September 19th, 2010
Hi Everyone, welcome to my daily message reflecting on my trip to Democratic Republic of the Congo. I hope you find it interesting, if not, please feel free to delete the messages that will follow for the rest of the week. My goal in writing these posts is to help more people to know about the women of eastern DRC and how, in the face of daunting odds, they are struggling to make the most of their one life on this earth.
I left home on Thursday morning at 5:00 am and arrive this afternoon in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was actually a very enjoyable trip. We flew from San Francisco to JFK in NYC and then onto Brussels, Belgium Where we arrived on Friday at Noon and where we laid over for a day. On Saturday, we met up with our hosts from the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and flew to Kilgali, Rwanda. That was an eight-hour flight and we arrive in the early evening. Again, we laid over there until this morning. Today we made the six-hour drive to Bukavu, DRC. It was a beautiful drive, albeit bumpy and winding. We drove through a Rwandan national park that was mountainous and lush. It reminded me of the road to Hana on Maui.
I’m in DRC for site visits to a variety of local and international NGOs that are all working on gender-based violence (GBV) issues and helping to empower women, who are often victimized because of the conflict in this country. Eastern Congo is a conflict zone, where rape is used as a weapon of war. There is little civil infrastructure and so women are raped with impunity. The reasons for the war are complex. The war in DRC has resulted in the deaths of over 5 million people, making it the most deadly conflict since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped. For more information, I invite you to explore the following websites:
www.raisehopeforcongo.org The whole site is dedicated to the conflict in DRC
www.theirc.org on this website, just do a search on DRC and you can pick what you would like to explore
www.enoughproject.org and click on “conflict areas.
I will be staying in the city of Bukavu, which is the capital of the province of South Kivu, which is on the eastern edge of the country, just across the border from Rwanda. That, of course explains why I flew into Rwanda to get here.
Tonight, we had dinner with some of the IRC staff to review our itinerary for the week. Tomorrow we start with a safety briefing and then a tour of the IRC offices in Bukavu. IRC has well over 300 employees in the province of South Kivu. Their mission is to help the victims of the conflict and help re-establish the social infrastructure. Its work on GBV is just one program among many that IRC runs.
After our initial briefing, we will drive south to the town of Kamanyola to meet with a women’s group that is advocating for women’s rights in their community.
Obviously, tomorrow’s posting will be more interesting.
Before I close, I would like to recommend a new book that just came out last week, The Enough Moment, co-authored by John Prendergast and Don Cheadle. I just finished it. It helped me to reflect on what I should do to end human rights violations and work for a more just world.
More tomorrow.
Regards,
Dick
Monday, September 20, 2010
Wynnette tells me that we went to sleep with howling dogs and woke up to crowing roosters, but I was exhausted and heard none of it. We spent our first morning in Bukavu at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) headquarters. We started with a security briefing and an overview of the history of the very complex conflict that plagues eastern Congo. I have to say that it was not new information, but it felt different hearing it right here in DRC.
The challenges of culture, politics and economics that fuel the war are so complex and so overwhelming that it is tempting to say, it’s impossible to find solutions. I refuse to believe that, but I have to admit that I don’t know the solutions either. Heidi Lehmann, IRC’s Senior Technical Advisor for Gender Based Violence, said, “Rather than defining solutions, it may be better at this point to define the matrices of progress.” I’m not sure I agree, but it does give me enough encouragement to work hard today.
IRC has a very well developed GBV program in Bukavu. The program focuses primarily on services for women survivors of sexual violence perpetrated by armed combatants. All of IRC’s work is done in partnership with women’s associations and local NGOs here in the province South Kivu. (Just as an aside, South Kivu is a large area, the size of the country of Belgium.)
The GBV team uses a case management approach to providing assistance to survivors. Case management includes five focus areas that organize their efforts:
1. Education of women about their rights and the steps to recovery.
2. Psychosocial assistance for survivors that helps to address the healing of the psychological scars and the path to social reintegration that is necessary after rape. In the Congolese culture, women who are raped are often ostracized from both their families and their community. Women are left with nothing; many have to live in the bush where they are in danger of further sexual violence. The psychosocial services of IRC help the women to bridge the social stigma of rape and begin to heal.
3. Medical assistance: Medical assistance in South Kivu is much much more rudimentary that we are used to in the United States. In rural areas, there may only be a medical technician to help those who are sick or injured. IRC works with medical personnel in each health zone to sensitize them to the needs of women who have been sexually assaulted so that they receive the necessary assistance and are referred for more specialized services when needed. Tomorrow, I will write about Panzi Hospital and the services it provides for women who can make it to the city of Bukavu.
4. Legal assistance: Because of the social stigma of rape, many women do not want to seek legal recourse against their rapist(s), but for those who do, IRC can refer the women to legal assistance provided by their partner NGOs. IRC also works in advocacy to reduce the culture of impunity that exists. Rapists are seldom brought to justice and when they are, sentences are often light. Finally, the legal team also works with the various levels of government authority to educate them about a woman’s legal rights according to the laws of Congo. The sad truth is that there are laws to protect women, but they are not widely known by the legal authorities and even when they are, they are not enforced.
5. Socio-economic development and civic participation: IRC see it as important to see beyond a woman’s victimization, recognizing that each survivor is a full person and not just a victim. In line with this philosophy, IRC supports self-help associations of women. I will speak more about this work below.
My point in going into all of this is detail to demonstrate on the one hand that the problems facing women in DRC are enormous and on the other that there are incredibly inspiring women and men working to help women heal and even thrive following their sexual assault.
After our morning orientation, we drove about an hour south of Bukavu to the small community of Kamanyola to visit with a women’s self-help association known as Collectif des Femmes de Kamanyola. (Congo has many different local languages, but the official language is French resulting from it colonization by Belgium for nearly 100 years.) Hence, the names of all the organizations are French. The women of this organization referred to themselves by the acronym CFK (pronounced safe-ka’).
CFK is an association of 512 women from the local region surrounding Kamanyola. The area includes 17 different villages. There is little if any real civil infrastructure in the area, and so in order to provide gender based violence survivors with some level of support the women have banded together to help each other. It is truly inspiring. Several of the women have been designated as counselors. When a woman reports that she has been assaulted the counselors help by listening, empathizing and referring to the necessary services, depending on the individual woman. IRC provides training for the counselors.
CFK has some members who are survivors of GBV and others who have not been assaulted, but every member is committed to helping the survivors. The advantage of having a mix of women is that it helps to assuage the social stigmatization that would occur for a group of women, all of whom had been assaulted. In addition to psychosocial services, CFK also had developed an array of economic opportunities for its members. They due collective farming, craft projects and soap manufacturing. They have received small grants ($5,000) from IRC to launch their economic efforts. They were very proud to tell us about a new granary that they built from the profits of their efforts. The granary cost $20,000 to build.
It would be difficult to put into words, how inspiring it was to see women achieve so much with so little. Their solidarity is an incredible ray of hope in such a traumatized and forgotten place, where the suffering and poverty are indescribable.
On a disheartening note, twice during our meeting with the women, men walked into the room. As soon as they entered, they took over the meeting and the women became silent. I was taken aback by the assumption of authority the men portrayed, until I realized that I was watching the culture of DRC at work. Neither the men nor the women saw anything wrong with what was happening. It was a lesson to me in cultural sensitivity and a reminder that there is still a lot of work to do.
To end on a positive note, one young woman proudly told us that she became pregnant at age 16 and had to leave school to care for her child. Later, CFK provided her with the money to go back to school and she had just graduated from high school this year.
Tomorrow, we visit Panzi Hospital in the morning and a women’s savings and loan association in the afternoon. I suspect there will be interesting stories to tell you about.
Regards,
Dick
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Today was a truly energizing day. We started out by driving through town to Panzi Hospital. Bukavu is a lot bigger than I realized. It is teaming with life and activity. The streets are congested with pedestrians rather than cars, partly because many people can’t afford a car, but also because the roads in serious disrepair. The excitement of watching the passing sites quickly distracted me from the bumpy road. It took about a half hour to get to the hospital.
Panzi is an incredible hospital run by a Pentecostal group from Sweden. It has a little over 400 beds, 300 of which are used for women with gynecological problems. At any given time, 56% of the OBGYN patients are survivors of rape. Many of the women are referred to Panzi because they have fistulas – a tear in their vaginal wall. The fistulas can be caused by a variety of things, including rape and giving birth at too young an age.
The doctors we spoke with reported that there has been an increase over the last year in women severely injured by sexual violence. It was distressing to hear this, but at the same time, it was amazing to see all the services that Panzi offers to the women coming for help.
During a woman’s first three days at the hospital, a counselor works with her to coordinate the services of a doctor for diagnosis and the beginning of treatment, a psychiatrist to evaluate and begin treatment of her emotional trauma and lab tests. At the end of three days, the woman has an articulated plan of treatment.
Women who need surgery receive it from a well-trained staff of doctors specializing in OBGYN problems. They also receive extended counseling if needed. Some women stay at the hospital for up to a year. During their stay, they also receive socio-economic help, so that they can cope when they are released. The socio-economic assistance helps them with their reintegration into their communities, from which they have been ostracized. In many cases, the women learn a craft or trade that they can use to support themselves. Women who can earn money and support themselves gain status in the community and this sometimes helps with the difficult phase of reintegration into their community and family.
Panzi also has mobile clinics that travel far out into the countryside to offer services to women and to transport patients to the hospital when needed. The doctors explained that whenever possible, they try to treat women in their own community at a local health center. Panzi has gained a reputation for helping survivors of rape and because of the social stigma attached to rape, women treated there are assumed to have been raped. This assumption can in turn, complicate the treatment of less serious OBGYN problems, because they are shunned for being raped, when in fact they weren’t.
I was impressed at Panzi’s efforts to look at the whole person and not just at the rape that a woman who has survived. These women are so much more than their trauma and they should not be stigmatized by one incident. It was uplifting in the midst of such suffering to see the compassion and quality of care that is being offered. It is equally inspiring to see the resilience of the women, working stubbornly to put their lives back together.
After our visit to Panzi Hospital, we drove 90 minutes north of Bukavu to the small rural village of Kalulu. There we observed a meeting of about 25 women, some of whom were GBV survivors and some not. IRC has helped the women form a small Village Savings and Loan Association. The women who make up the group live in extreme poverty; most of them live on less than $1 per day. The primary purpose of the association is for the women to support one another. They do this by forming a mutual savings account that is owned and managed by the group. The savings that are accumulated are then loaned out to the members of the group at 10% interest for one month. The women use the money to invest in small projects to increase their income. For example, I spoke with a woman who took out a loan for the equivalent amount of $10. She used the money to buy a large supply of charcoal, which she then repackaged into smaller quantities and resold it for a profit of $20. She used the money to feed her family for the month and to buy a chicken, which will provide her with an ongoing supply of eggs. She was rightfully proud of her accomplishment. The other women applauded her, when she told of her success.
Women scrape together their money to buy shares in the savings and loan association. They can buy up to five shares per week. At the end of one year, the money on deposit is divided up and returned to the women. They get their investment back along with 40% interest. We’re not talking about large amounts of money. One share cost 20 cents, but for women who have been ostracized from their community and have no support from their husband, even small amounts of money can help them to get by.
IRC has done a terrific job of helping the women get their savings and loan association started and teaching them the importance of internal controls and the checks and balances that are necessary. Over the course of the eight months that this group was functioning, they have gained a small amount of money, but more importantly, they have learned that they can run meetings, speak for themselves and support one another in a society where women have so little status that they can seem almost invisible. Visiting and talking with them, has been the highlight of the trip so far.
One woman told me that when the association first started she could only buy one share per week, but now she buys five shares per week. That’s only a dollar, but it a real accomplishment, and she is doing it herself. No one is doing it for her.
The association also has a solidarity fund. Each week each member gives 10 francs (the equivalent of about 10 cents) to the fund. When a member of the association has an unusual expense, the group decides if it wants to help defray the expense. Three of the women received money from the fund when they gave birth. All three of the babies were at the meeting. They were adorable. Another received money to pay for her mother’s funeral.
It was incredible to see the women supporting one another. There was no arguing, no competition, just women helping women to become stronger. It was another ray of hope in a part of the world where hope is desperately needed.
I hope you are all well.
Regards,
Dick
September 22, 2010
We started the day with a beautiful ride along the edge of Lake Kivu to a small village named Muhongoza (pronounced: moon-gō’-za), in the territory of Kalehe (pronounced: Ka- le’-he’). There we visited Actions pour le Developpement de la Femme (ADIF), an NGO that provides psychosocial support to GBV survivors at eight different sites in the territories of Kalehe and Kabare. We had our conversation in their Maison d’Ecoute, or Listening House. The name of the house refers to a place where women come to talk about their GBV experience. ADIF is committed to helping them to heal by listening to their stories and offering culturally appropriate counseling and referrals for rapid access to medical and legal services, all at no cost to the survivors.
Counselors provide the psychological services, but in addition, animateurs/community mobilizers help communities facilitate the acceptance, social reintegration, and long-term recovery of survivors.
In some ways, this group was similar to CBO I wrote to you about on Monday, except, this group is much more developed and professionally trained. The impression I was left with at the end of our visit was that their focus is totally fixed on the wellbeing of the survivors that come to them. It was reassuring to see that they had their thoughts and efforts fixed in the right place, how to improve the lives of women who have suffered so greatly.
After our conversation, Wynnette had an opportunity to speak with two of the survivors. Not unexpectedly, they were uncomfortable speaking to men and so I stepped out before they came into the room. While I was waiting outside for Wynnette, I had some time to speak with the staff for a few more minutes. They told us they can provide counseling and referrals for medical and legal services without cost to their clients, but they cannot provide for their economic wellbeing. They asked us to consider helping with that. I immediately thought of the VSLA that I wrote to you about yesterday. They have an organization to help with economic needs, but they don’t have ADIF. The needs of GBV survivors in DRC are so great, that not even an organization as large as IRC can provide every one of its programs in every village that wants it.
During our next visit, I was reminded of the Greek mythological figure, King Sisyphus, who was destined to roll his bolder up a steep hill, only to watch it roll back to the bottom, where forever, he began over and over again.
We had a conversation with Arch-Alliance, one of IRC’s legal partners for GBV services. We spoke with an in-take officer and an attorney. The organization’s long-range goal is to end the impunity with which men violate women.
When a woman comes to them for legal help after being assaulted, they interview her, explain what is involved in the extensive and complex legal processes of DRC and the survivor decides if she wants to pursue legal action. It is an important decision in part because of the complexity of the legal process, which is often unsuccessful, but also because in a community where men rape with impunity and where corruption typically rules the day, there is real danger in pursuing legal action.
The lawyer told us a story of a woman who endured the stress of the legal process and after nearly a year, actually won her case. Not long ago, the perpetrator was sent to prison. Yesterday, he turned up at the offices of Arch-Alliance to let them know that he was out of prison. He went from there to the home of the survivor. His visits were solely for the purpose of intimidation. Today, the authorities are looking for him again, but he is headed to Goma in North Kivu and there he is likely to be lost in the crowds…Think Sisyphus.
The lawyer told us another story about the murder of a five-year old girl. By chance, he arrived at the scene of the murder shortly after it occurred and so he was able to gather evidence. He filed charges and followed the case through the police department, arraignment and a trial. After many months, just when it was time for the judge to pass judgment, he reported that all the evidence had been lost and so he could not rule on the case. There was clearly a bribe behind the excuse of lost evidence…Think Sisyphus.
The lawyer didn’t give up. He appealed to the Supreme Judge of the province. New judges were assigned to review the case, and lo and behold, they found the lost evidence. There is little doubt that a bribe was involved. It amazes and angers me that a judge would deny a little girl and her family justice for the sake of a payoff. The case is now scheduled to receive a judgment this coming Saturday.
Here’s another story, a young woman came to Arch Alliance and went through the in-take process. She courageously decided to proceed with legal action against her perpetrator and filed charges, but later decided not to proceed. When the lawyer found her, he asked why she had decided not to proceed with a strong case. She reported that her perpetrator arranged for a payment to her uncle and her family then pressured her to drop the case. Evidently, this is a common practice. A typical payment might be a trade of four goats between the perpetrator and the survivor’s father or uncle.
One final story before I close: A young girl was molested in her bed in the dark of night, but it was later discovered that the perpetrator left behind his watch and other evidence. Charges were filed and he was found guilty. He is now serving a 20-year sentence in prison. Maybe the myth of Sisyphus isn’t always inevitable.
As the lawyer was telling us all these stories and more, I could literally see the compassion for GBV survivors and passion for their right to justice. I was on the verge of tears. He was an incredibly good man. It was good to see there are men committed to the rights of women in the midst of a culture in which they are routinely dismissed. The look in his eyes brought me hope.
In the darkness of tragedy, rays of hope shine all the more brightly. I wonder what inspiring person I will meet tomorrow.
Regards,
Dick
September 23, 2010
Today, we met with five different NGOs that are working with the Global Fund for Women on increasing the civic participation of women. The five groups were:
1. Solidarité des Femmes Activistes pour la Défense des Droits Humains (SOFAD) (Women Activists in Solidarity for the Defense of Human Rights)
2. Voix de Sans Voix ni Liberté (VOVOLIB) (Voices Without a Voice Nor Liberty
3. Appui aux Femmes Démunies et Enfants Marginalisés au Kivu (AFEDEM/Kivu) (Support to Marginalized Women and Children in Kivu)
4. Solidarité Sans Frontières (SOSAF) (Solidarity Without Borders)
5. Bureau Régional d'Études pour le Développement Durable (BREDD) (Regional Office for the Study of Sustainable Development)
We met with representatives of all five groups at the same time, put that together with translation into English, many people excited to talk, and it was a pretty lively meeting that kept me on my toes.
All of the groups are working on various aspects of women’s rights and how to give women a voice in the midst of a culture that tends to silence them. They were engaged in many different and interesting activities. Just a couple of examples: VOVOLIB operates an FM radio channel that advocates for women’s rights and tries to educate its audience about DRC laws supporting women, laws that are not widely understood or enforced. All five groups are working collaboratively with many other groups on a big march in support of women’s rights that will take place in October and will involve women from eastern DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, which are the countries in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.
Each of the groups is also involved in preparing women for the Congolese elections that are scheduled for 2011. They want the women of DRC to play a full and active role in choosing their next leader. During the presentations, each of the groups reminded us that DRC does not have freedom of speech and so the struggle to give women a voice is an uphill battle.
I asked them if they thought there would be a free and transparent election and the whole room broke out in noise. Everyone wanted to speak at once. After we sorted out their enthusiasm to talk, it was clear that none of them expect the elections to be fair. When I asked why, they discussed the endemic corruption, the status of women, etc. But what really stuck with me was one gentleman’s comment, “People don’t know what or who they’re voting for.” He said many people still vote based on tribal loyalty, even if they are voting for a criminal. Actually, that didn’t sound that different from some elections in the U.S.A., just perhaps a little more obvious.
The NGOs are rightly focused on the education of the poor. One woman said, “The rich are in control and because of the corruption system in our country, the poor are voiceless. They emphasized over and over, education of the poor is essential.
We also had a very interesting and animated conversation about international help with the election, but they weren’t talking about international observers of the election. They didn’t seem too concerned about that. They were excited about inviting VIP women from the international community to visit DRC and talk about how women participate in their countries as an example to the women of DRC that they have a right to speak up. It blew me away. I just didn’t expect to hear that.
Next, we went to a site visit where we met with about 20 women at a cyber café run by VOVOLIB. They were sitting around a bank of computers and I thought they were going to talk about how they stay connected with the outside world and learn to get information off the internet, but I was sorely mistaken. They were all participants in the micro-credit program. Each month they get $20 that they manage for a month and then return with interest at the end of the month. After we got them started talking, it was inspiring to learn that they weren’t interested so much in their own education, but they were deeply motivated to keep their children in school. Most of the women who spoke up had large families with no husband in the home, some were widows and other had husbands that were working away from home, perhaps in the military or in another country where they could find work. One woman said that her husband was away for ten years.
Finally, I was interested in their concern that their loans were not nearly enough to provide for the needs of their large families. One woman, who uses her loan each month to purchase and sell flour, said, “I have ten children. Imagine trying to support 10 children on $20 per month. I couldn’t even imagine raising 10 children alone, let alone doing it on $20 per month. Their universal request was to increase the size of their loans, so that they could build stronger enterprises. It was a wonderful group of women that love their families above everything. They were inspirational. Can you guess what the second most common request was? You guessed it, childcare while they are running their microenterprises. Some challenges are universal.
In the afternoon, we visited a rural AFEDEM site where AFEDEM is training the women in carpentry, sewing and agriculture. They greeted us with wonderful African singing when we arrived. The welcome was wonderful. Then we got down to business.
First, I was impressed with the women’s’ willingness to speak up. It was quite a contrast to the cyber café. Each person that spoke asked us to help them get more equipment and materials for their workshops and farms. For example, they have just two sewing machines, and there are many women who would like to learn how to use them in an economic enterprise. They were beautiful women that were intent on finding work to support their families. Many of them were survivors of GBV, as is typical of rural areas.
After our discussion, the community leaders had Wynnette distribute seed to the women who farm. It was suppose to be a symbolic gesture to one or two of the women, but the whole room quickly mobbed her. They all wanted to receive their seed from the hand of the visitor from America. The leaders let it go on for a while and then they stepped in and put a stop to it, but it was a wonderful scene to see the women crowding in with open scarves, plastic bags and open purses to receive a big pan full of beans that they will plant immeditely, just before the rainy season starts.
September 24, 2010
It was an enjoyable, but sometimes grueling day. (It’s midnight her, so please excuse me if my typing and grammar is especially bad tonight, but I wanted to get this to you before the weekend begins in the U.S.) It started out with a brief souvenir-shopping spree. After all, you can’t come all the way to Congo and return without gifts for the family. The gifts I got were beautiful and incredibly inexpensive. Now, if I can get everything in my suitcase, I’ll be fine. Congo has no postal system, so it’s very difficult to ship anything.
A three-hour meeting with IRC regarding their next grant, followed the shopping spree. I won’t bore you with the details except to say that we stayed for lunch and I learned that they have a cook that is out of this world. We had delicious Congolese food that was worthy of a four-star restaurant.
The meeting with IRC was followed by a drive through Bukavu to a meeting with
Centre National d’Appui au Developpment et ‘a la Participation Populaire Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, that’s quite a name. I recommend you stick with the acronym: CENADEP. It is a national NGO that is well known in Congo. Its mission is to help Congolese civil society as it struggles to recover from 14 years of conflict.
A little background….DRC is divided into a number of provinces, similar to states in America. Each state has a governor and his cabinet of ministries, as well as a legislature. Cities have mayors and sometimes a council. The national government that is located in the capital, Kinshasa, appoints all of the positions in the states. It is easy to see that the government is strongly centralized. However, centralization is against the constitution, which calls for a decentralized government. This is just one more example of the breakdown of law and the pervasive corruption that plague this beautiful country. The national government has finally called for general elections in fall of 2011. It remains to be seen if the elections actually come to pass and if so, if they will be free and transparent.
Given the prospect of a general election, civil society organizations are keenly focused on preparing local populations for the vote. CENADEP sees two major challenges that need to be addressed in preparation for the elections: 1) logistical planning needs to be done to make sure that accessible polling stations are available to all eligible voters, especially, those in rural areas. This is a major challenge because of the lack of roads and because the roads that do exist are in serious disrepair. (After one week in Congo, I can attest to this.) 2) Illiteracy will make it difficult for people to understand whom they are voting for. CENEDEP is advocating for ballots with images of the candidates as well as their printed names. In addition, they are advocating for a policy that would allow illiterate voters to bring a literate voter of their choice to assist them in reading the ballot. It remains to be seen if they will be successful.
We also spoke with CENADEP about the Conflict Minerals Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress as an amendment to the Financial Reform Bill. It was signed into law by President Obama this summer. You can learn a lot more about this legislation at the Enough website: (http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/eastern_congo ). In a nutshell, the legislation requires American corporations to audit their supply chains to ensure that their products are free of conflict minerals from DRC and the surrounding countries of Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. The hope is that if conflict minerals cannot be traded profitably on the international market, it will remove the incentive of local militias in Congo from mining the vast natural resources in eastern Congo. This in turn will decrease the funding that perpetuates the fighting and the use of rape as a weapon of war.
Not surprisingly, we were told that the legislation is largely unknown in DRC, partly because of limited access to international media. More surprising was the fact that CENADEP reported that the legislation has not yet been translated into French. CENADEP does support the legislation in principal but is anxiously awaiting a translation so that they can understand it more fully.
I left the meeting wondering how any organization could achieve all that needs to be done to re-establish the failed government of DRC. As I have remarked all week, I was inspired by the tenacity of small groups of people to take on important tasks when all the odds are stacked against them. One ray of hope -- CENADEP is coordinating a network of several dozen civil society organizations located throughout South Kivu. With a coordinated effort, there is more hope of some success.
Our meeting with CENADEP was followed by a meeting with two more NGO’s, this time from North Kivu. Representatives from Goma, the capital of North Kivu, traveled two hours by boat to meet with us. I’ll spare you the French names and just give you the acronyms: ASSODIP and CREDDO. Both organizations are partnering with Free the Slaves, an American NGO, to document child slavery in the mining industry in both North and South Kivu. Open Square Foundation is funding the work, which is being coordinated by Free the Slaves. So we were anxious to speak with them and they with us.
Much is written, and rightly so, about the use of rape as a weapon of war in DRC. Information about child slavery in the mines is not nearly as widely known, but it is rampant. ASSODIP and CREDDO are documenting the use of child slavery in two mining regions in North Kivu. They have documented that thousands of children are working in the mines and that there is also a thriving sex traffic industry that involves young girls. The details are gruesome. I will spare you that for now. I will only say that I was emotionally exhausted after the meeting. As part of its research, CREDDO interviewed 156 mineworkers and found that 60% of them were slaves. By slaves, I mean people who by force or intimidation, are forced to work for no meaningful pay.
Both ASSODIP and CREDDO agree with Free the Slaves’ philosophy that the best way to end slavery is to work toward solutions with the local community. After spending a week in Congo, it is clear to me that rescuing the child slaves one by one would be an endless process. As soon as one child is rescued, he or she would be replaced by another. Free the Slaves has successfully worked in countries throughout the world to end slavery. Congo presents a unique challenge for them however, because it is the first time that they have worked in a conflict zone. I encourage you to explore their website at www.freetheslaves.net.
Again, I felt the task before ASSODIP and CREDDO is daunting, but I plan to pray and work with them toward success. I expect the work to take years, but it will be worth the investment of time, if thousands of children reach the freedom that it is so easy for us to take for granted in the United States.
After the meeting on slavery, we had a lovely farewell dinner with the International Rescue Committee GBV staff at a local restaurant. We laughed and relaxed for hours. I can’t say too often, how impressed I am with their dedication. They are true humanitarians. They came from England, Canada, the United States and of course DRC, to work together for the development of an area that is desperately in need of humanitarian assistance. I feel compelled to do what I can to help them.
It has been an amazing, intense, distressing and fulfilling week. I will write one more journal entry tomorrow to talk about how we can all help in the struggle in which the beautiful people of DRC are engaged. Stay tuned.
Regards,
Dick
Saturday, September 25, 2010
It’s 6:00 am, I couldn’t sleep much last night, but I didn’t want to sleep. There was too much on which to reflect. I was so busy this week running from one village to another, from one meeting to another, that I didn’t have enough time to cherish the experience of meeting so many incredibly loving people. I realize this morning that I am a little overwhelmed, not by the suffering, which I won’t deny is everywhere. I’m overwhelmed by the love and the hope that motivates these people to get up and go on together.
I saw beautiful tree-covered mountains rising from the shores of Lake Kivu, but under the canopy of the trees is where the real beauty lies. The beauty of this country is in the people. They are being tried in the crucible of human suffering and it purifies their love and makes it shine. Before I came, I worried that what I would see would be too horrible to sustain in my mind. This morning at the end of my stay here, the worry is gone and I am grateful.
My 43-hour trip home begins in four hours. It starts with a six-hour drive to the airport in Kigali, Rwanda. From Kigali, I fly to Brussels with a brief one-hour touch down in Uganda. From Brussels, I have a long flight to Chicago and from Chicago, I fly on to San Francisco. I’m looking forward to having more time to think about all that I experienced this week.
I promised you one final email with some suggestions of what you could do to help the people of eastern DRC. Every day this week I heard at least one person say to Wynnette and me, “Thank you for coming so far to talk to us and hear our story and try to help us.” It helps the women of Congo to know that there are people in the broader world that know of their suffering. It helps the aid workers and NGO staff persons to know that there are people who care. Our attention to their story gives them hope and a little more encouragement to go on. So, I encourage you to do something concrete to help them.
First of all, learn their story and realize that if you are reading this email, you actually have a part in their story in your hand or on your desk. You’ll get good accurate information about the conflict in Congo, about the conflict minerals trade and how it is connected to you at www.raisehopeforcongo.org or www.enoughproject.org , but here’s a brief outline. On Thursday and Friday of our visit Fidel, a full-time consultant/researcher for the Enough Project, accompanied Wynnette and me. Fidel has an incredible resume of experience in Congo and Rwanda. He has interviewed and challenged generals waging the conflict in DRC. He has spoken to the presidents of both countries and he knows how to get the good information that is contained on the Enough Project’s websites. As an aside, Fidel was a gracious translator of both Swahili and French on Thursday and Friday. He also provided us with many insights into the implications of what we were learning. Our visit to Congo was greatly enriched by his willingness to come all the way from Goma and spend two days with us.
All of our cell phones, and iPads, and computers and Blackberries and our cars and the military equipment that our country uses to protect us….all of those items and more have little pieces of metal that was mined here in DRC. Some of it was mined by child slaves that I told you about yesterday. In addition, girls as young a 10 and 11 are used as sex slaves for the older miners. The mines themselves were stolen from the local communities that should be benefiting from them. They were stolen when militias and soldiers from DRC and Rwanda pillaged their villages, raped their women, stole their children and burned the homes to the ground; all so that they could profit from the minerals that help our electronic equipment to work. Then they use the profits to buy more weapons of war and the cycle continues.
There have been over 200,000 women raped, many of them multiple times. There have now been nearly six million deaths resulting from the conflict. Not all of them have died directly from the violence. Most of them have died from starvation and disease, from a lack of clean water and medical attention and I bet some from broken hearts. They are real people who are just as devastated as we would be if our child died of diarrhea because there is no clean water to drink.
After World War II, when people could finally stop and reflect on the enormity and the horror of the Holocaust, they said, “Never again!” But then there was Bosnia, and Cambodia, and Rwanda and now eastern Congo. When will it be enough? More than once, when I have spoken about the use of women as a weapon of war, people have raised their hand in front of their face, signaling me that they didn’t want to continue the conversation. But, if we can’t talk about the horror, it will play itself out to the bitter end. It’s only when we can have the courage to look at it, and to allow our comfortable lives to be discomforted, that we will say, “Enough!” and keep our promise of “Never Again!” So, as a first step to help the women and children of DRC, I would suggest that you take the time and muster the courage to learn their story. I know of no better place to begin than the website for Raise Hope for Congo.
As you learn the story, remember the stories I told you this week. Otherwise, there is a danger that you could do what I have done for the last three years. You can start to see the women and children as victims, but they don’t want to be defined by their victimization. They are whole people, with lives beyond the atrocities they have experienced. See them as survivors who feel and love and support one another. Define them as persons and not as victims. You can read some wonderful stories of the resilience of the women of DRC in an excellent report authored by Muadi Mukenge, Director for Sub-Saharan Africa for the Global Fund for Women. The report is entitled, Funding a Women’s Movement against Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo: 2004-2009. The report can be downloaded at http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/be-inspired/publications/newsletters/spring-2010/1662-impact-report-democratic-republic-of-congo . I wrote about grantees of the Global Fund for Women in my journal entry for Thursday, September 23, 2010. They were the groups: VOVOLIB, BREDD, AFEDEM and SOSAF. If that day’s journal entry was moving to you, and several of you wrote to me that it was, I suggest Muadi’s report.
The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Gender Based Violence (GBV) Unit in Bukavu hosted the first three days of my visit to eastern DRC. The global head of IRC’s GBV unit is Heidi Lehmann. She joined us from New York for the visit. Sarah Mosley, who is the DRC Coordinator for GBV, also joined us. She flew in from Kinshasa, the capital of DRC. As I mentioned earlier, the foundation for the GBV program are Congolese women and men that understand the culture and the countryside here in eastern DRC, but there are also people from Great Brittan, Canada and the United States. As an experienced program officer who understands how to evaluate the work of nonprofits, I can assure you that IRC’s GBV team in eastern DRC is world class. I was writing about their work in my posts for Monday through Wednesday. If you would like to read more about their GBV work in DRC, you can start here: http://www.theirc.org/special-reports/rape-congo .
If Friday’s post about child slavery and sex trafficking are of the most interest to you, I suggest that you explore Free the Slaves (FTS) website at: http://www.freetheslaves.net/ . You won’t find a lot about DRC on their website. Open Square Foundation made a grant to FTS about a year ago to research and document the extent of child slavery in DRC. The research is still underway and has not yet been published, but nonetheless, FTS is doing great work all over the world and they are recognized experts on the topic of slavery.
Finally, the International Violence against Women Act is currently winding its way through Congress. This legislation will have a significant impact on GBV in DRC and other conflict areas. You can find out much more information about it on the websites of Women Thrive Worldwide (www.womenthrive.org ) or at Family Violence Prevention Fund (www.endabuse.org ).
Here are some suggestions for concrete action beyond research and learning the story of women in DRC:
1. You can pick your favorite organization and sign up for action alerts and newsletters. This will help you to stay informed and they will also provide you with suggestions for writing to your Representative and Senators in congress for the International Violence against Women Act and other important governmental activity at the State Department. I am especially partial to Raise Hope for Congo and Women Thrive Worldwide. You will find links to all of the organizations earlier in this email.
2. You can take the time to talk about DRC on your Facebook page and help the story of DRC to get out to the world.
3. Finally, you can make a financial contribution to:
a. International Rescue Committee,
b. The Enough Project, which runs the Raise Hope for Congo Campaign as well
c. Free the Salves
d. Global Fund for Women
If you make a financial contribution be sure to include a note and designate the gift for gender-based violence work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, because all of these organizations are doing great work in many areas of the world.
Or you may want to make a donation to Women Thrive Worldwide or Family Violence Prevention Fund and designate the gift to support their effort toward the passage of the International Violence against Women Act. On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to consider the legislation. It’s not too late to call or email your senators and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. Ohioans, we could use your help here.
We all carry around little pieces of Congo in our phones, laptops, iPods and blackberries. Those little pieces of metal were stolen from the people of Congo who should have benefited from them. We can do our part to pay them back by making a contribution and taking concrete steps to help these resilient and loving people.
Before I close, I want to offer a personal note of thanks to Wynnette, President and Founder of Open Square Foundation and a friend, who invited me to join her on this trip. It has changed my life and I am deeply grateful. The work in DRC enabled by her philanthropy is significant and just beginning. Thank you as well to Heidi Lehmann and Elly Perkins, both of whom came all the way from NYC to help Wynnette and me with the site visits. Thanks also to the in-country GBV staff of IRC who are doing the real on-the-ground work here. Finally, thank you to Fidel of the Enough Project for all the information and patient translation he provided. He is a gracious and humble humanitarian.
I hope you have found these posts interesting and compelling. It’s now time for me to get some breakfast and then hop into the van for the trip to Kigali and on to San Francisco. I can’t wait to see George.
Adieu,
Dick
