Created on the 26 Feb 2005 and officially launched by the Attorney General of Australia Mr Philip Ruddock on the 3rd of June 2006, the African Relief & Welfare Agency Inc (ARWA Inc) is a non-political and non-profit overseas aid organisation based in Australia that aims to provide direct relief from poverty.
Our long term goal is to improve the health and well being of women and children in poor and vulnerable communities in Katanga.
1. Katuba Maternity & Health Care Community Project:
ARWA Australia and the local Christian Women Social Welfare Association (CWSWA) have launched the Katuba Maternity and Health Care Community Project to build a 35 bed hospital clinic in Ruashi. This centre will be resourced by leading medical doctors, with state of the art equipment and supplies from Australia donated and funded by our corporate partners and centre will become a teaching facility for the local medical community
2. Provision of Medical equipment and supplies to the people of Katanga through the CWSWA.
3. Provision of temporary community housing, vocational education and health services to displaced and severely disadvantaged families. The site will be able to house the initial target community of about 40 families (mostly women and children).
The future of development and relief aid in the Great Lakes, Western and Southern regions of Africa can be better understood by examining past attempts at providing development relief and based upon our first hand knowledge of Africa. We aim to establish a network in partnership with donors from Australia, and communities in need in Africa as this ensures that together with overseas partners, we achieve our goals.
We share the WHO understanding of the concept of health which is more than just the absence of disease; it is the comprehensive whole of physical, mental and social well being, including access to medical help when required, a secure and adequate food supply, and access to clean water and sanitation. Women are more likely to die from complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth than in Western nations.
In Africa, there many urgent problems and needs and the most important we have identified so far is the setting up of a maternity clinic in Ruashi with our partners, a semi rural several hundred thousand people.
Ruashi (township) is a semi rural township of several hundred thousand people, 15 km from the city of Lubumbashi and it township is comprised of several compounds.
This semi rural township was once a flourished place to leave with most of its inhabitant working classes and professionals. The history of DR Congo has been one of civil war and corruption. After independence in 1960, the country immediately faced an army mutiny and an attempt at secession by its mineral-rich province of Katanga.
The end of the war and the return of displaced people coupled with the exodus of people from rural areas wanting to settle in Ruashi. This brutal demographic explosion requires certain essential health infrastructure to be set up in order to meet the urgent needs of the people of Katanga.
It was along this line that and taking into account the high demographic density, the lack of health care facilities in the vicinities and the number of patients who normally walk miles and miles to the nearest health centre that the Christian Women Social Welfare Association (CWSWA) decided to look for sponsorships in order to build a maternity ward and a clinic in the township of Ruashi on the outskirt of the city of Lulumbashi in the DRC.
ARWA Australia is a signatory to the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct which defines minimum standards of governance, management and accountability for non-government development organisations. Adherence to the Code is monitored by an independent Code of Conduct Committee elected from the NGO community. Our voluntary adherence to the Code of Conduct demonstrates our commitment to ethical practice and public accountability.
