Our Mission
HEAL Africa compassionately serves vulnerable people and communities through a holistic approach to Healthcare, Education, community Action, and Leadership development in response to changing needs.
It fosters high standards in practice and research within each of those areas.
Heal Africa's Mission Is Characterized By:
- Providing compassionate holistic services to improve physical, spiritual, emotional, economic, and community well-being.
- Teaching and activities rooted in Christian principles that help children, men, and women understand their rights and duties as children of God. Believing in the dignity of the human person and developing strategies for the protection and capacity building for all including the most vulnerable in our community.
- Striving to enhance patient care and service delivery, to keep knowledge and skills relevant, to seize health and community development opportunities, and to effectively manage resources.
- Respecting and protecting human rights, working to ensure safety and security for all persons, promoting gender equality as a fundamental right.
- Believing that economic development is found in communities that promote Christian principles, maintain order, work for the common good of the community, value all its available resources, adopt poverty reduction and wealth creation strategies.
- Believing that social change occurs in a society in which every child is valued, protected, and supported to achieve her/his potential, HEAL Africa participates through implementation of the LEAD Strategy: Love; Education; Advocacy; Development (into responsible and productive adults).
Our Motivation
HEAL Africa is a Christian organization committed to serving God in our teaching and practices. HEAL Africa is motivated by love for God and love for people. Following the example of Jesus Christ the healer, we offer our services to all without discrimination.
Our Vision
Transformed, healthy, sustainable communities in the Central Africa region in which each person can develop her/his full physical, spiritual, emotional, relational, and economic capability while living in safety and freedom.
Our History
HEAL Africa is deeply rooted in Africa. During the summer of 1993 Dr. Jo Lusi and his wife, Lyn, visited the United States and were the house guests of Dr. Paul and Macky Groen. Though they lived on different continents, the four of them discovered that they shared many perspectives and passions. The Lusi’s lived and worked in Africa. Dr. Jo had been born in DRC, and Lyn lived most of her adult life in Africa. The Groens had served in medical missions in Nigeria during the 1960s before moving back to the United States.
Subsequently, the Groens made frequent trips to serve and teach in African hospitals. They spoke at length about the need for more trained physicians and better health care in Africa – health care that would address physical, spiritual, and emotional needs for all. Thee kindred spirits then went back to their respective homes. Keep Reading
Lyn Lusi
Lyn Lusi was the heart of HEAL Africa. Everybody called her “Mama". She was like a mother to the 400 employees of HEAL Africa and to the thousands and thousands of women, children, and men for whom HEAL Africa provided care. Lyn passed away in Goma, DR Congo on the evening of March 17, 2012. One patient in HEAL Africa’s ward, upon hearing the news of her passing, reflected on her legacy of compassion and generosity by observing, “We are missing her so badly, but we know now she is in a better place. We will never forget what she did for us and for our country."
Lyn first traveled from England to the DR Congo (formerly Zaire) in 1971, where she began to work as a teacher with the Baptist Missionary Society. In 1974, she fell in love and married a Congolese physician, Dr. Kasereka M “Jo” Lusi. The couple's combined skill in medicine, education, and administration led them to serve for 19 years in northeastern Congo’s Nyankunde Hospital as well as several associated schools. Even then, Jo and Lyn dedicated themselves to training young national doctors.
In 1996 Lyn, Jo, and others decided to choose Goma, DR Congo as the site for a new work dedicated to training young national doctors. By 1999 Lyn had earned her Master’s in Human Resource Development and Training. Lyn began applying her formidable skills to develop not only a medical training center, but also a place capable of healing and supporting victims of rape and violence.
In 2002 when a local volcano destroyed the original hospital, not only was the hospital rebuilt but the program expanded and met more and more of the needs of eastern DR Congo. In 2006 the organization took the name of HEAL Africa. Lyn forged friendships and relationships that spanned the globe in service of the people who lived in eastern DR Congo. Despite serious challenges due to the region’s economic impoverishment, political destabilization, and natural disasters, HEAL Africa became and remained a beacon of hope and healing. Lyn wanted people not only to survive their various traumas, but she helped them rebuild their lives. Today there are thousands whose lives were changed by their encounters by this woman who led by serving.
Lyn Lusi succumbed to cancer at the age of 62. She left behind her loving husband, Jo, son Paluku with his wife and son, daughter Nadine, four sisters, and thousands of friends and colleagues who loved her. She was laid to rest in Butembo, North Kivu, the area from which the Lusi family originated. Some of Lyn’s last words were: “Tell them not to cry”. To the end she was thinking of how to comfort others.
And now her legacy of service is entrusted to those who remain.
Our Organization
HEAL Africa’s work is focused in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is supported by a number of partner organizations, alliances, and related organizations around the world.
HEAL Africa DRC is a non-governmental agency registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The work in the DRC is governed by the General Assembly (board). The General Assembly is responsible for:
- Congruence of the vision/mission/values of the organization and its activities
- Adoption of annual budgets
- Setting of goals and priorities
- Oversight of the CEO and senior management