“Being a mother in my country demands great sacrifice because of the absence of medical infrastructure and unhealthy conditions that provoke infections, among other problems”. This was part of the message transmitted at the University of  Navarra by Dr Celine Tendobi, gynecologist of Monkole Hospital, who gave a conference titled ‘S.O.S. Giving Birth in the Congo’, organized by the department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Clínica Universidad and the School of Medicine.

Other participants in the session included Álvaro Perlado, assistant director of Monkole Hospital; Dr Luis Chiva and Dr Juan Luis Alcázar, director and co-director of the department of  Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra; and Dr Secundino Fernández, dean of the School of Medicine.

Dr Tendobi explained that tropical diseases and sexually transmitted diseases are also a problem and added “In the Congo, each year, 24,000 die of AIDS and 78,000 die of malaria.”

Álvaro Perlado gave an account of activities carried out at Monkole Hospital: “We attend to disadvantaged pregnant women, providing them with check-ups before they give birth and follow-up afterwards.” This attention is possible thanks to the Forfait-Mamá program “that gives women without resources in Kinshasa access to high-quality welfare care in an environment of extreme poverty”. To date, Monkole has looked after  82,000 patients and provides work for 200 people.

Of the nearly 80 million inhabitants of  the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 60 million live in conditions of extreme poverty, principally in urban areas, such as Kinshasa. Every year 30,000 women die whilst giving birth and more than 20,000 babies lose their life during delivery or in a few days after delivery.

Monkole Hospital

The Monkole Hospital was started up in 1991 in the capital of the Congo in order both to offer health care and hospital treatment in one of the peripheral areas of Kinshasa and also to promote health education about diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. The hospital is a corporate project of Opus Dei. In addition, in 2010 a new initiative called ‘Friends of Monkole’ was begun to facilitate access to health care for the most disadvantaged social groups in the area, including medical attention for children who may have no financial means. Today these children and other persons in other disadvantaged groups are received and attended to by Monkole Hospital in a pediatrics department, a surgery department and three peripheral community clinics, which are dependent on the main hospital. For these ends, Monkole has the support of the Navarra-based NGO ONAY (Organización Navarra para Ayuda entre los Pueblos), the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and the Fundació Montblanc.