PROMEKIN — Improving Maternal and Child Healthcare in the DRC
Some photographic assignments are particularly meaningful, not only because of the stories they allow us to tell, but also because of the personal connections they unexpectedly bring to life.
Documenting the PROMEKIN project for the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was one of those experiences.
The project aimed to improve access to quality healthcare, particularly for women, children and disadvantaged families, by strengthening healthcare facilities and supporting medical professionals in Kinshasa.
In a country where access to affordable medical care remains a major challenge, particularly for mothers and young children, initiatives like PROMEKIN play an important role in improving healthcare services and reducing inequalities.
Through my camera, I had the opportunity to document the work of dedicated healthcare professionals, the daily realities of patients and families, and the efforts being made to provide better medical care to those who need it most.
But this assignment also took an unexpectedly personal turn.
One of the hospitals I was asked to photograph was the very hospital where I was born.
Returning there, this time behind the camera, was an emotional experience. A place that had been part of the very beginning of my own story had become part of a photographic assignment focused on improving the lives of mothers and children.
Having been born and raised in the Congo, I felt particularly proud to contribute to a project supporting access to healthcare in a country that remains so closely connected to my own life.
This assignment reminded me that photography can sometimes bring our professional work and personal history together in the most unexpected ways.
I was deeply proud to deliver this photographic report to AFD, not only because of the importance of the project, but also because of what it meant to me personally.