Amani Matabaro

Founder and Executive Director, ABFEC / Founding Director, Action Kivu

Amani Matabaro founded Actions pour le Bien être de la Femme et de l’Enfant au Congo (ABFEC), Action Kivu’s Congolese partner organization, when his cousins, Kahumba and Mirenge took refuge in his home after both were raped in 2006 by Rwandan rebels known as the Interahamwe.

Amani and his wife Amini Bukanda wanted to find a way to provide a sense of purpose and self-worth for Kahumba and Mirenge as well as way for them to sustain themselves economically. Amini was an accomplished seamstress, and training them in sewing skills seemed the best solution. When word spread about what Amani and Amini were doing for their cousins, other victims of sexual violence asked for training, and the Kivu Sewing Workshop was born.

Born in eastern Congo, Amani is a survivor of the nation’s violence; both of his parents were killed in the late 1990s during the successive wars. Amani finished his education with help from his elder brother, Ephraim, and then earned a degree in Applied Pedagogy with a concentration in English Language Teaching Methodology and Translation. Trained in Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of peace and nonviolence at the University of Rhode Island, Amani has worked as an educator and interpreter for numerous international organizations including Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, United Nations Multi-National Force in the Congo (MONUC), the International Rescue Committee, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum and with Yahoo’s News’ war reporting project, Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone.