The Big Heart Foundation is critical to improving quality of services and access to life-saving healthcare for over 85,000 people in the DRC

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the most challenging places in the world to be a child. Ranked 175 out of 189 countries in the 2020 Human Development Index report, over 91% of the population lives on less than $3.10 a day, with many families struggling to cope and lacking resources to provide adequate health, education, and protection for their children.

Within this difficult context, The Big Heart Foundation (TBHF) generously supported Save the Children in the province of Kasai Oriental, where an already overburdened health infrastructure had been further decimated by conflict. The Big Heart Foundation’s transformational funding allowed us to significantly improve the healthcare provision to children in some of the most deprived areas of Kasai Oriental, by creating a new fully equipped healthcare centre as well as boosting technical capacity of many centres across the health zone.

The Katende Health and Maternity Centre, - built over a 2-year period was officially handed over to the local community in March 2022, following the establishment of a five-year maintenance plan, supported by a newly set up Local Steering committee.

As a new building alone cannot create major change in health outcomes for children, capacity building sessions were provided through The Big Heart Foundation’s funding, to train over 430 health workers across the health zone on the use of new tools and equipment. It also provided training for over 60 finance and administrative staff on financial management, 60 staff members on logistics and compliance, and 105 service providers trained to improve the health zone management.

As a result of the transformational partnership between Save the Children and The Big Heart Foundation, we are now seeing a 62% increase in the monthly number of children brought to the health centre for life saving treatments, amongst many other benefits being felt throughout the communities of the health zone.

The impact of The Big Heart Foundation’s commitment has since continued, and in partnership with Save the Children, will continue to provide various capacity building, training and upskilling activities across the region, to improve the lives of thousands of children and their families across the Province of Kasai Oriental for years to come. We are very grateful to The Big Heart Foundation for their generosity, and Save the Children very much look forward to continuing our transformational partnership for children across the world.

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