Voices from the Field - IRC Blog

Briefing from the Field - Crisis in the Congo: How is the IRC Rescuing Lives?

In this November 15, 2007 phone briefing, George Rupp, the International Rescue Committee’s president and Alyoscia D’Onofrio, IRC’s regional director for Congo, discuss the current situation in Congo and IRC’s role. Susan Dentzer, an IRC board member and health correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, moderated. D’Onofrio, who called in from Congo, updated listeners on the IRC’s effort, along with the other aid agencies and Congolese authorities, to contain an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. “Happily it now seems that this crisis is over,” D’Onofrio reported.

By contrast, D’Onofrio said, the situation in North Kivu, where the IRC recently launched an emergency response, has blown up into a full scale conflict among four armed groups. D’Onofrio said that the IRC has been able to bring lifesaving health care to 100,000 people in the region.

George Rupp, who recently visited Congo, noted that the fifth IRC Congo mortality study is due to be published in a few weeks. He described the IRC’s community driven construction programs in Congo, which are involving thousands of citizens in establishing their own development priorities and which are “giving people a tremendous sense of ownership” and pride.

Audio  Transcript [PDF]