When you plant a seed, you cannot be 100% sure that the plant will grow, our partner Amani says. Reflecting on the sustainable agriculture project that is changing the lives of the women working on the farm, Amani sees more than just food and income in the cabbages and tomatoes. “The power and the hope I see in the people in our programs makes me believe. Even when there is little water during the dry season, we get plants to grow!”
It’s the dry season in Congo. When the winds blow this late in the summer, dust swirls off dirt roads, limiting vision to a few feet, if not inches. But in the valley, the shared farm is verdant. The women in the Organic Food for All (OFFA) program have been carefully tending the seedlings they planted in July, filling watering cans at the nearby creek to grow the crops that will feed their families and give them income from sales at the local market.
It’s been an unending dry season in eastern Congo: years of conflict, fear sown by militias who use rape as a weapon of war and kidnap children to use as child soldiers, lack of medical attention or access to education, extreme poverty. In the midst of that ongoing season, Amani has seen hope grow. He has planted seeds: in schools and vocational and community building programs. He has seen women gather together to learn new trades, to form cooperatives, to earn income to send their children to school. He has seen men begin to change their views about women when they attend community education projects that focus on equal rights and the problem of domestic violence. He has seen the men celebrate when their wives start a small business. He has seen girls earn top scores when they head back to school, and has heard women ask why, why can’t they do the jobs men do, and then he sees them go do those jobs.“When you plant a seed, you cannot be 100% sure that the plant will grow. The power and the hope I see in the people in our programs makes me believe. Even when there is little water during the dry season, we get plants to grow!”“I tell you thisto break your heart,by which I mean onlythat it break open and never close againto the rest of the world.”― Mary OliverWhen you partner with Action Kivu, you continue to plant seeds of hope, that we see grow into changed lives! Read their stories on our blog:
- Meet Mamy in a video from our Sewing Graduation Day, 2015
- Meet Cikwanine, Nadine, & Chanceline - three teen moms who are back in school!
- Meet Claudine, and read her story of coming "back to life"
- Meet Grandma Mwayuma and see some of the children at play
- Meet Amani through the Enough Project's "I Am Congo" video series
- Meet the goats in our animal husbandry program, Your Goat is My Goat
