Dispatches

This information is for anyone wanting to help children in the Democratic Republic of Congo - such as those featured in Dispatches: Congo's Forgotten Children.

World Vision
The Don Bosco orphanage at Goma is a World Vision partner. World Vision support the orphanage and have recently supplied it with emergency equipment. To find out more about their work in eastern DR Congo go to www.worldvision.org.uk or to donate call 0800 088 088 (free, 24 hours a day).

Save The Children
Save The Children is working on the ground in DR Congo helping children and their families who have lost everything and are in grave danger. They are providing essential supplies and carrying out child protection work. They urgently need help to protect these children and provide them with food, shelter and medical care. Just £21 will buy a kit containing blankets, clothes, cooking pots and jerry cans and £46 can reunite two children with their families. To find out more or to donate go to www.savethechildren.org.uk or call the donation line 020 7012 6400 Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, answer phone at other times.

Merlin
Merlin specialises in health, saving lives in times of crisis and helping to rebuild shattered health services. The international medical aid agency has been working in DR Congo since 1997. Merlin supports close to 200 health centres and eight hospitals in North Kivu and Maniema provinces, serving a population of over 1.5 million people. It responded to recent violence and disease outbreak in North Kivu in November last year by supplying drugs and health staff in the most affected areas. Medical teams provide essential support to health centres struggling with overwhelming numbers of patients and limited medical supplies. To support this work visit the Merlin website at www.merlin.org.uk or call 0207 014 1712 (Mondays - Fridays 9am -6pm).

Médecins Sans Frontières
MSF has worked in DR Congo since 1987 and has more than 2,000 MSF staff working in the country. Insecurity, malnutrition and epidemics continue in many regions of DR Congo, particularly in North and South Kivu, where intense fighting between different armed groups has caused thousands of people to flee their homes since August. MSF recently strengthened existing projects and opened new projects to try and meet the huge needs. As well as reinforcing and expanding medical activities in the Kivu region, long-running projects continue to provide HIV/AIDS care in Kinshasa and South Kivu, primary and secondary healthcare in Katanga and Maniema provinces and treatment for sexually transmitted infections in Kisangani.

MSF - Condition: Critical
In November 2008, MSF launched a website called Condition: Critical to highlight the ongoing crisis in the eastern DR Congo. Condition: Critical tells the personal stories of people struggling to survive in a region that has become the frontline of a conflict raging for years, and which sharply intensified at the end of August 2008. For more information on MSF go to www.msf.org.uk where you can also donate or call the donation line 0800 731 6732 (free, Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm).

The British Red Cross
The British Red Cross is supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and their work in the D R Congo. The ICRC, working with the Congolese Red Cross, is helping to trace the relatives of children separated from their families during the fighting. More than 1,000 messages containing family news have been distributed between family members made otherwise unreachable by the conflict.

The ICRC is providing 17 health-care facilities with medicines and medical supplies and British Red Cross surgeon Ken Barrand is working with the ICRC medical team. Drinking water is delivered every day to displaced people without sufficient access to water. The ICRC is also distributing food to displaced people which will feed the affected families for approximately ten days, include basics such as beans, flour, oil and salt.

When disasters strike in the UK and across the world, speed of response is essential, which is why the ICRC gave £100k for emergency relief during the conflict in DR Congo. Quick action prevents a disaster, such as chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe, from becoming a catastrophe. To donate to the Disaster Fund, please visit www.redcross.org.uk/disasterfund

UNICEF
UNICEF is working in over 150 countries around the world to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. In the DR Congo, UNICEF and its partners currently provide the largest humanitarian response for people displaced from their homes by the conflict. Amongst other activities, UNICEF is working in health centres at camps for these people and supporting efforts to reunite children with their families. To find out how you can help UNICEF by donating or campaigning go to www.unicef.org.uk/drcongo or donate by phone on 0800 316 5353 (free).

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