Republic of Congo: Congolese Red Cross at the forefront of fighting the mpox outbreak

Along the southern banks of the Congo River lies a group of villages in the Mpouya district.This is where Roch Boetou-Kadilamio, Disaster Management Coordinator for the Congolese Red Cross (CRC), noticed a woman displaying possible signs of mpox in early february.“She was interacting with other community members as she waited for her turn to receive household items distributed by CRC to families displacedby recent floods,” Roch explains.Many African states, including the Republic of Congo, have weak health care systems characterized by inadequate surveillance, diagnostics and patient-care facilities to effectively and efficiently control the spread of diseases, including the recent sharp increase in mpox cases in many countries.The Republic of Congo shares a more than 1.700-kilometer-long border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – the current epicenter of the mpox – leaving it at very high risk of imported cases.For this reason, the IFRC has taken a regional approach, launching an emergency appeal in August 2024 to fund operations across numerous countries already impacted by Mpox, or that are stepping up prevention measures in hopes of limiting the disease's spread.Early warning allows early actionBeing on the ground in the village and trained to monitor risks allowed Roch to identify the suspected mpox case and report it forward to health authorities for follow up and mitigation efforts. This was possible due to a Disaster Risk Reduction programme, implemented by CRC in partnership with the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), which aims to strengthen the capacity of communities to anticipate, respond to and quickly recover from disasters.“We train communities to be aware of potential risks including health risks, detect them early, and seek help timely to reduce further spread of disease and deaths,” said Dr. Lambert Boteya Djoke, Head of Health and Social Actionfor the CRC.Through a network of local and trusted community volunteers, with support from the CRC staff, volunteers send alerts to national health information systems via local health centers. Alerts can also be sent to the Congolese Red Crossheadquartersusing a toll-free telephone number.“For the woman at the distribution center who was suspected to have mpox, we quickly alerted the nearest health center but also the health authorities, including the Ministry of Health,”explains Dr. Lambert. “They swiftly visited the site together with a team from the World Health Organization, took samples for testing and once confirmed positive, followed up with other measures.”Accessing even the most remote villages with critical public health informationThe Congolese Red Cross, as an auxiliary to the government, is actively supporting authorities in preparing for and responding to the mpox outbreak. Given its extensive volunteer network of more than 30,000 community volunteers across the country, of which 15,000 can be rapidly mobilized, CRC supports in reaching the most vulnerable and remote communities with critical information to mitigate and prevent the spread of mpox.“We have communities who live in the forests who cannot easily access public information," saysNadège Blandine Mabika, the CRC’s focal point Community Engagement and Accountability, Gender and Inclusion, and National Society Development. "We also have communities by the river who routinely cross the border into DRC for trade, medical care and other essential services unchecked. All these communities need to be reached if we are to control the spread of mpox."Facing a surging outbreak of a disease with patterns are evolving and not yet adequately understood, the Congolese Red Cross, along with the entire IFRC regional network, remains committed to preventing, controlling and responding to the mpox outbreak for as long as needed.Learn more about Mpox:What is Mpox: Your questions answeredHow volunteers are making the difference in the DRC

Congolese Red Cross

Placing communities at the centre of the Ebola response

In many Ebola-affected areas, years of conflict has eroded basic services and created mistrust in the community. Many communities feel that the response is not addressing their broader humanitarian needs.On some occasions, this mistrust has led to confrontations. DRC Red Cross teams have faced incidents of violence and aggression from communities resisting safe and dignified burial protocols since the start of the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu. It is clear that some vulnerable communities do not trust Ebola responders, which stops them from accessing health care. There may be many more potential cases in communities that we are unaware of, who are not accessing lifesaving care and may be further transmitting the virus within their communities. Communities hold the key to responding to the Ebola outbreak. Without communities, Ebola cannot be eliminated. We need to listen to community concerns and fears, plan together with them and adapt our response in order to create trust and acceptance by humanitarian actors. Red Cross volunteers are playing a vital role in maintaining a strong dialogue with communities, ensuring questions, misbelieves and rumours are discussed and addressed regularly. In partnership with the US Centre of Disease Control, Red Cross volunteers are collecting rumours, suspicions and concerns into a first-of-its-kind feedback and tracking system that has coded over 394,000 feedback points.This is shared with the rest of the humanitarian community to help address fears and misinformation as well as adapt and change operational approaches, based on the needs of the community. Working with Ebola survivors to help tackle myths and rumours To help tackle the fear and mistrust associated with Ebola, Red Cross is also working with survivors. People like 25-year-old carpenter, Machozi, has an incredible story to tell — and an important message for his community. “This illness is real and it kills,” says Machozi, who just a few months earlier had contracted this lethal disease and survived. But he is now living proof that you can also survive. Machozi is one of many in the response efforts. Every day, volunteers are knocking on doors in the community, providing information on how to prevent, detect and respond to Ebola. They are hosting radio talk shows, setting up mobile cinemas andgoing house-to-house, sensitizing vulnerable communities, including people with disabilities, children and women’s groups. “We have to unite and work together to fight against Ebola,” he says. “Take me as living testimony. It is possible to save the community and survive Ebola if everyone, our young people above all, engage in sensitizing our communities to the idea that Ebola is not aconsidered a punishment or an invented disease. If everyone is involved, we can end this disease.” Engaging communities pays off We are seeing huge success when we address core community concerns. The success rate of Red Cross safe and dignified burials has remained consistently high at 80 per cent, while negative feedback has dropped over time as a result of quality community engagement work and changes in the Red Cross approaches based on feedback data. In addition, as a result of our community engagement, community resistance for safe and dignified burials have drastically declined from 79 per cent in the first two months of the operation to 8 per cent now. -- Special thanks to our generous donors: American Red Cross, Austrian Red Cross, Belgian Red Cross, British Red Cross, China Red Cross, Danish Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross, Icelandic Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross, Kuwait Red Crescent, Norwegian Red Cross, Monaco Red Cross, SpanishRed Cross, Swiss Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, Netherlands Red Cross, Turkish Red Crescent, Government of Austria, Government of United Kingdom (DFID), European Commission (DG ECHO), Italian Government Bilateral Emergency Fund, Government of Norway, Paul G Allen Family Foundation, Government of Spain, Government of Switzerland, Government of Canada, The Dutch Government, USAID, Western Union Foundation and WHO.