A Conversation with Susan Johnson, Executive Director of the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation

This past Friday, October 1^st, I had the privilege of speaking with Susan Johnson, Executive Director of the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation based out of Atlanta, GA. The foundation is a major relief effort set up by NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo of the Houston Rockets. Mutombo is a Democratic Republic of Congo native and has been recognized as the “Most Caring Athlete” by USA Today. He founded his organization in 1997, and the foundation's list of accomplishments is vast.

The most significant accomplishment to date is their remarkable Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center, which opened it's doors on December 4^th, 2007. Friday morning, Mutombo attended a symposium in the Congo celebrating the opening of a Radiology and Imaging Center, a huge step forward in the way patients will be treated. It is the first of its kind in the Congo and only the fifth in Africa. Many patients come to the hospital with acute strokes, but the hospital was, up until Friday, unable to treat them.

Dikembe Mutombo and his wife
Rose holding the thriving triplets

The hospital, located in the capital city of Kinshasa, has 170 beds, and generally admits between 100-150 people a day. It employs over 400 people. One employee is the father of triplets who were brought to the hospital on the brink of death. Before the existence of the Mutombo hospital, most Congolese felt that if you went to the hospital there would be little chance of coming out alive. 


 The parents of the triplets believed this, and abandoned the newborns. They were treated and restored to 100% health, but the parents were still nowhere to be found. Employees of the hospital were able to track them down and tell them the amazing news that their children were healthy and would survive and thrive, but the father was still distressed. He had no job and no way to pay for the care they received. On the spot, Dikembe Mutombo offered him a job as a janitor at the hospital, complete with medical benefits that would cover the babies' treatment. The parents were so grateful, they named the triplets Biamba, Dikembe, and Mutombo.

A young boy that was
 burned badly, but
was healed at the hospital

The hospital particularly excels in the areas of maternity, orthopedics and pediatrics. They are in a pre-planning stage to build a Center of Excellence on Women's and Children's Health. Saving women and children is a high priority, says Johnson. Last year alone they were able to vaccinate 500 infants and toddlers and provide them with mosquito nets to help prevent malaria. The mosquito nets alone are not enough, she explains. They are in dire need of a vaccine for malaria, a disease that was once eradicated but is now the top health concern in the nation. There is hope for a vaccine by 2015, with trials as early as 2012, according to Joe Cohen, a GlaxoSmithKline researcher.¹

Needed interventions for mental health and gender-based violence are under discussion. The hospital will soon be able to perform fistula repair surgery, funded by a recent donation by the UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Dr. Leon Mubikayi is an OB/GYN recently brought on to the hospital who specializes in this type of surgery. There will be a group of doctors traveling from Atlanta to begin work in this area.

Discussing this type of surgery with Johnson led to the topic of the mass rapes in Eastern Congo, an area that is almost a three hour flight away from the hospital. Despite a commonly held belief that the Congo is the worst place in the world for a woman to live, Johnson feels that is an accurate portrayal for Eastern Congo, but not necessarily the rest. An entire book by Laura Shannon entitled “A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman” is devoted to that subject.

Eastern Congo is rich in natural resources, and as such is a magnet for greed, corruption, and violence. A UN report released this week confirms the link between the violence, particularly gender-based violence, and conflict minerals. The report is well timed. I have read a number of comments on news sites that argue vehemently that there is no connection the two. I mentioned this to Johnson. Her response was succinct: what else could it be? When the majority of the violence occurs along the trade route used to export illegal minerals, what else could the reason for the violence be? In fact, with a little bit of research it becomes very clear how the two are connected and why, but I will discuss that in my next post.

A village that received solar lights and shoes.
The village renamed itself Mutombo Village

Johnson accompanied a group of high school students in 2008 to the Congo with the mission of bringing solar powered lights to the City of Hope, a place of refuge for IDPs (internally displaced peoples). The lights were battery powered, and it was clear that the Congolese would have difficulty operating the batteries, having never been exposed to them before. The group of 6-8 students, Susan Johnson, and Mr. Mutombo spent the entire night in a cramped hotel room, eating pizza and assembling 2500 lights. The next day, they drove to the village and presented the lights. Their cars got stuck in a quicksand type of terrain, stranding the group in the village until night. Johnson says you have never experienced something so dark as the dark of the Congo. Because of their delay, they were able to witness the lights turn on for the very first, along with the reaction of the village. Upon seeing the lights, Johnson felt that “now we understand the darkness”. The group also distributed shoes from a company called Shoes from the Soul, a Florida charity organization.

The Dikembe Mutombo Foundation is one of a number of humanitarian relief efforts working in the Congo. Sometimes, when there does not seem to be a solution to the conflict in a region, the best a person or organization can do is heal its' victims. The hospital is a true light of hope in a country where darkness dwells and hope can be hard to find.

Female patients and staff

1http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100929/Malaria-vaccine-close-to-reality.aspx