When the hospital and nutrition centre in Ntamugenga asked us for help in 2014, we knew that either we helped, or this place would no longer be able to treat the sick and feed the hungry, or little children and pregnant or postpartum women. What would their lives be like if the only health centre within their reach vanished?
We did it! Together, we have been fighting hunger in this corner of the world for 10 years. We also carry out nearly 30 000 medical procedures, including malaria treatment, blood transfusions, surgery and laboratory tests that cannot be performed anywhere else within a radius of a few dozen kilometres.
Today, help is again urgently needed. Maintaining ongoing, vital support for the centre is made difficult by the falling number of donations to the cause. Another spoke in the wheel is the high dollar exchange rate and the world’s attention focused on the wars in Ukraine and Israel.
Social media companies require payment for even minimal reach. Polish companies, which could usually support large initiatives, have very limited budgets this year.
We all feel that the prices of basic products are rising. The crisis is everywhere. Unfortunately in Congo too. The prices of basic supplies for the hospital have been further increased by the supply chains disrupted by the occupation of the M23 rebellion.
– Now there is absolute silence in the village, only insects can be heard, and faintly at that. During the fighting last year I liked the nights because there was no shelling. Now the worst things occur at night. People are being killed every day. May this night be peaceful.
– Sister Agnieszka Gugała writes from the Congo.
The first victims of war are the sick, the poor and those suffering from chronic starvation. Children in extreme states of malnutrition come to us every day.
We are working full steam ahead, everyone over and above their regular hours, to raise the funds in time, but we need your help. Our dream is that everyone who decides to support the little patients in the Congo with even just five zloty will encourage at least one other person to do the same. We know that things are harder for you too. That is why we do not ask for much. Just as much as you can, so that your household budget does not suffer. By persuading your friends to do so, you will help us to raise the whole amount needed. Only scale will save us. We cannot and do not want to pay Facebook for it any more.
What happens if we don’t raise the necessary amount?
We will not be able to help everyone. Food for the children is the easiest and cheapest need to meet, but IVs, medicines, blood for transfusions and fuel for the car cost money and without them we cannot treat malaria, tuberculosis or cholera, which, in the Congolese tropics, with the large scale of malnutrition, are a daily reality.
Together we must succeed. With you, we have been able to emerge from every crisis successfully!
We call on you to share at least five zloty and tell someone else about it. The expense will not be noticeable and you will become a hero of a place that cannot cope without your help. Save the hospital and a nutrition centre with us!