UNICHIR medical center was inaugurated on 10 June in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo. Both a Belgian and a Congolese delegation attended the ceremony: Their Excellencies Johan Indekeu, Ambassador of Belgium in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Geoffroy de Liedekerke , Ambassador of the Souvereign Order of Malta , the Mayor of Beni , Senior Superintendent Narcisse Muteba Kashale,Dirk De Fauw, Mayor of Brugge (Belgium), Dr. Reginald Moreels, and Dr. Michel Kalongo as well as private donors, supporters and family members.

COPAK, Envirium's subsidiary in the DRC, has been involved in this initiative from the outset. “In 2014, Dr. Reginald Moreels, came over. At the time, COPAK had been launched and he wanted to see what I was up to here. Being a surgeon, he was quickly recruited and spent the week operating in Beni” says Dimitri Moreels, Founder of COPAK and Co-CEO of Envirium.

9 years and many fundraising campaigns later, nearly four million private funds have been raised in Belgium. Based on plans drawn up by Architect Without Borders, a building was erected: eventually, four operating rooms and two patient units will be accessible to the local population.

“This project was born of a dream, narrates Dr. Reginald Moreels. On my first visit, I met Dr. Michel Kalongo. Today, I've been on 26 surgical missions at Beni and Mutwanga hospitals. There was and is definitely a lack of surgeons in the region. As a result, the risk of mortality and morbidity is higher for the operated patient. So, the idea we came up with very quickly was to create a medical center that wouldn’t compete with hospitals but would rather deal with high-risk specialties: surgery and obstetrics.”

First of its kind, this initiative is based on a profit/non-profit business model. The profits will help secure the long-term future of the clinic and further invest in equipment. Focus on training is another key feature of UNICHIR: the teams will receive ongoing training, as well as occasional training from specialised surgeons, anesthesiologists, radiologists and nurses. Eventually, it might become home for an official surgical training center for the region.

“This first started as a family project and, from then on the UNICHIR family has grown. Companies and individuals decided to finance the center. Beyond this initial link, providing logistic and financial support obviously made sense for COPAK. This is part of our group's business model: setting up in a region and improve the livelihoods of the communities by developing economic resources and support the local population by developing the area in terms of education, healthcare and accessibility”, explains Dimitri Moreels.

A 35-person team of surgeons, doctors, nurses and administrative staff has been recruited. Another twenty people will be joining the team over the next few months.

More info available on https://www.unichir.africa/