Dr Elaine Dietsch has safely returned to CSU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery after spending the month of May in the DRC to attend to and learn from women who are among the most impoverished and oppressed in the world.

 

“I thought I couldn't possible hear any worse stories than what I did on my previous visits,” Dr Dietsch said. “I was wrong. Sadly, rebels and warring militia groups are becoming more and more sadistic and desperate. The women and girls are suffering even more dehumanising torture.

 

“No one knows for sure, but it is estimated that 45 000 people are murdered each month.

 

“Malnutrition is rife in an otherwise fertile land, because the women and children are too frightened to access the crops for fear of the rebels. Women carry 50 kilograms of wood 20 kilometres from village to town, are paid 30 cents and then walk back to their village.”

 

 

Travelling through ‘no man's land’ on the border of neighbouring Burundi and the DRC to a tiny village called Korohoro, Dr Dietsch had to walk though long grasses and then travel across a huge swamp in a tiny dug-out boat.

 

 

 

“We had to keep absolutely still for fear of ... I'm not exactly sure what, but crocodiles would have had to have been a possibility. This is the only way the 250 families living here can enter or leave their village.

 

“Burundi rebels occupied this village for about two years but no longer have a permanent presence. Sadly, every woman and girl in this village had been raped and the majority of children had been conceived through ‘strategic raping’.  Many, many of the men of the village had been murdered.”

 

Dr Dietsch described the conditions she encountered in the pygmy village of Goma, which is 42 kilometres from the civil war frontlines and within ash-fall of an active volcano that glows at night and that last erupted in 2002, covering the area in black volcanic rock.

 

“Ironically, the volcano is the least of the worries for the people of Goma. The pygmies had been chased from their villages deep in the forests to live on the edge of town, grateful because they felt a little safer there. All had been tortured and many of the men had been murdered. 

 

“This tiny village with its beautiful people is built directly on the pumice rocks. The women birth in their tiny homes, which are smaller than a one-man tent and are made of twigs and ferns with no skilled support. There is no flooring, there is no bedding.

 

“No one accurately knows the infant and child mortality rate, but we were told that probably less than one child in one hundred would live to be five. Unbelievable as this sounds, having seen their living conditions, heard their coughing, witnessed their malnourished bodies and listened to their stories, I believe it is very possible.”

 

Dr Dietsch’s husband John, and their friend and a CSU student Hilda Fitzgerald, accompanied her on this trip to the DRC. They delivered 114 kilograms of materials donated by friends and CSU colleagues. This included hand-sewn and donated clothes, paracetamol and ointments. Medical centres donated unwanted equipment and the Australian Red Cross supplied 72 knitted teddy bears because there are no toys for the small children.

 

 

As though her journey wasn’t already challenging enough, Dr Dietsch spent time in a women's jail in the DRC.

 

“Thankfully, I was allowed in and out,” she joked. “My reason for going to the jail was to provide postnatal care to the women who had had babies, including one set of twins, but who had received no follow-up care. In one cell, four women and three babies and toddlers shared three thin mattresses on the floor.

 

“The jail does not provide food and the women are forced to rely on family, friends and community to bring them food. The woman with the tiny twins was breastfeeding her babies, but she herself only had a meal every two or three days.”

 

While circumstances in the DRC remain dire, Dr Dietsch did observe improvements in some services and conditions since her previous visits. She notes that more villages have clean water, which is one of the first priorities for each village, but many villages still do not have access to safe water.

 

“Traditional midwives have access to clean ‘birth kits’, which are supplied by charitable groups like ZONTA, an international professional women’s service organisation. Aid also comes from individuals and groups such as Inner Wheel, church groups, high schools and many more. There is no evidence of Australian Government aid, unless it is through the UN. 

 

“Five small schools have now been opened for ‘street’ children, orphans, returned child soldiers and internal refugees, whereas there was one such school on our last visit. Many more child soldiers have been rescued or escaped, and are slowly being assimilated back into communities.

 

 

“Many women have been micro-financed to start small industries, and there is evidence of community development and co-operatives. There is even a Wagga Wagga Health Centre deep in the jungle, and a Wagga Bibliotheque (library) in Bukavu town that is staffed by a volunteer who teaches English free of charge,” she said.

 

 

Asked whether she believes that the crisis in the DRC is it intractable, Dr Dietsch is adamant.

 

“No, because the Congolese people are resilient, strong and courageous,” she said. “They are hospitable, generous and they love the fragile lives they live. As long as there are Congolese people living in the DRC, I believe there is hope!

 

“Greater international recognition of the situation is becoming evident, and this also gives hope. The United Nations (UN) intervention is not without its problems, and once again women shared with me how it was sometimes the UN ‘peacekeepers’ who were actively involved in rape and procuring child prostitution, but the women felt powerless to do or say anything. That said, I believe DRC is safer because there is some UN presence.”

 

Does she see a solution to the problems of the DRC? Dr Dietsch defers to the ‘greater minds than mine’ that are working on this. “I don't think I could continue doing what I do if my purpose was to find a solution to the suffering in the DRC,” she said.

 

“What I can be involved in is working in partnership with one woman, one midwife, one family, one village, one community and, with thanks to those who respond to the stories that are shared when I return home, life becomes more humane for that person or family or community.”

 

 

It is this philosophical commitment to those in need, and to advocating on their behalf, which animates Elaine Dietsch’s work back in Australia at CSU where she enthusiastically shares her DRC primary health care experiences with her nursing and midwifery students.

 

“Seeing community development in action like I witnessed last month is such a privilege and an incredible experience, and one I love to share with students and colleagues alike.

 

 

“The beauty of midwifery is that it is not primarily about technology or medical advances. It is first and foremost, about ‘being with women’, whether the women are Congolese or Australian, whether the midwives work in partnership with them in a tertiary referral centre, or in a hut made of twigs. 

 

“Women are women and midwives are midwives, and it is that passion and privilege that we have as midwives, that the CSU midwifery teaching team and students appreciate so very much.”

 

Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews with Dr Elaine Dietsch.