The northeastern border regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have become a battleground as the Lord’s Resistance Army attack villages, kill unarmed civilians, burn homes, and take captives. Thousands of people have fled and are living with relatives or in makeshift shelters in larger, more secure towns. Samaritan’s Purse is providing food for thousands of at-risk families and supporting medical facilities. In 2011 Samaritan’s Purse writer Gary Martyn and photographer Matt Powell traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to document our relief efforts there.
Daily chores for many children include gathering water from the spring in five-gallon Jerry cans, stopping only momentarily to smile into the camera.
Hundreds line up at a mission station to receive family hygiene kits from Samaritan’s Purse in an area that has been badly affected by LRA fighting.
Nyankunde Hospital- destroyed by years of tumultuous warfare in the region- is now being rebuilt by Samaritan’s Purse.
Doctors, medical students, and nurses help provide care for hundreds of patients like this child being treated for Malaria at Adi Hospital.
The maternity ward at Nyankunde Hospital is crowded again with women who attend pre-natal classes and who want to give birth in a safe environment. The hospital was destroyed and staff were killed when ethnic violence erupted in 2002. Samaritan’s Purse is helping to rebuild the hospital.
Premature babies have a fighting chance for survival when they are born at the hospital, rather than at home.
1) This new-born [left] would have suffocated had the growth on his neck not been treated at the hospital. 2) Pray for 13-year-old Onesemu [right] as he endures painful skin grafts and faces months of recovery from his burns.
A hospital chaplain prays for an elderly patient at Nyankunde Hospital.
The pediatric ward at Nyankunde Hospital.
Onesemu- a 13-year-old burn patient who had a seizure and fell into the family cooking fire, burning his hands and upper body- spends hours reading his children’s Bible. “Jesus raised people from the dead,” he said. “I have faith that Jesus will heal me.”
Family hygiene kits drastically improve the health of women and children.
Samaritans Purse is rehabilitating natural springs which will provide clean water for hundreds of families in northeastern DRC.
Samaritan’s Purse is rehabilitating the spring, so people will no longer have to draw water from cloudy pools such as this.
Samaritan’s Purse is distributing emergency food to thousands of families that were driven from their homes by the LRA near Faradje.
An elderly refugee from Sudan- now living in a Samaritan’s Purse-assisted village in Congo.
Children like these in the camps are in danger of being kidnapped by the LRA and forced to serve as soldiers or slaves.
A mother and child look for relief from the sun at a food distribution point.
The village children come out to greet us when our plane lands for a visit to Adi hospital.
Flying from one Samaritan’s Purse project to the next, over what is arguably one of the most remote places on earth.
