Terry spends more time
in the Democratic Republic of Congo than in any other given area of the world.
He brings the latest software updates, trains staff, fixes broken equipment,
provides technical support and finds new ways of making communication feasible
with old technology. Those organizations at work in D.R.C. contend with a country
one third the size of the U.S. with telephones in only two cities, those systems
purchased "used" from America thirty years ago. 
is committed in the Dem. Rep. of Congo to serve missionaries and organizations with airplanes and communications. A December 1999 survey found that about half of those serving in "the bush" would stay without air support, but none were willing to remain in DRC without technical communications support. MAF serves a number of fine organizations, a few of which are profiled here.
Doctor Mark Thompson is supported by the American Baptist Missionary Foreign for the training of national Congolese doctors at The Vanga Evangelical Hospital. Recently a "turn about" occurred when a Congolese doctor educated by the hospital residency program began training an American missionary doctor in eye surgery techniques. The hospital receives e-mail via the short-wave radio from the MAF system in Kinshasa.
Christian
Blind Mission International is working to eradicate "River Blindness"
or onchocerciasis. Filaria, as it is sometimes called, causes visual impairment,
blindness and other
health problems. Eighteen million people are infected by the damage caused when
a parasitic adult female onchocerca volvulus enters the human body via the bite
of a blackfly, and produces millions of microscopic embryos called microfilaria
which swarm through the body. Merck & Co. have donated the medication Mectizan
which kills the microfilaria. CBMI is developing the program to administer the
medication over a multi-year program throughout infested areas, and to train
national Congolese to take over the program administration.
Medecins
Sans Frontieres, or Doctors without Borders serves in some of the most remote
and troubled areas of the Congo.
Currently working in Congo as well as in Ethiopia and Mozambique, using MAF for e-mail.
The American School of Kinshasa was founded in 1961 to meet primary and secondary educational needs in DRC. Current home of the Bonobos sanctuary.
World Health Organization is working in Democratic Republic of Congo to eradicate River blindness. To read more about their work, go to their web page. www.who.int
