Helping Babies Breathe in DR Congo

On April 21, 2012, I will travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the fourth time. I will again be volunteering with LDS Humanitarian Services. Neonatal Resuscitation is a major humanitarian initiative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
 
Visit this link for a video which features Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles telling about the Neonatal Resuscitation Training program.
Neonatal Resuscitation Video

In 2006, my son Jason (now serving in the Baltic Mission) and I traveled to Kinshasa for the first LDS Humanitarian Services Neonatal Resuscitation course in that country.

In 2007, I returned with my son Geoff (a returned missionary from the Norway Oslo Mission who is now studying at the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center).









Click here to see a short video of Geoff and another team member distributing newborn kits at the Kingasani Maternity Hospital: Newborn Nursery Video

(The movie takes several seconds to load. Be sure and watch to the end to hear the mothers of these premature babies sing a traditional song of gratitude.)




We again participated in Neonatal Resuscitation Training (NRT) in Kinshasa and also took a boat across the Congo River to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo.

There we participated in the first NRT course in that country.

Then in 2008, my wife Cathryn and my daughter Emma joined me in DR Congo for another course in Kinshasa.










We also flew to DR Congo's second-largest city, Lubumbashi. In Lubumbashi, we taught the first LDS Humanitarian Services NRT course in that city.

    
Over the years, the wonderful talented physicians of DR Congo have become more and more involved with extending this training around the country. In April, our team of 3 LDS Humanitarian Services physicians will partner with several Congolese physicians to teach the Helping Babies Breathe curriculum to health care providers in Kinshasa.



 




DR Congo is the second largest country in Africa (Algeria is slightly larger). Its area is roughly the size of the US east of the Mississippi River.












Kinshasa is the capital of DR Congo and with a population of 10 million people is the second largest city in Africa after Cairo. It is also the second largest French speaking city in the world after Paris.





I look forward to this opportunity to serve the wonderful people of the Congo.