displaced people surrounding Goma.
In addition to MPOX, Direct Relief has been working with Jericho Road during the previous outbreak during the 2019 Ebola DRC.
