HEAL Africa
3/18/12
Lyn Lusi was the heart of HEAL Africa. Everybody called her “Mama”. She was like a mother for to the 400 employees of HEAL Africa and to the thousands and thousands of women, children and men whom HEAL Africa was and is providing care for. Lyn passed away in Goma, DR Congo on the evening of March 17th. “We are missing her so badly, but we know she is now on a better place. We will never ever forget what she did for us and for our country”, says a patient at the HEAL Africa’s hospital in the eastern Congolese town Goma where HEAL Africa is based.
She came to the Congo (formerly Zaire) from England in 1971 as a teacher with the Baptist Missionary Society. In 1974, she fell in love and married a Congolese physician, Dr. Kasereka M. “Jo” Lusi. They founded together with American friends an organization which trained young doctors in Congo and worked in it for the next 19 years. After earning her master’s degree in Human Resource Development and Training, Lyn and Dr. Jo founded HEAL Africa, bringing her formidable administrative, program and people skills to the survivors of violence and rape in the DRC. In 2002, when a volcano destroyed the original hospital, the couple rebuilt HEAL Africa’s medical facility one wing at a time. The work which Lyn started has helped many, many people to survive and rebuild their lives. HEAL Africa will keep on going, continuing her work and her legacy.
Lyn Lusi was 62 years old. She passed away from terminal cancer. She leaves behind her loving husband Jo, son Paluku and his wife and son, daughter Nadine, her sisters and thousands of friends and colleagues who loved her. She will find her resting place and last home in Butembo, North Kivu in DR Congo where the Lusi family is from. One of her last words before her death were: “Tell them not to cry”. Her love and her full heart will carry on – forever.
HEAL Africa