Oxfam Ireland Core Country: DRC
Country Statistics
| Population: | 65.8 million |
| Year of Independence: | 1960 |
| Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 births): | 65.5 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Life expectancy at birth: | 57.2 years |
| People living with HIV and AIDS: | 4.2% /1.1 million (2003 est.) |
| Literacy (people aged 15 and over that are literate): | 65.5% (2003 est.) |
| Population below poverty line: | N/A% |
| Currency: | Congolese Franc |
Oxfam in DRC:
Emergency Preparedness, Response and public health programme for Ituri internally displaced people (IDPs) and local communities in North East DRC (Beni Territory).
More than three million people lost their lives during the 5 year civil war that raged in DRC until 2003. The civil war in the DRC officially ended in 2003 when a power-sharing agreement was brokered in South Africa, leading to the establishment of a transitional government in June of that year. Despite the official end to the war eastern DRC has continued to be the scene of sporadic fighting over the past year between armed groups reportedly loyal to the transitional government and various dissident groups. It is estimated that over 130,000 people are displaced in North East DRC.
Access to affected populations throughout DRC remains difficult for aid agencies given the constantly changing security situation with sporadic skirmishes breaking out between different armed groups and daily attacks of armed groups on civilians.
Oxfam has been working through the local NGO, PPSSP (The Primary Health Care Promotion Programme) which is made up of displaced health professionals and administrators. In partnership with PPSSP Oxfam has been providing health and sanitation care to over 160,000 displaced people and host populations in Beni Territory, North Kivu Region. During the first and second wave of Internally displaced peoples in 2002 the local/host population managed to absorb the IDPs in terms of land and resources. The second wave of internally displaced peoples in 2003 proved to be too much for the already stretched communities resulting in the creation of a huge number of emergency camps to accommodate the populations. These populations, having fled their homes to save their lives, mostly arrived with nothing but the clothes they stood up in.
Working with PPSSP Oxfam has been working with both the local populations and the camp populations providing essential water and sanitation facilities. In the towns around which the camps are based, Oxfam has been carrying out emergency rehabilitation of water supply systems in order to avoid outbreaks of water-related diseases. In the camps, Oxfam has been carrying out a public health promotion programme for IDPs designing and constructing latrines in the camps and carrying out health and hygiene promotion activities. An important part of the programme is to train by providing it with the tools and methodologies to plan and respond to insecurity in the region so that it is positioned to respond to the needs of IDPs and local populations.
Oxfam Blog from DRC
Yao Bongoma is a communications officer for Oxfam GB in Democratic Republic of Congo. Yao recently travelled to Congo's violent eastern region to report on Oxfam's reponse there and to collect stories from communities and individuals about the challenges they face.
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