Objectives:

To prevent further vulnerabilities in ASM communities around the world, the World Bank has raised funds and established an emergency window under its Extractives Global Programmatic Support (EGPS) 2 Trust Fund. The intention of the window is to support artisanal mining communities in short term and medium responses to COVID, namely related to education, training, and capacity building. The objective is to build resilient artisanal mining communities in this time of a global pandemic.

Contents:

Financial support from the World Bank and the EGPS trust fund has enabled Health Focus to train change agents in the Kasai and Kivu provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo to deliver health education to artisanal miners across the country.

Health Focus undertook a survey among artisanal mineworkers to identify their most pressing health education needs and developed training and learning material responding to those concerns.

Together with three partner organisations at the head of various networks of community-based organisations, we developed and delivered a community outreach programme. Community health workers and local SAEMPE (DRC Service d´assistance et d´encadrement de l´exploitation minière artisanale et à petite échelle) staff were equally involved as change agents.

The campaign is further supported by radio messaging that amplifies the “health matters” campaign and makes the messages accessible to an even larger audience.

Topics range from Covid-19, community health concerns to occupational health issues such as the use of mercury in gold production or exposure to quartz dust which can lead to fatal miner's lung in the long term.

Type of services provided

• Health survey among artisanal mineworkers
• Development of health education messages for artisanal mineworkers
• Development of change agent training and teaching material
• Change agent training workshops
• Community outreach campaign
• Radio campaign