Tag: Kinshasa

African Medical Alliance Trip

Whenever possible, we here at Hope 4 Congo, like to support other ministries in the Congo by posting information about them here on our site. With that in mind the following post for the African Medical Alliance is from our contact Ron Brown. He and his colleagues are in Congo right now.

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Dr. Narcisse Naia Embeke and Family

African Medical Alliance February 2015 Newsletter
Meet our AMA Colleagues

Dr. Narcisse Naia Embeke, a physician with more than ten years of experience in primary care, is the Child Health Senior Technical Advisor for the Integrated Health Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC-IHP).

He has worked alongside the Congolese Ministry of Health to support and scale up child survival programs. He was a key player in the reintroduction of vaccines to the health zone of Tandala. Based in Kinshasa, Dr. Embeke previously served as the health advisor for Management Sciences for Health’s Leadership, Management, and Sustainability (LMS) project. Prior to his work with MSH, Dr. Embeke was the medical coordinator for the Church of Christ in Congo (l’Eglise du Christ au Congo/ECC) and the primary care physician for the public health non-profit ACS/AMO Congo caring for orphans and vulnerable children. Dr. Narcisse plays an important role in arranging networking opportunities for AMA President, Dr. David Strycker, in the capital city of Kinshasa, DRC.

Rod Brown is retired from a career in business with experience in project management, business development and marketing with a particular focus on strategic alliances. Rod is a certified volunteer chaplain in a medium security facility in Kentucky and has served in prison ministry in the United States, Nicaragua and Africa for the past 18 years. Rod’s parents were missionaries in the Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and he lived there in the early 1960’s, shortly after independence. Rod served on the mission field in Nicaragua with Nicaraguan Prison Ministry, Inc (NPMI), an organization he helped initiate in 2001. He also served in Kenya and the DRC with Wycliffe Associates. Rod is a founding member of Parkway Baptist Church in Bardstown, KY where he teaches and is active in missions and other ministries.

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Dave Oothoudt in front of Tandala Guest House

Dave Oothoudt lives on the Oothoudt family farmstead in southern Minnesota where
he is self-employed as a cabinet maker. He has a long history as a lay leader in his local church, and can often be found creatively teaching others about his faith in Christ. Dave traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the first time in 2008 with a small group of health professionals from his church. Drawing from both of his backgrounds as a licensed psychologist and as a church lay leader, Dave accepted the invitation of the local Congolese church to present seminars to Bible Institute students and their spouses. In 2010 and 2013, Dave was again invited to teach, focusing on training trauma counseling to pastors following a devastating, deadly uprising in the region of Sud-Ubangi, DRC. His seminars in training counseling methodology to pastors, students, and lay leaders have become very well attended in recent years, including in the capital city of Kinshasa, under the auspices of ReachAfrica.
These colleagues along with Dr. David Strycker will be working in DRC March 17 – April 18, 2015. Meetings are scheduled in Kinshasa with:
World Health Organization
UNICEF
Inter-church Medical Agency
DRC Ministry of Health
Biamba Mutombo Hospital
Protestant University Medical School
University of Kinshasa Medical School
Counseling training seminar
Equateur Province, DRC
Assessments of Tandala and Karawa Hospitals
Meetings with church leaders in the regional city of Gemena

For more information please go to their website. http://africanmedicalalliance.com/

Brad First Returned to Congo in 2007

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Brad and his wife, Sharon

This week we hear from Brad. Brad what was the Congo like when you returned in 2007?

“Chaos!

“The Congolese were never trained to be leaders. Each tribe wanted to be in power. Tribal warfare broke out all over the country. There was no understanding of what it took to preserve the country’s infrastructure. None of the Congolese had experience or the education to maintain order. Nor did they have the understanding of economics, or politics, or how to keep up or repair mechanical services.

“When my wife and I landed at the Kinshasa airport, the runway was full of potholes. A junkyard filled with broken and rusted planes lined all sides of the airport strip. When we de-planed we couldn’t figure out where the main entrance was to the terminal. There were three doors. About a dozen Africans yelled at once. They all wanted us to do something different. They all wanted to be in charge. We chose the entrance were the majority of Africans entered the building.

“Inside, we wondered what all the noise was on the other side of the wall. We had to stand in line to go through the door. On the other side was pandemonium: a sea of people, all milling about, shouting at us, and demanding money. Ninety percent of the people were there to make a living by accosting people. They tried to grab suitcases. There were no signs telling us what to do. We could have been taken advantage of by all of these people. We had to fight our way through the crowd.

“Before we left for Africa our mother gave us this advice: If you get in a jam, try speaking Tshiluba and see what happens.

“I yelled above the din, ‘Does anyone here speak Tshiluba?’

“The people calmed down. Three or four people came forward who spoke that dialect. Eventually someone from the church arrived. They helped us navigate the chaos and the bribes. It was a relief to get into a taxi outside the airport.

“Everywhere we went we were shocked by the appearance of the city. The buildings were deteriorating. No one fixed anything, partly because they didn’t know how, partly because there was no money, and partly because there were no supplies or reserves to fix anything.

“Colonialism had its flaws, but after the country gained its independence the cultural instability and economic hardships increased.

“Previously, under Belgian rule, everything was orderly and maintained. There was a beauty to the order. Palm trees with painted white trunks lined the roads. Buildings were kept clean and painted.

“During the rainy season the roads washed out. The Belgians had a system in place to fix the roads. Each village was assigned a certain amount of road to maintain.

“The people ate much better. They had better access to fruit. They had crops. After the rebel movement, the Congolese allowed everything to self-destruct. The coffee and palm oil plantations, which were the main Congolese exports, were all gone. These plantations had provided jobs and money for the people.

“Now, no one wanted to work. They all chased the wind, looking for a quick buck through mining for diamonds or gold. Or living off bribes. The average Congolese person will do whatever it takes to survive.

“When Mubutu came to power, he raped the country through his dysfunctional leadership. He filled his coffers with the country’s bounty and left the country desolate.”

It’s heartbreaking, Brad. No wonder the Lord opened your heart and Stan’s to begin this ministry.

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©2015 Hope4Congo