Semiliki Trust has always invested in training nurses and doctors. We were delighted that a training in chronic diseases went off without a hitch in Aru in DRC between 8th and the 12th September. This training has equipped clinical staff to look after people with diseases like hypertension, diabetes and asthma. This includes using evidence-based guidelines to ensure people get the most cost-effective drugs, running clinics and screening for chronic diseases, ensuring patients return regularly for correct care. Common chronic dieseases account for 27% of deaths in DRC.
Semilki supported the training with your help and with a generous grant from ECHO, a wonderful partner that has helped us previously with building and equipping operating theatres. Semiliki also collaborated with Primary Care International (PCI) who licensed their treatment guidelines. Our partner the Service Médical of the Anglican church of DRC organised the training in DRC.
We particularly delighted that our friends Sarah and Peter, former clinical directors of PCI, were able to get to Aru and deliver the training in person, generously providing their time pro bono. Back in 2020 they had planned to go to Congo with PCI to deliver training. The COVID pandemic turned that into an online training. Although this went very well, it was not really possible to transform management practices for chronic diseases without being there in-country. We planned training in Bukavu and Aru last year, and then the M23 militia took over Bukavu and the security situation further north was very uncertain, so then were sadly going to resort to further online training when the good news from Aru came through that it was safe for Sarah and Peter to travel to Aru.
In a wonderful blog about their visit, they wrote that Aru was “a place of unrivalled welcome and warmth, where we were embraced into community and cared for in every possible way“.
Your vital support enables us to enhance best quality medical practices.
