Families struggle to survive, caught in Congo's (DRC) ongoing conflict that has devastated the area near Gety village.

It is June 2006: A young man flees from his home, his youngest child in his arms. His wife April and their four other children run as well. They run for their lives, to escape the fighting in their home village of Kagaba, near Gety. The man falls suddenly, killed by crossfire. Miraculously, the child in his arms survives. April gathers up the fallen child and keeps running with her five children, running away from her fallen husband. The family escapes into the bush, but their horror is not yet over. As they hide in the bush, two of her children die, killed by malnutrition and illness.

In a village near Gety, a young father named Faustin climbs a mango tree to pick the unripe mangos. He wants to feed them to his children, who have not eaten for two days and are crying from hunger. Faustin is desperate to feed his children, but he falls from the tree and fractures his hand, hurting himself badly. He fears that he might not survive the conflict to take care of his young children. He takes his family and flees to Gety, looking for help.

Marie is a 35 year-old mother of five children. She is living in Gety when the fighting begins, and the conflict sends the village into great confusion and anxiety. Trying to keep her family safe, she runs from Gety to a nearby village. But when fighting starts there as well, Marie returns to Gety, where things are still tense.

Today, October 2006: Thankfully, April, Faustin, and Marie are all alive. They are struggling to survive this devastating crisis.

April and her family are in Kagaba, but she is in poor health, coughing frequently. The Kagaba health centre provides her with free medicines, provisioned by Medair, but she faces a difficult future. She lost her husband and her two children, and returned to find that her house and small shop were also destroyed. Fortunately, she receives help from a NGO called 'COOPI' who help feed her children, and another NGO called 'Solidarités' who provided her with cooking pans.

Faustin was able to get treatment for his hand in a Medair-supported hospital, and now receives some humanitarian assistance for his family. Marie also found medical help in a health facility supported by Medair. She received food for her family from other international organizations.

But April, Faustin, and Marie are only three of the many people whose families suffer from the conflict areas in Ituri, in eastern Congo. In Gety village, there are currently over 40,000 displaced people living in difficult conditions. They live in rapidly constructed shelters, and face a lack of sanitation, toilets and safe drinking water. Cholera spreads quickly in these conditions and Medair has helped treat over 300 cases of cholera in Gety health zone since July. Food arrives intermittently, with families eating only once a day. Local and international organizations are trying their best to improve conditions, but the need is enormous. With the rainy season now ending, communities risk having even less to eat during the coming dry season.

Some people are returning home to their own villages, despite the fact that militia are still active in the Gety area. Medair is providing medicines and basic medical equipment for these village health centres. The nurses in these facilities can barely keep up with the huge influx of sick people who have been living in camps or in the bush. Most are suffering from malaria, with many also suffering from illnesses related to the poor quality of the water they have been drinking.

In one of these villages, the roof of the health centre is partly destroyed, and in another village, the doors and the windows are missing from the health centre. The Medair construction team is helping to rehabilitate these two health facilities along with others damaged in the conflict. The local health committees were overjoyed recently when Medair provided them with hoes, blankets, plates, and cups to encourage them in their work, and to replace the personal items they had lost.

Medair continues to stock health centres with vital medicines in Gety and Kagaba villages. Their July vaccination campaign was a success and more than 5400 children under five were vaccinated in just five days, protecting them from the major diseases: polio,tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough,yellow fever, and measles. At the same time, 264 pregnant women received tetanus vaccinations.

Apart from medical and construction support, Medair is also providing psychosocial support to a population that continues to face horrific suffering. Many have experienced or witnessed terrible acts. Medair is working with these victims to help their recovery process, particularly with women who have been sexually abused, and with the many children who have seen far too much and grieved far too often.

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Medair's activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are supported with the assistance of ECHO (Humanitarian department of the European Community), EuropeAid, OFDA (Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance), UNDP (United Nations Development Program), Swiss Solidarity and OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). However, Medair's life-saving activities are also dependent upon private financial donation. To make an online donation and contribute to this work, please visit www.medair.org

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Medair is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) independent of any political, economic, social or religious authority. Its international headquarters are based in Switzerland. Its mission is exclusively humanitarian and it accomplishes its work in a spirit of dedication and solidarity, inspired by its Christian values.

Medair's objectives are to respond to suffering victims in war and disaster situations (especially those which have been forgotten or neglected) through various kinds of emergency and rehabilitative projects.

Medair employs 50 people in Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Holland. In the field, 120 full-time expatriates help populations in difficulty, with the support of 1600 local employees.

The organisation is certified ISO 9001 at world wide level for its quality management system.

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