Don Bosco Ngangi is a Salesian run center. Salesains are a Catholic order of men and women devoted to caring for and educating orphans and at risk children. Don Bosco Centers, which are named after the founder of the order St John Bosco, are located throughout the world and provide housing, education, vocational training, recreation and ecumenical spiritual guidance for orphans and street children.
Don Bosco Ngangi is located in Goma, in the eastern section of the Democratic Republic of Congo, along the Rwanda border. It was founded in 1988. It started with just a sports field but soon expanded to provide schooling and housing for children and youths. In 1992, as ethnic tensions heated up in Rwanda and the surrounding areas, Don Bosco Ngangi redefined its Salesian mission of caring for children and began to receive and care for refugees and displaced persons of all ages.
Today as warfare, mass killings, rapes and other atrocities dominate the area. Don Bosco Ngangi serves as a haven for the poor and suffering. The ten acre compound now houses 3,500 children and 1500 refugees within it’s walls. In addition Don Bosco Ngangi provides aid and services to the many surrounding refugees camps.
From the original school and sports field, the center has grown to provide vocational training, refugee housing, a rehabilitation facility for child soldiers, nutritional center and medical center.
The medical center consists of a clinic, general medical ward, pediatric ward, cholera ward and nutrition rehabilitation ward for severe cases of starvation. In 2009 over 18,000 patients were cared for at the medical center. The medical center struggles to met the needs of the ever burgeoning population of people in need. Staffed with two doctors and four nurses, they daily treatment a complex array of life threatening and catastrophic illnesses with limited medical supplies and equipment. In 2008 they had no way of administering oxygen to victims of tuberculosis and respiratory diseases or suctioning new born infants, 30% of which are born premature. In 2009 with the help of Project Congo they were able to add several oxygen concentrators and other other life saving equipment and medications. In 2010 they will have basic X-ray and EKG capabilities for the first time, as well as, expanded laboratory services and neonatal care.
Click on the PDF presentation Ngangi or watch the video Project Congo below to learn more about Don Bosco Ngangi and its Medical Center
