Imagine having to carry your sick child or spouse down a long winding path to the river on a hot humid day in the Congo. After hiring a canoe and pilot you then embark on a 3+ hour journey down a fast flowing river. There is a good likelihood you will need to navigate around areas with hippos or crocodiles on this trip. Eventually you reach the nearest town with a medical facility. The last leg of your voyage involves hiring a taxi to take you to the hospital where you join the long queue of people waiting to be seen by a doctor. You hope you have arrived in time…
These were the kinds of experiences familiar to Moluamba Clavers as he grew up in a village distant enough from the city of Mbandaka in the DRC that the only way to access medical care was via dugout canoe. After experiencing this reality firsthand, Moluamba became determined to study medicine so that he could make medical care more readily and easily available to the people in smaller more remote villages like the one he grew up in.
Moluamba got his start as a nursing student in Mbandaka. Subsequent to nursing school he decided that he wanted to become a doctor. He did not have the financial resources for university studies so he and his family moved to Kinshasa where he worked as a nurse, saving up money as he was able.
Once at l’Université Protestante au Congo (UPC) in Kinshasa he found that he didn’t have sufficient funds to complete his studies. He wrote a letter to the university administration asking if there were any scholarships available. UPC was able to grant him a scholarship through Education Congo. Moluamba is now nearing completion of his medical studies!
Ernie Ross, president of Education Congo, recently met Moluamba while visiting l’Université Protestante au Congo (UPC) in Kinshasa. Education Congo board members periodically travel to the DRC to engage face to face with our partners on the ground to assess programming and ensure that our mutual goals and vision for education are in alignment.
Moluamba is very grateful to Education Congo for the help we’ve given him through our scholarship program. It has made it possible for him to succeed in his studies and thus move towards his goal of providing medical care to more remote communities.
Thank you for your support in making Moluamba’s journey as a health practitioner possible!