CARE’s efforts in the DRC have emphasized the health and wellbeing of women and children, addressing the needs of some of the most vulnerable populations in the country. Through programs surrounding maternal and child health, disease prevention, education, education, economic recovery, community development, and governance, CARE hopes to contribute to the long-term recovery of the DRC and advance peace in the volatile Great Lakes region.

[Read more about CARE’s Great Lakes Advocacy Group, comprised of country offices in the DRC, Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda]

Kasai Occidental et Oriental Provinces

Family Planning Program
In collaboration with community organizations and government health services, the program raises awareness about and increases access to family planning, builds capacity of health providers and community agents on family planning and counseling skills to insure that individuals are able to make an informed choice when selecting a family planning method. The program supplies contraceptive supplies through health clinics and community agents and works with community based organizations and peer educators to increase demand for family planning services and products.

Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) 
The initiative called “MAMA” is about Infant and Young Child Feeding program (IYCF). The project is implemented in Luiza district in the south of Kasai Occidental Province. The main objective is promoting exclusive breastfeeding and LAM (Lactation Amenorrhea Mother) within the community through family planning program. MAMA covers 5 health zones that have a total of 116 health centers in the district of Luiza.

Maniema Province

Women in Development of Maniema (Wakinamama)
This intervention provides a forum for women, particularly young women who have been demobilized from armed groups, to improve their household livelihood security through participation in income-generating and savings mobilization activities, as well as to strengthen the cohesion and role of women in their communities.

Combating Malaria
In collaboration with the health structures in the area, CARE aims to reduce the impact and incidence of malaria in Kasongo through community based strategies for managing malaria, including the distribution of mosquito nets for pregnant women and children under the age of five years. Health service providers receive training for the prevention and treatment of malaria, including the provision of drugs.  Local associations will be oriented for the longer-term marketing of mosquito nets.

Family Planning Program 
In collaboration with government health services, the program raises awareness about and increases access to family planning, builds capacity of health providers on clinical family planning and counseling skills to insure that individuals are able to make an informed choice when selecting a family planning method. The program supplies contraceptive supplies through health clinics and works with community based organizations and peer educators to increase demand for family planning services and products.   

Community Action for Development (PACDEV)   
Working through local civil society organizations, this program builds their capacity to undertake and successfully implement projects for the overall well-being of their war-affected communities and the households therein. The program focuses on infrastructure rehabilitation, reinforcing peace among communities and pursuing sustainable household livelihood improvements. A particular emphasis is being placed on education by rehabilitating schools and, in collaboration with partners, furnishing materials such as textbooks and teachers’ guides, and facilitating teacher training events.

Community Driven Reconstruction (CDR) or Communautés Semant l’Avenir du Congo (CSAC)
In consortium with International Rescue Committee (IRC) as the lead and the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH), the program entitled Communautés Semant l’Avenir du Congo (CSAC), or Communities Sowing the Future of Congo, is implemented in 4 territories of Maniema province. The CSAC program will directly addresses issues of both governance and community cohesion while providing tangible projects that tackle immediate needs. Specific expected outputs are social cohesion, democratic governance and economic recovery.

Uzazibora (Reproductive Health)
The project will cover Kasongo health zone and will focus on the basic or comprehensive emergency obstetric care, family planning, prevention of HIV/AIDS/RTIs including PMTCT, medical management of gender-based violence. Its main goal is the reduction of maternal mortality in territory of Kasongo in Maniema province. The specific objective is to assure that by June 2011, 36,529 of women of reproductive age will have sustainable access to quality CRH services in Kasongo health zone. The project activities revolve around supporting health facilities to offer a complete package of CRH services, community mobilization, capacity building at all levels, setting up and supervision of community health benefit societies, and conducting advocacy through community-based organizations and encouraging communities take responsibility for durable responses to reproductive health needs.

Nord-Kivu Province

Enterprise, Environment, and Equity in the Virunga Landscape of the Great Lakes  
This program is a transboundary and a consortium initiative with IGCP (International Gorilla Conservation Program) related to the Virunga Landscape in Rwanda, Uganda and DRC. The program objective is to increased livelihood opportunities based on sustainable use of natural resources, and improved governance of these resources.