After recruiting and training 28 people in 72 hours (receptionists, nurses, drivers, guards, health educators, pharmacists etc.), we’re ready to go!

 

Recruitment has to be done by international staff members to keep it as neutral and impartial as possible – as I am the only non-Congolese person on the NKERU team, I grabbed any international staffer that walked passed the door to help with the final selection for written tests, from the 600 - 700 applications we received. Here we are sorting through the envelopes, CVs, cover letters and diplomas.

 

 

This view is becoming all too familiar. Cramming in all the work that needs to be done to set up and run emergency malaria clinics means early starts for the team.

 

 

So is this one! Every day we pack the car full of medical and logistical supplies needed to receive up to 250 patients a day, and to treat the 70-80% of them who test positive for malaria. 

 

 

As these clinics are mobile, they are not permanent. We are running two clinics in total, both in displaced person’s camps around Kashuga town in Masisi Province, North Kivu. As it is the summer holidays at the moment and classes are not starting again until September, we have been provided with a school on each site to run our clinics in.

 

Having a structure already in place makes it much easier to set up and take down the clinic each day. Every day we set up the reception and triage areas, consultation rooms and pharmacies. Here I am putting up one of the MSF flags so people know where to come for free malaria testing and treatment. 

 

 

Hopefully when people see this flag they will know they are welcome in our clinics, no matter where they are from, their age, gender, religion or political affiliation. As people in Kashuga already know MSF, our flags should be an indication that people arriving in the clinics will be triaged based on their symptoms only and that all care and treatment is free. 

 

 

Here’s one of our clinics ready to receive patients. We added a tent to give us more space than if we had used only the school. Based on the numbers of people presenting at the local health centres, we are expecting up to 250 people every day. The wooden building on the right is the school.

 

 

As they are temporary clinics, we are not too fussy about the state of the structure we are using, as long as it is safe and clean enough to receive and treat patients. Here are two of the consultants waiting for patients to arrive, as seen through the walls made out of plastic sheeting. If you look in the background you will see the blackboard ready for the school year. 

 

 

And here’s the make-shift pharmacy! At the start, as it was an emergency set up, we didn’t have enough tables to work with, so we asked a carpenter in the community to make some, which he delivered to us after just a few days.

 

Now we just need to wait for some patients….