HEAL AFRICA

By: Todd Moffett | Photography by Nabil Elderkin | February 06, 2009 | Lifestyle News Profile

HEAL Africa
http://www.healafrica.org

Joseph Lusi has spent his entire life in the eastern Congo — aside from the times he left to study medicine in Scotland and Belgium. Lusi, best known as “Dr. Joe,” once crossed ethnic lines at great personal risk to treat Tutsis and Hutus when the three-month genocide of 1994 was in its full death throes in neighboring Rwanda. A trained surgeon specializing in orthopedic repair, Lusi’s medical mission has been inextricably intertwined with the one led by his spiritual faith. Thirteen years ago, he and his wife, Lyn, launched a different kind of medical campus now known as HEAL Africa — an acronym for Health, Education, Community Action and Leadership Development. Ironically, HEAL Africa began in a former torture center created by the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. A residency program now takes young doctors recommended by churches and gives them clinical experience. There are currently 13 doctors in the program. It also works in concert with the University of Goma, which, in partnership with universities in South Africa and Belgium, offers graduate degrees in family medicine.
HEAL Africa also has an extensive outreach program for victims of rape. Specialists go to rural clinics to train local doctors in how to care for rape victims. A nurse delivers medicine and post-rape kits. Serious cases come back to Goma. HIV prevention and counseling is another part of the work of HEAL Africa. In 2004, 80,000 people attended prevention and education classes. In 2005, HEAL Africa began encouraging youth clubs “to make a decision of abstinence.” It also supports initiatives to care for foster families, prevent mother-to-child HIV transmissions and offer antiretroviral therapy. World Food Program helps HEAL Africa provide monthly food rations to 2,000 people infected or affected by HIV.

Healing Arts, part of HEAL Africa:
Healing Art’s mission is to equip women and vulnerable populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo with skills, opportunities and education so they are economically capable of supporting themselves and their families. Healing Arts advocates for conscious consumerism and to promote active awareness in the Western world regarding its role and responsibility in combating extreme poverty and conflict in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
http://www.healingartscongo.com/about.php

MSF (Doctors Without Borders)
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created in 1971 by doctors and journalists in France.

Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect or catastrophe primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters, malnutrition or an inability to get health care. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF reserves the right to speak out and bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols. In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.
MSF’s work is based on the humanitarian principles of medical ethics and impartiality. The organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion or political affiliation.
MSF operates independently of any political, military or religious agendas. Medical teams conduct evaluations on the ground to determine a population’s medical needs before opening programs. The key to MSF’s ability to act independently in response to a crisis is its independent funding. Eighty-nine percent of MSF’s overall funding (and 100 percent of MSF-USA’s funding) comes from private sources, not governments. In 2006, MSF had more than 3 million individual donors and private funders worldwide.
MSF is neutral. The organization does not take sides in armed conflicts, provides care on the basis of need alone and pushes for increased independent access to victims of conflict as required under international humanitarian law. MSF’s principles of action are described in the organization’s 1971 founding charter, which established a framework for its activities.

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