The Pan-African Institute of Community Health (IPASC) was situated in Nyankunde in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.  It evacuated from there and has been based in Aru since 2002.

The institute's aim is to improve the quality of care, particularly in church-related and non-government organisations' health programmes, in Francophone Africa.

IPASC teaches students from all over Africa community-determined health care.

Former CMS mission partner and present CMS Salt participant Pat Nickson is Director of IPASC.

Elias Assia writes:
Each year, 1 June is a special day for IPASC because it represents the anniversary of the organisation's coming into existence.  This year, it was IPASC's 15th "birthday".

During a staff meeting, we agreed to celebrate our anniversary by taking part in some work in the community.

One of IPASC's mission aims is improving the health of the people through community participation, so we decided to illustrate to prisoners in Aru the importance to their health of hygiene and keeping their immediate environment clean.

The team decided to postpone the anniversary until 13 June.  On that day we began by cleaning the prison and giving inmates haircuts.

The prison has 30 inmates, has no light, was very dirty and had not been cleaned for years!  In fact, the Prison Director said that during his 20 years there, he has never seen anyone clean the place.

Our primary motivation was to express love and care for the prisoners, some of the most neglected members of the community.

A secondary aim was also to demonstrate good practice by cleaning their physical environment in order to reduce the risk of diseases or illnesses in the prison, which are all too frequent.

We also read them a message from the Gospel and prayed with them and the staff.

After the clean-up and haircuts, we invited some guests, including local government authorities, the police commandant and an army officer, representatives from the United Nations' local office and religious leaders, to share a meal.

A representative of the inmates thanked IPASC.  Tongue-tied, he admitted that he did not know quite what to say.  It was something he had never seen before in his life --- such love shown to people in prison.

Then we had our meal with the prisoners and guests.

IPASC gave a gift of food, soap, oil and medicine to the prison.

The Prison Director indicated that the feeding and health of the prisoners was a big headache for him.

Inmates' families are supposed to bring food for their relatives in prison.  However, most of the time this food never reaches inmates. The guards often eat it first.

Prisoners' health was a major concern because "no body cares about their health".  We are hoping our action will mobilise other health organizations to help the prisoners.

Within Aru there are two prisons: a central one and the local one.  It was not possible to gather all the prisoners in one place for security reasons.

So, subsequently, we went to share food with those who were unable to be with us on 13 June.

In the second prison, 24 inmates were confined in one small room and were not allowed out.

When they were told that IPASC staff had brought them food, they started to sing, saying God has remembered us just as he fed the children of Israel in the desert.

Most people were surprised by IPASC's outreach.  It challenged many people to be reminded that every one is called to serve the community's most vulnerable members by showing them --- whatever their religious background or their past actions --- the love of God.