Finally, our mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers have now access to health care in Minembwe! Now, not only will people get treated without having to travel for days to reach a hospital, but also our children will be born in hospitals, have birth certificate, and mother-child mortality will greatly be reduced in Minembwe. This is quite a dream coming true for most of us who care deeply about Mulenge development. It is sometimes unbelievable that we now have access to communication including internet in Mulenge and now we have a hospital! Why is that many people from Mulenge are silent about this milestone achievement? Who has played a key role in some of these development initiatives among Mulenge born sons? I will shade my thoughts on this in my last paragraph of this article.
It has rightly
been said that one can leave the village, but the village never leaves in you.
Whether we admit it or not, all Banyamulenge who were born and raised in Mulenge,
have been so greatly influenced by Mulenge’s cultural and spiritual
backgrounds. One thing that always strikes me is how we all fantasise and
idealize our past memories and experiences that we have lived in mulenge
despite the fact that no one is willing to go back and live there now. While
many people who grew up in villages and eventually left for urban areas,
usually have negative feelings of village experience and lifestyle.
However,
mulenge village lifestyle was strikingly very different from many other
villages elsewhere in Africa for various reasons. It should be noted that
contrary to many other villages in Africa, mulenge inhabitants had lived plentiful
and rich lifestyle. This is a place where we had never or rarely experienced
starvation like other places, destitution, and even poverty despite the fact
that people had virtually less material possessions. People always had more
than enough food, everyone was well dressed, particularly adults both men and
women.
It should be
argued though those realities of Mulenge are no longer the mirror of our
current Mulenge where crime, vandalisme, solitude and violence are rampant.
Having said
that, not every thing was rose. One of the main challenges was the big issue of
absence of healthcare services and infrastructure which is an imperative
prerequisite for human development and is an inseparable component for the
overall well-being of mankind. This magnificent place had never have a health
and appropriate place for women to give birth, where people could be treated
efficiently and closer to home. It was a nightmare when one happened to suffer
a grave or urgent disease. People had to carry the sick person on their backs
and travel some times for days before they could reach a hospital in other
centres way far from their homes.
Thank God, now
this is no longer the case. Minembwe has now a general hospital! Minembwe bears
the load of roughly 30% of the Mulenge population, that
means it’s share of all diseases, and maternal conditions of Mulenge population.
We can never thank the Donors who have committed to provide the people of
Minembwe with a hospital of their own. Everyone who has come from Mulenge and
those who still live there are very much grateful to whoever contributed to
that project in one way or another. I cannot in good faith forget to thank
Minister Muller Ruhimbika who has visibly been present in almost every good
development project coming to Minembwe, quite contrary to his colleagues who
only enjoys empty honor and prestige in Kinshasa while completely disconnected
to their base. Here I don’t need to cite names, especially that none of our so
called politicians and officials never made it their responsibility to bring or
contribute to the development of Mulenge. It’s a shame!
It is also important
to mention the disappointment of the Congolese government in general which has
never committed any public financing of healthcare or other sectors and
budgeting schemes for a healthy rural Mulenge.
Seeing what Muller has done in relatively a short period of time that
he has been in the government, one wonders if not having the right people in
office was the main factor for our isolation and exclusion from the DRC development
agenda after all. For year all the sons of Mulenge who have been in the
government including occupying the second highest office of the land, they
could not even provide the smallest financing of healthcare services in
Mulenge. What a shame!
I am not in any why saying that Muller has personally funded the
building of Minembwe hospital. I am not definitely that naive. I know that a
large part if not all of the financing came from non-governmental funds.
Strangely, it is only during the time that Muller has been in the provincial
government that we have seen Minembwe being in some measure at the agenda of
rural development. He recently brought an Ambulance for the people of Minembwe,
just few months later he returned to Minembwe with a delegation for an official
opening of the Minembwe General Hospital. One wonders if that is just a
coincidence? I am not one of them. I have seen Muller Ruhimbika devoting all
his career on the development of Mulenge before, I have seen Muller taking a
tough political stand for what he perceived as the political interest of
Banyamulenge even at the highest cost, and he never compromised. The same
cannot be said about his counterpart Banyamulenge so called politicians.
The question is given that the DRC is one of the third world nations
which are still stuck to out-of-pocket payments to access fundamental health
services and regrettably, a universal access healthcare is a mysterious dream.
So, what can you and I do to ensure that the Hospital in Minembwe keeps giving
quality services including universal healthcare to its population.
Thank you to whoever contributed to Minembwe Hospital. More needs to be done
AK
