Skip to main content
Welcome to the United Nations
Language:
  • العربية
  • 中文
  • English
  • Français
  • Русский
  • Español
  • Português
  • Kiswahili
  • Other
    • Hindi हिंदी
    • Global
United Nations
UN News
Global perspective Human stories

Search the United Nations

Advanced Search
  • Home
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • UN Art and Gifts
    • History Corner
  • Topics
    • Peace and Security
    • Economic Development
    • Humanitarian Aid
    • Climate and Environment
    • Human Rights
    • UN Affairs
    • Women
    • Law and Crime Prevention
    • Health
    • Culture and Education
    • SDGs
    • Migrants and Refugees
  • In depth
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Photo Stories
    • News in Brief
    • The Lid is On
    • UN Gender Focus
    • UN and Africa
    • UN Podcasts
  • Secretary-General
    • Spokesperson
    • All Statements
    • Selected Speeches
    • Press Encounters
    • Official Travels
  • Media
    • UN Video
    • UN Photo
    • Meeting Coverage
    • Media Accreditation
    • Webtv
  • Home
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • UN Art and Gifts
    • History Corner
  • Topics
    • Peace and Security
    • Economic Development
    • Humanitarian Aid
    • Climate and Environment
    • Human Rights
    • UN Affairs
    • Women
    • Law and Crime Prevention
    • Health
    • Culture and Education
    • SDGs
    • Migrants and Refugees
  • In depth
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Photo Stories
    • News in Brief
    • The Lid is On
    • UN Gender Focus
    • UN and Africa
    • UN Podcasts
  • Secretary-General
    • Spokesperson
    • All Statements
    • Selected Speeches
    • Press Encounters
    • Official Travels
  • Media
    • UN Video
    • UN Photo
    • Meeting Coverage
    • Media Accreditation
    • Webtv
 

Subscribe

Audio Hub

Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation, speaks to a woman as part of the contact tracing effort during an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
WHO/J. Kannah
Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation, speaks to a woman as part of the contact tracing effort during an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Real Life Heroes: Building trust and saving lives

17 August 2020
Humanitarian Aid

Marie-Roseline Bélizaire, a doctor and epidemiologist with the World Health Organization (WHO), is using her passion for community medicine to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Originally from Haiti, Dr. Bélizaire has been working in the humanitarian field since graduating in medicine and, in 2015, began supporting the effort to slow the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This year, WHO sent her to CAR, to set up the Organization’s COVID-19 response in the country. 

Dr. Bélizaire shares her story as part of the #RealLifeHeroes campaign, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of this year’s World Humanitarian Day.

Building trust

Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire, an epidemiologiist with the World Health Organisation, at work in Itipo, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiolgist Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire in Itipo, Democratic Republic of the Congo., by WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie

 “I chose community medicine because I want to be with, and work with, the community. The best thing we can do for communities is to prevent them from having to be healed, by keeping them healthy. Everything can be prevented at the basic level.

I went to Cuba and saw how medicine is developed at the family and community level. Doctors live in their communities, and they know every single thing about their people’s health and illnesses. When you are with the community, you are sitting down, listening to them tell you how they feel. In DRC, during the Ebola response, I went to Mai-Mai (community-based militia) villages. I sat down and ate with them: if you eat with them, they will trust you.

It was very difficult to build that trust in the beginning. They don’t trust foreigners. They have bigger problems than Ebola. I asked colleagues to identify who has influence and which groups we should work with. We worked with motorcycle drivers, women’s , travel and patients’ associations, and sex workers. We left no one behind, because we wanted everyone involved. We showed them how to develop projects and be part of society and how they could work with, and not against, the government. We aimed for solidarity and unity.

Katwa, in Butembo City was one of the worst-affected by Ebola. The officials initially thought we were there just to earn money. But once they believed what in what we were doing, they decided to help us, and they convinced the community to listen.

Lessons learned

There are a number of lessons that you can apply from the Ebola response in DRC to the COVID response in CAR. 

First, the community has to be at the centre of any response. You have to work with them at the very early stages, and at every stage thereafter. Second, you need to take a win-win strategy. That means that you’re not only trying to end the Ebola or COVID outbreak, you need to focus on what comes next. What will they have after the disease is over? We need to respond to their basic needs.

Third, contact tracing is crucial. It is complicated, because people can be exposed to COVID multiple times, so we’re not always sure who is the source. But we are following through and finding sources. It has been a learning curve for this community. We trained 16,000 people in the North Kivu region of DRC, and we now have a chance to build a system like that here.

Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation, rides through the forest near Itipo on the way to a follow-up visit with a contact.
WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie
Marie-Roseline Darnycka Bélizaire, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organisation, rides through the forest near Itipo on the way to a follow-up visit with a contact.

Building trust amidst insecurity

With Ebola, the difficulty was access to the community, because of insecurity or because groups would not let us in, and also because of terrible roads.

CAR is similar to DRC in terms of insecurity. Here we have a health crisis in the middle of a protracted humanitarian crisis.

So, the biggest challenge is coordinating our response and the lack of resources. This country is so vulnerable and the health system is so weak. We have to build a health system while dealing with an emergency. So, we’re both doing preparedness and response at the same time. It makes it very complicated.

One of the best things we’ve achieved in CAR is getting the Civil Protection Ministry involved in going door-to-door to detect people and spread awareness. That is a huge achievement as it’s really increased our capacity.

This is my mission

I love what I am doing. I always say I don’t feel like I’m working: this work is a passion for me. My passion is to work in the community. Every time I know someone is alive because of my intervention I feel fulfilled – this is what fulfils my life. This is my mission.

And it is also the mission of WHO. I work for a very wonderful institution and I embrace their mission – to save lives. I have to keep going as long as people are in need of my help. This makes me more than happy.”
 

 

♦ Receive daily updates directly in your inbox - Subscribe here to a topic.
♦ Download the UN News app for your iOS or Android devices.
 
UNOCHA|World Humanitarian Day|Real Life Heroes

Related Stories

Agus Haryono, International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) member from Basarnas, Indonesia.

Real Life Heroes: heading into disaster, in the service of others

Umra Omar, from the Lamu archipelago in Kenya, is the founder of Safari Doctors, a mobile doctor unit that provides free basic medical care to hundreds of people every month.

Real Life Heroes: On a journey towards quality healthcare

Shadi Mohammedali, a refugee from Gaza, now works for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Here he is pictured in the Moria Refugee Camp in Greece.

Real Life Heroes: ‘A simple word can mean a lot to a refugee’

News Tracker: Past Stories on This Issue

Sonia Almassad, a Field Programme Officer from Syria, with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen.

Real Life Heroes: Delivering aid under fire

15 August 2020
Humanitarian Aid

Working from a field office in Yemen, Sonia Almassad ensures that UN relief aid reaches those who need it, in the war-torn country. She was previously posted in her home country, Syria, where she negotiated with armed groups on both sides of the conflict, sometimes at great personal risk.

Hassan Akkad, a BAFTA-winning filmmaker and health worker from Syria, now living in the United Kingdom.

Real Life Heroes: The Syrian film-maker cleaning COVID wards in the UK

15 August 2020
Humanitarian Aid

Hassan Akkad, an award-winning Syrian film-maker, fled the war in his country four years ago and now lives as a refugee in the United Kingdom. Following the outbreak of COVID-19, he decided to help those affected by the pandemic, by becoming a cleaner at a London hospital.

Resources

  • Navigate the News
  • Information for Broadcasters
  • UN System Links
  • Media Alert
  • UN Journal
  • Meetings Coverage
  • Audiovisual Library

Secretary-General

  • All Statements
  • Official Travels
  • Press Encounters
  • SG Twitter

Spokesperson's Office

  • Latest Statements
  • Briefing Highlights
  • Briefing Transcripts
  • Notes to Correspondents

Find Us

  • UN News App
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • RSS
  • Contact UN News
United Nations
Donate
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Soundcloud
  • Podcast
  • UN Social Media
  • A-Z Site Index
  • Copyright
  • FAQ
  • Fraud Alert
  • Privacy Notice
  • Terms of Use
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Soundcloud
  • Podcast
  • The UN on Social Media