Canada to support basic health care in Kinshasa Province

Canada will be providing C$5 million (US $3.35 million) over the next four years to support the provision of basic health care services in the eastern region of Kinshasa Province, Jose Montabes, an official from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), told IRIN on Wednesday. About 300,000 people inhabiting some 70 percent of the territory of Kinshasa Province would be the targeted beneficiaries of the initiative, which aimed to "increase people's access to primary health care through the rehabilitation or establishment of basic health care structures in order to improve the general health of the population", Robert Beaudry, who serves as a consultant for the project, said. The health zones of Nsele, Maluku-1 and Maluku-2 were selected in large part because they are under-served by the capital's health system, and have access to only one hospital, whose capacity was found to be insufficient. Beaudry added that in addition to contributing to "the reinforcement of national health structures and the sustainable availability of essential medicines", the project would contribute towards the training and supervision of health-care professionals and support community health promotion initiatives.