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CMDS National Office
246B Main Street
Steinbach, MB
Canada R5G 1Y8
Tel: 204-326-2523
Fax: 204-326-3098
Toll-free: 1-888-256-8653
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CMDS Canada partners with North American Liasion Bureau with the work they are doing in the Congo.
How the medical school started at UPC
In 1991 the government changed its policies and encouraged the Catholic and Protestant graduate schools of theology to add other departments of study and to again operate as universities. The board of the Protestant school of theology acted quickly. In 1992 they added a school of business and economics, a school of law, and relaunched the venture as the Universite Protestante au Congo (UPC). Modest tuition fees were charged and part-time professors from other institutions in town were hired to teach. The formula worked. The convenient site in town and the disciplined schedule of courses attracted an ever larger number of commuting students. By the end of 2000, the UPC was enrolling 3000 students each year in its three schools of theology, business and law.
In 2001 the governing board of the university (pastors and lay members of the Protestant communities of Congo) nudged university administrators to start planning for a medical school. When Dr. Ngoy, rector (president) of UPC, brought this idea to the university's friends in Europe and North America there was considerable skepticism. The need for many more doctors in rural areas was recognized but how could such an expensive program be realized?
In 2004 Rector Ngoy and Dr.Mampunza (the designated dean of the proposed medical school) made a tour of American medical schools to ascertain the challenges. Gradually the raison d'etre of a new medical school were being defined. For many decades to come a large stream of new doctors would be needed in the rural areas. Clinical training would be given in rural hospitals. This would mean upgrading fifteen to twenty rural hospitals into staffed and equipped training hospitals. Under those conditions the European and North American donors became interested.
For three years, 2004-06, discussions were held among representatives of the university administration and the European and North American donors. Operational costs would be covered from tuition generated from the students. The North American friends would try to supply the scientific equipment needed for the pre-med and the later doctoral training courses. Germany would fund construction of the first wing of an eventual medical school quadrangle. That funding became available in 2007 and construction began in 2008.
In the meantime, pre-med classes were scheduled to open in October 2006. The North American group launched a special six-year "medical school equipment" campaign in October 2005 and air-freighted the first equipment in time for the October 2006 opening of the four-year pre-med science program. Older classrooms on campus were cleared out and tables moved in to become lab work-stations for the entering class of 220 students. Excellent equipment was sent to the university over the following years thanks to generous gifts of many friends of the university. Microscopes and medical journals were shipped from Australia. Graduate students at Harvard University collected and packed a large shipment of surplus equipment from their labs. The UPC medical school was launched and running, albeit in temporary facilities.
Construction of that Germany-funded first wing of the medical school quad began in 2008 and is scheduled to be inaugurated in April 2011. Because a new cohort of incoming students increases the total number of medical students each October, the temporary facilities are still in use. But the eighty doctoral students who made it through the first four years of basic science are now in the spanking new facilities of the UPC medical school. Another step in the journey. To God be the glory.
For more information see the UPC website: www.upcongo.org
To view their April 2012 newsletter CLICK HERE
Donations for UPC may be sent to the CMDS National Office, or you can visit our donations page. Please designate your donation as "UPC Congo". All donations are eligible for a Canadian tax-deductible receipt.
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