Media Statement, 7th September 2006

The United Nation’s front man, Jan Egland, today applauded GOAL’s distribution programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which supports the distribution of kits (seeds and tools) to displaced people, in preparation for their return home.

On a visit to conflict-ravaged Manono, North Katanga, the GOAL DRC team briefed the aid chief and a high level UN delegation on the difficulties facing civilians whose homes have been destroyed in the conflict, and who are now living in the bush, reliant on aid agencies for survival.

“In conjunction with Irish Aid and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, GOAL’s programme helps people get crops in the ground before the rains come, so that these vulnerable civilians can provide for themselves,” Dr Mike Woodman who manages GOAL’s medical program in the DRC explained.

The DRC is emerging from seven years of war, which has contributed to the deaths of approximately 4 million people - 98% of whom died from disease and malnutrition. Covering three health zones, GOAL is the only aid agency with a significant presence operating in these areas where security remains a major issue.

Although the conflict officially ended in 2003, some 600 children continue to die each day. “It is children who suffer the most where more than 20 per cent die before their fifth birthday, and one in 10 die in their first year of life,” he explains.

Dr Woodman urged Mr Egland to ensure timely delivery of food by the United Nations so that GOAL can get urgent supplies to the region’s most vulnerable.

GOAL has been working in the DRC since 2002 and is currently working in two areas in the east of the DRC, in Katanga and South Kivu, providing nutrition, agriculture, and water and sanitation assistance to approximately 500,000 internally displaced persons.