July 9, 2006 Guest - Kathy
Holmgren
Program: The Main Thing
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Kathy and her husband
Mike. |
Since 1998, a little known but devastating
humanitarian disaster has been taking place in the war torn Democratic
Republic of Congo. While a peace treaty signed in 2002 brought an end to
major conflict, millions of innocent people continue to suffer the
consequences of the war. The Congo health care system, school, roads,
and economy are in shambles. According to a report in the British
medical journal The Lancet, more than 3.9 million people have died in
Congo since 1998, most from preventable disease.
“Congo is the deadliest crisis anywhere in the
world over the past 60 years,” the report’s lead author, Richard
Brennan, health director of the New York-based International Rescue
Committee, told the BBC.
Despite nearly insurmountable hardships, the
hospitals of the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM) have remained open
during the war and its aftermath. Run by Congolese doctors and nurses,
the Covenant hospitals and those run by other churches provide the bulk
of the country’s health care.
While her husband Mike is coaching the Seattle
Seahawks in Superbowl XL, his wife Kathy, a nurse, and his daughter
Calla, an OB-GYN, will join a team of US doctors and nurses traveling to
Congo to assist in the hospital at Karawa. That hospital, located in a
remote region of the country, is the only hospital for a region of
300,000 people.
Photos of Kathy in the
Congo
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