International Medical Corps Awarded USAID Grant to Address Sexual and

Gender-Based Violence in Congo Using Behavior Change Communication

Margaret Aguirre
Director, Global Communications
310.826.7800
maguirre@InternationalMedicalCorps.org

October 4, 2010 – Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo - International Medical Corps has
been awarded $10 million from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) to assist survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through the Bienvenue aux Changements dans la
Communauté (BCC) program. As lead grantee, International Medical Corps will implement the
program with partners Search for Common Ground and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health, Center for Communication Programs.

While providing a comprehensive and innovative program to prevent SGBV, International

Medical Corps and its partners will utilize behavior change communication to impact social
attitudes, practices and norms associated with SGBV in eastern DRC. The BCC program -
designed to be fully integrated within International Medical Corps’ USAID-awarded Care,
Access, Safety, and Empowerment (CASE) program to combat SGBV in DRC - seeks to
contribute to ending the conflict in the region. The BCC program will be implemented in the
same geographic areas as CASE and two additional locations; Kisangani and Bukavu.

Prioritizing respect for local culture, International Medical Corps will work with individuals and
communities to identify behaviors and practices that are themselves forms of SGBV, or that
prevent social cohesion. Once communities recognize these behaviors, practices and patterns,
International Medical Corps will work with them, local leaders and organizations to facilitate
recognition that addressing SGBV is in the best interest of all community members, and to
develop alternative behaviors to prevent SGBV and promote non-violence. In order to engage
both men and women in the process of identifying and changing negative behaviors, the BCC
program will employ trained teams of one male and one female to work in the catchment area,
as set out by CASE. BCC messaging will be seamlessly incorporated into health and support
services offered under CASE and other initiatives throughout eastern DRC, as well as into many
aspects of daily experience at the societal and community level.

International Medical Corps has worked in the DRC since 1999 to provide health care, nutrition,
food security, SGBV prevention and treatment, and water/sanitation services. In many remote
areas of North and South Kivu Provinces, International Medical Corps is the only international
NGO that has maintained a permanent presence. Today, International Medical Corps supports
85 health facilities in the DRC, including 41 in North Kivu, 42 in South Kivu, and two in
Maniema. In total, International Medical Corps has served more than one million people in
Congo, 80 percent of them displaced by war.

Since its inception more than 25 years ago, International Medical Corps’ mission has been
consistent: relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster, and disease, by
delivering vital health care services that focus on training. This approach of helping people help
themselves is critical to returning devastated populations to self-reliance. For more information
visit: www.InternationalMedicalCorps.org