Undergraduate Programs for 80 Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Project location: CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, Kwango
Project start date: June 2011 - Project end date: July 2014
Project number: 2011-27
Beneficiary: FONDAZIONE RITA LEVI MONTALCINI

The course of nursing at the Kenge ISTM responds to a pressing demand for qualified health workers to the province of Kwango. 70% of health facilities in the location consist of wood and straw huts where empirical staff work assisted by illiterate elderly midwives. It is vital, therefore, to ensure within the next three years a staff qualified to manage health care facilities and devices to assist with pregnancy and childbirth. The Kwando province medical inspector is part of the teaching body and is a member of the board of examiners.

The anticipated achievements or outcomes of this project, which received a grant from the Nando Peretti Foundation, are that the enrollment of new graduates into health care facilities in the country is now automatic after having obtained a degree, though by law the recruitment is preceded by the final six months of advanced training in the same structures .

 

The goal is to offer a school education that fosters the conditions for the development of women, as well as prevent inflictions such as poverty, disease and prostitution.
As is the case across the entire African continent, in the province of Bandundu families prefer to invest in the education of sons at the expense of daughters who are usually forced to marry when they finish primary school. Sometimes girls do not finish the normal schooling because they are forced to take on the household chores, and this only adds to their marginalization in society. It is estimated that in fact, to date in the Congo, only three percent of the female population has had access to higher education.