United Front Against Riverblindness Blog

HANDBELLS FOR HEALING


HILLSBOROUGH, N.J.: A solo handbell concert on Saturday, June 9 at 7 p.m., will benefit the United Front Against Riverblindness. Handbell artist Hyosang Park and pianist Akiko Hosaki will perform at Hillsborough Reformed Church at Millstone. A freewill offering will be taken. Call 908-359-3391 (http://www.hillsboroughreformed church.org, www.riverblindness.org).

Continue reading "Handbells for Healing Event- Ringing to Conquer Riverblindness - June 9, 2012"

March 2012 trip report
Daniel Shungu

The 35th Session of the NGDO Coordination Group for Onchocerciasis Control was convened at the APOC Headquarters in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 8-9 March 2012, with 36 members, associate members, the World Bank, observers and APOC/WHO secretariat in attendance. In his opening remarks, Dr. Paul Lusamba, APOC Director, underscored the vital role that NGDOs have played over the years as major partners in the fight against onchocerciasis now moving from control to elimination, and reminded the participants to be vigilant on the appropriate use of increasing funding in this area. Brief summaries of agenda items of interest and relevance to UFAR are provided below.
Continue reading "March 2012 Trip Report - 35th Session of NGDO Coordination Group for Onchocerciasis Control"

Time sure flies. I can hardly believe that it?s been over a month since my last trip report. I've been safely back in the US a little over two weeks, now busy catching up on everything. Thanking you for your concerns and especially for your prayers for a successful trip and my safe return. This report is intended to bring you up to date from where I left off in my first report which covered the first of the four primary goals of the trip.

Continue reading "December 2011 Trip Report to DRC, Part II"

Greetings from Kinshasa! Yes, I?m now in Kinshasa, flying in safely yesterday from Nairobi. With all the post-elections publicized tensions and even dozens of tragic incidence throughout the country, I was pleasantly surprised to find Kinshasa in almost a business as usual mode. However, as long as Tshisekedi, the leader of the opposition party who lost to Kabila, the incumbent president, has not yet conceded, the situation can rapidly take a turn for the worse.

The primary goals for this trip are 1) attend the annual Joint Action Forum (JAF) meeting in Kuwait City, 2) make initial visits of 2 newly acquired CDTI projects acquired as a result of a creative partnership agreement recently established between UFAR and Sightsavers International (SSI), 3) refurbish our new office in Kinshasa and 4) identify and hire a country representative.
Continue reading "December 2010 Trip Report to the DRC from Dr. Shungu - Part 1"

Starting in December 2011, UFAR will begin to determine which villages in the Kasongo CDTI region have already received mosquito nets and which have not. This is to begin a feasibility analysis to determine the need for such nets in this region and if needed, for UFAR to be involved in the co-distribution of nets along with ivermectin.

It is with mixed feelings that we say goodbye to two of our board of directors, Drs. Roger Youmans and Dennis Bowers. Separately, both individuals asked to resign from the board to pursue other endeavours but will continue to serve as volunteers to the organization. It is with much gratitude that we have had the invaluable services and guidance from these two individuals and wish them all the best.

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ: The United Front Against Riverblindness (UFAR) announces a landmark partnership with Sightsavers, an international development charity. Sightsavers will fund riverblindness (onchocerciasis ) prevention and elimination in two remote areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). More than 1.2 million people and 2,728 villages will be added to UFAR's existing program.

Dr. Daniel Shungu, founder of UFAR, says that the Lawrenceville, New Jersey-based organization will now be able to bring lifesaving medicine to Ituri Nord and Lubutu, in Oriental and Maniema provinces, respectively. "I thank Sightsavers on behalf of UFAR and especially for those in the two new regions whose lives will be positively changed forever as a result of this arrangement. We?ll have a few more challenges to face but, fortunately, finances for these two projects will not be one of them," he says.
Continue reading "UFAR announces global cooperative partnership with Sightsavers"

Pangi is the last of the eight health zones originally included in UFAR?s onchocerciasis elimination project in the Kasongo region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that was scheduled to receive Mectizan in 2010 for the first time (Figure 1). It has a population of 78,669 distributed in 173 villages, and is divided into 14 health centers. The health zones of Pangi and Kampene are unique among our other health zones in that they are almost entirely situated in a dense tropical rainforest and are highly co-endemic for onchocerciasis and loasis. Consequently, increased incidences of severe adverse effects (SAEs) including coma following Mectizan administration were expected. Dozens of such cases were reported in 2009 during the initial Mectizan distribution in Kampene, all of which were promptly and properly resolved. Concerns over the expected increased SAEs during the distribution in Pangi and the excitement of reaching a landmark by distributing Mectizan to the one millionth individual during this second phase of Mectizan distribution in 2010 were the compelling reasons for my undertaking this trip.


Continue reading "An Unforgettable Road Journey, Kindu to Pangi in DRC"

Dear All,
Greetings from Kinshasa! My current trip started on Sunday, November 14 from JFK on a direct 15-hour South African Airways (SAA) flight to Johannesburg. Unfortunately, the flight was 30 min late getting into Jo?burg the following morning, so I missed the tight connecting flight to Kinshasa. The next SAA flight to Kinshasa was not scheduled until Wednesday, November 17. The expenses for the extra 2-day stay at one of the airport hotels were paid for by the airline. The resumption of my trip to Kinshasa on Wednesday was uneventful.

The primary goals for the current trip are: 1) revisit and obtain additional information on the boys orphanage as well as make an initial visit of a related girls orphanage, both located in Lubumbashi and supported by the United Methodist Church of Southern Katanga, on behalf of at least one member of the Princeton United Methodist Church (PUMC) mission that had the opportunity to visit the boys orphanage during their 2010 summer trip, 2) participate in the launch and monitoring of the first Mectizan distribution in the health zone of Pangi, the last of the eight original health zones included in the Kasongo onchocerchiasis elimination program; and 3) make a curtsey call on several newly appointed key individuals and future collaborators at the Democratic Republic of the Congo?s (DRC) Ministry of Health.
Continue reading "Boys and Girls Orphanage and Launch of Mectizan in Pangi Region"

Lawrenceville's Daniel Shungu Named Purpose Prize Fellow

Purpose Prizes Honor Americans Over Age 60 for
Making an Extraordinary Impact in their Encore Careers

PRINCETON : Civic Ventures today announced that Daniel Shungu, from Lawrenceville, NJ, is a 2010 Purpose Prize Fellow. Shungu was recognized as a social entrepreneur over 60 who, in his encore careers, is using his experience and passion to make an extraordinary impact on society's biggest challenges. Now in its fifth year, the six-year, $17 million Purpose Prize program is the nation's only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

Shungu was named a Fellow because of his complete dedication and impressive accomplishments toward the elimination of onchocerciasis or riverblindness as a major public health problem in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Continue reading "Daniel Shungu Named Purpose Prize Fellow"

Last Few Days in Lubumbashi
Our remaining few days in Lubumbashi before the confirmed August 2, 2010 return trip to the US were largely uneventful. We spent some time shopping for souvenirs, learning to bargain while buying beautiful local fabrics at the huge open air central market in downtown Lubumbashi full with everything imaginable, having custom-tailored women?s outfits and men?s shirts sewn in the local style (slides 1-4), and dining out at a several local restaurants (slides 5&6).
Continue reading "Fourth Report on Summer 2010 Trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)"

Unforgettable Journey to Kamina
by Daniel Shungu and Gretchen Boger

The town of Kamina (map 1 ), located in the northwestern region of the Katanga province and with an estimated population of over 300,000 people, is the Episcopal headquarters of the North Katanga Conference of the United Methodist Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) under bishop Nkulu Ntambo?s leadership. Back in 2008, we hosted in our homes in New Jersey several delegates to the General Conference convened in the US from this Conference. We now sought to establish stronger bonds between both our congregations, the North Katanga and the Greater New Jersey Conferences of the United Methodist Church, through this return visit with our African brothers and sisters, all for the glory of our Gracious Lord and Savior.

Continue reading "Third Report on Summer 2010 Trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)"

Additional revelations in and around Lubumbashi
Convinced that our mission team was destined to spend our entire journey in Katanga, this southeastern province of the DRC, we were poised and anxious to find out what else was waiting for us.
Continue reading "Continuation Report on Summer 2010 Trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)"

As will be seen below, the goals of this trip, the size of the travelling team, the frequent unpredicted challenges requiring prompt adjustments to our original plans and the relatively short duration of the mission made the preparation and posting of the kind of trip updates provided on my previous trips very difficult and unpractical. The patience and indulgence of our many faithful friends, supporters and followers for these updates is greatly appreciated.
Continue reading "Reports on the summer 2010 trip to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)."

The first item of business upon my arrival in Kinshasa was to retrieve available background information on CDTI Lubutu at the headquarters of the National Onchocerciasis Control Program, and learn as much as I can on the project. I have also made a few trips to the renowned Central Market for Congolese Arts in Kinshasa to check and pick up interesting jewelries for our future fundraising events. Continue reading "15 January 2010 - CDTI Lubutu & Kasongo - Update 2"