[afro-nets] RFI: Need information on starting a health clinic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

["Anne Jolis" <anniejolis@aol.com>]

Dear everyone:

My name is Anne, and I am in need of quite a lot of advice and guidance. My cousin and I here in New York have a Congolese friend who says that he will fund all the money to start a health clinic in the DRC, if my cousin and I do all the work to start it up. So, for once, money is not the problem, but rather experience and know-how are - neither my cousin nor I have any experience in running health clinics, but we very much want this project to succeed.

Right now, we're envisioning a general health clinic, to serve at least 100 patients at a time, which would aim to cater to all demographics of patients (men, women, children, old, young, HIV+ and HIV-, etc). Down the line, I think we would also like to attach a mental health wing to the clinic, as our understanding is that mental health issues often go unaddressed in the DRC.

I think what we need to do first is put together a budget ? everything from building and start-up costs, to national permits and passes, to medicine and equipment and eventually staff. I'm wondering if anyone has any guidance to offer on how to put together such a budget ? are there any databases that list the general costs for these things in the DRC? Or perhaps one of you has an old budget from another health clinic that I could look at to get a rough idea? The problem is, I personally have no medical background, and don't even really know what supplies, equipment and medicines we would need for our clinic - any lists that detail the baseline of what would be needed here - with or without costs - would be a great start...

Also, at this early stage in our planning, what steps should we be taking, if any, with the DRC government? Do we need to register our intentions, or would we be able to just show up there to open our clinic?

Any other advice, contacts or links you could provide me with, I would be extremely grateful for. I realize that it's painfully obvious in this letter that my cousin and I really don't know what we're doing, but I thought it best to be honest, since we are very serious about getting this health clinic started.

Please contact me as soon as possible if you think you have any wisdom that could help.

Thanks very much,
Anne

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Anne Jolis 
mailto:anniejolis@aol.com