Brief Report on our Community awareness against Ebola in Ituri-DRC
cojeskiEBOLA VIRUS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN LAUNCH REPORT IN THE BEMBEY DISTRICT, BUNIA ITURI DRC
On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, in collaboration with our partner, the NGO UJERCO, we launched an awareness campaign against the Ebola virus disease in the Bembey neighborhood of the Shari commune, Bunia city, Ituri Province, the Democratic Republic of Congo. This launch event brought together Community Leaders (the deputy neighborhood chief, the local National Police Commander, the head of the Head of the Intelligence Services (ANR) branch, the women representative, the youth representative, taxi drivers, street chiefs, etc.) as well as the 10 young women in charge of this awareness campaign.
Bembley Village is one among areas which has not been covered by Campaigns against Ebola which has witnessed cases of deaths connected to Ebola. This is why we opted to focus on this area and help the communities to learn more.
The objective of this launch activity is to introduce awareness about Ebola and encourage Community Leaders to support our efforts.
During the debate, we identified the sites or hotspots where awareness and prevention activities for Ebola virus disease should be prioritized. The leaders focused primarily on:
- Primary and Secondary Schools
- The Churches
- The Markets
- Taxi driver parking Areas
It is up to the awareness-raisers to target the site and time of activities according to the availability of the inhabitants of each site or institution.
What particularly caught our attention was the revelation from the woman representative, who confirmed that in the Bembey neighborhood targeted by the campaign, the Ebola virus disease is indeed present and killing people. During her visit, they had already recorded five deaths, two cases of serious illness, and two suspected cases. Furthermore, the community leaders expressed their readiness to welcome and support this campaign within the awareness team in this neighborhood, extending their reach to the middle of the outbreak.
This activity, which began at 10:20 am, ended at 12:30 pm to the satisfaction of all participants.
In closing, we extend our deepest gratitude to the National Coordination of COJESKI and SOCICO for their support in ensuring the success of the preliminary activities of this Ebola virus disease awareness campaign. The team of outreach workers is now ready to begin the main activities.
