Dr Patient Kaloma: “I've always wanted to honor life”.
Dr. Patient Kaloma is a Congolese doctor and consultant in agricultural economics and nutrition. Head of the Artemisia House in Petit Nord Kivu and coordinator of the DRC National Artemisia House, he develops projects to promote food sovereignty and medicinal plants. Here’s a portrait of a dedicated doctor.
What makes a vocation? For Patient Kaloma, becoming a doctor was “natural”, an inner certainty that took seed in his heart as an orphaned child. First he lost his parents, then, at the age of 18, two of his sisters. “Since then, I’ve always wanted to honor life, help people and care for them,” he explains. As he speaks these words, Dr. Patient has just lost his wife, a pharmacist and the mother of his four children, with whom he shared his life, his vocation and his commitment to the development of Artemisia. Despite grief and hardship, the doctor’s commitment to caring for the most vulnerable in his battered country, in the east of the DRC, remains intact.
Discovering Artemisia
His background is quite unusual. As a young man with no family support, he took on a series of odd jobs to finance his medical studies: motorcyclist, cameraman, high school teacher. With a single idea in mind: to honor the memory of his sisters and parents. He decided to set up a medical and social center in his family’s name: “The Kaloma Center”. He transformed his house into a hospital, and his fellow students came to help him with the consultations. A few months later, he and his wife set up a cafeteria to ensure a little financial security. The dream began to come true.
It was in 2016, during his general medicine internship at Kirotche hospital in North Kivu, that he discovered the ravages of malaria. In 2017, after graduating, he was assigned to the Nyamasasa center in Kalehe, South Kivu. “Every day, I signed death certificates, particularly for children suffering from severe malaria attacks. The villagers thought they were victims of bad luck. I began to work in very difficult conditions, without any medication, crossing impassable roads”. His destiny changed when he discovered Artemisia thanks to a Belgian friend who brought him some seeds. Dr Patient began growing them. A victim of severe malaria attacks himself, he makes Artemisia tea for his own consumption and that of the community’s children.
A few months later, in a WhatsApp group, he discovered a doctor named Jérôme Munyangi who was going to present the virtues of Artemisia in Goma. He made the journey to attend the conference, shared his experience of the plant and then went to South Kivu. There, he visited the first Artemisia House in Bukavu, set up in partnership with AFESDI (an association for the empowerment of rural women and assistance to people in extremely precarious situations). He described his experience to doctors, made his first video on Artemisia and returned home with bags of herbal tea to sell in his region.
Nord Kivu Artemisia House
In 2018, forced to leave the Kaloma Center site, he created the Sainte Catherine medical and social center. And contacted Lucile Cornet Vernet in 2018. He secured initial funding from La Maison de l’Artemisia France to launch the Artemisia House in Goma. He started raising awareness. At the same time, an international NGO, IDAy, approached him to facilitate Artemisia training in several regions. While in Goma, he met Dr Nathan, then coordinator of the DRC National Artemisia House, who appointed him head of the North Kivu Artemisia House.
In 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic reshuffled the deck. Overwhelmed by orders for Artemisia, and in constant demand, he built new headquarters for the North Kivu Artemisia House, with the support of the Maison de l’Artemisia France. He helps numerous local associations, and with his Belgian friend, Elena, created the non-profit organization SESAM (Semons la souveraineté alimentaire et médecine). The project aims to improve the living conditions of the local population, in health, social, environmental and financial terms. SESAM supports a network of associations and cooperatives to share seed storage and knowledge, as well as the creation and maintenance of medicinal nurseries and community gardens. The aim is to empower people in the field of natural and community health. SESAM is home to Petit Nord Kivu Artemisia House, which develops community health promotion activities using Artemisia in the eastern DRC.
But a few months later, just as the first fields were being planted, a volcanic eruption wiped out the entire crop. The population fled the town of Goma to take refuge in camps for the displaced, and some members of the network lost their homes. In response to the emergency, La Maison de l’Artemisia France provided support, supplying survival kits for the victims and helping to replant a new field.
Soon afterwards, Dr. Patient opened a pharmacy with his wife and began to raise awareness among scouts. Other provinces called on him to give training courses or take part in workshops and seminars on Artemisia. Nicknamed Doctor Artemisia throughout the region, he has saved hundreds of lives, cured thousands of people of malaria, and spread knowledge of the plant among local populations, associations and government bodies. But a new ordeal once again upended his plans: war. Members of the network left their villages, some died, others survived in camps for displaced persons. The Artemisia House and SESAM headquarters were transformed into a reception center for the displaced. Dr Patient and his wife, traumatized by the violence, could no longer sleep, their fields occupied by the rebels. They set up a village savings and credit association so that farmers could sell a little Artemisia and invest in income-generating activities.
Life is like artemisia
Despite personal hardship, violence and war, Dr. Patient tirelessly continues his fight to sow seeds wherever he goes. “Life is like an Artemisia seed: even after the storm, it leaves an imprint and is reborn with strength,” he writes on his Facebook profile.
He is now raising his children alone, and working to build and equip an Artemisia processing workshop 2 km from the town of Goma. His aim is to diversify production with not only herbal teas, but also soaps, ointments and bio-pesticides. Dr. Patient aims to create jobs for dozens of Artemisia producers in the region, train farmers in the cultivation and processing of the plant, and lobby the government, which is currently encouraging the promotion of local products. “Artemisia has changed my life. The impact for my family, for me, for North Kivu has been considerable. Everyone knows this plant and uses it,” he concludes. Today, he also sows medicinal plants and Artemisia on the graves of his community, so that each mourner leaves with a bouquet of life in his hands. That’s what we call acting for a greater good.
