The support project for the fight against sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is probably one of BTC's most ambitious projects. The objective is to support the national programme to combat this fatal disease which has, since the 1990s, once again been wreaking havoc in rural Congo.

Thousands of farmers, fishermen, women and children are stung by the feared tsetse fly and thus fall victim to this terrible illness, which – because its symptoms and impact are similar to those of the AIDS pandemic – is also known as 'rural AIDS'.

The strategy for combating the disease involves actively seeking out and treating all sufferers with the aim of cutting the chain of transmission. Three networks are needed to meet this objective: forty or so mobile teams of experts that tackle trypanosomiasis in the worst affected villages, a network of health centres and hospitals that diagnose and treat as many victims as possible and finally the population itself which – by means of mass participation in the screening – determines the success of the combat effort.

During the second phase (2000-2002) of the project, it was shown that, despite the disastrous political and socioeconomic situation, it is possible to control the illness in accessible regions. The national programme, BTC and three Belgian NGOs aim to combat the disease so that by 2008 it will no longer be a public health problem in DRC.

This is of course a huge challenge, but one that is achievable with a professional approach and additional funds for the Belgian support. Some Belgian NGOs (Memisa/CDI-Bwamanda, Fometro, and so on) will continue to work as partners involved in the fight against human African trypanosomiasis as part of this project.