Valentia Mfumu Kandukulu

I am in my second year of a master’s degree in public health at the School of Public Health at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ESP-ULB). I completed an internship with the Operations, Research, and Innovation Unit (CORI) of the NGO ULB-Coopération.  

My first encounter with the NGO was during a presentation given by two members of ULB-Coopération in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of an in-depth analysis of health systems course. Strengthening the health system through projects that meet the real needs of the community was in line with my public health training and professional ideals. ULB-Coopération therefore seemed to me to be the ideal setting for my internship in health system management and analysis. 

My internship was a real immersion in the Congolese healthcare system through maternal health in Kinshasa. I was asked to develop an action research protocol on the referral and counter-referral system between Saint Joseph Hospital and peripheral health centers after a detailed analysis of this system. The referral system is understood as the transfer of a patient from a primary healthcare facility to a better-equipped secondary facility with more specialized providers. Counter-referral is the reverse process. Both aim to ensure continuity of care for the mother-child pair. 

 This protocol should serve as the basis for participatory action involving the actors in this system, the beneficiary community, and the ULB-Coopération research team, with the aim of identifying constraints as well as interventions to improve this system.  

This highly rewarding experience not only drew on my knowledge, but above all enabled me to become even more independent, rigorous, and critical in my analysis, in a very friendly working environment with a team that was always ready to help. 

I would like to thank the ULB-Coopération team for welcoming me and for this internship, which flew by very quickly.

Valentia MFUMU KANDUKULU

The projects