The Ida Lee Project

The Ida Lee Proiect, a 501(c)3 and registered ONG in Congo, has been in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, since 2017. Our hospital, The Ida Lee House, opened in 2025, and provides breast & cervical cancer screenings, mastectomies, hysterectomies, biopsies, fistula repair from rape, and chemotherapy. All free to any Congolese female.

Since 2017, ilp founder Dr. Ravonna Martin and staff, have collected data on the epidemic of breast cancer that dominates the pathologies of the women treated by the Ida Lee Project. HPV genotypes have also been measured in a small sample of cervical cancer patients in 2018. Dr. Martin has been vocal in encouraging the introduction of the HPV vaccine into the Congolese vaccination bundle. Speaking to the Expanded Program of Innoculations (EPI) in Kinshasa, Martin, along with the Congolese WHO representative, presented the data obtained from the patients seen at the Ida Lee Project.Prior to the invasion of Goma by M23 in January of 2025, The lda Lee Project staff spent a month in the Kanyarutchinya and Lushagala internally displaced persons camps, screening for female reproductive cancers.  

To our dismay, half of the women examined had been raped. Our efforts then turned to introducing these women to therapists for sexual violence.Although we officially treat women with femalereproductive cancers, we have welcomed children with cancer. Through a partnership with the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala, we have sponsored and taken children to Kampala for cancer treatment. The lda Lee Proiect/House would be excited to connect with other organizations and facilities that focus on female reproductive cancers. Cancer prevention and control has been a part of our strategy since 2017. The need to teach our patients how to advocate for themselves and The Ida Lee Project continues the mission of prevention, education, and treatment in Tshopo Province.