I am Congo: Amani, the Community Builder

Amani in Mumosho - Photo by Cate Haight

If you haven't had the opportunity to meet Amani Matabaro, the man behind Action Kivu and the heart of the work we do, we're excited to introduce you to him, via a short film. This video gives a sense of the warmth of his personality, his heart for his country and the women and children there, his history and his sense of humor. Created by the Enough Project as part of a series to highlight the courageous people of Congo, the video captures the juxtaposition of the beauty and horror that is the history of Congo, as well the indomitable spirit of the Congolese, and gives you a glimpse into who Amani is, and why he does what he does. Please click here to watch, and share with your family and friends!

Help Purchase Sewing Kits for the May Graduates of the Sewing Workshops

The women of the Bukavu and Mumosho sewing workshops are graduating! Excited and ready to begin their own businesses, 60 women in eastern Congo, ranging from teenagers to mothers of many children, will graduate this May.

This is momentous for these women, many who chose to attend the program to avoid prostitution on the streets of crowded Bukavu, one of the more horrific options in a place of few choices available to women to survive and feed their families.  Now, with a glimmer of hope and a better future, each one of them will graduate, trained in sewing and designing skills, and armed with a sewing kit.  But it won’t happen without your help!

Each kit costs $175.00 and includes:

•One pedal powered Singer sewing machine ($150.00, and most useful with the lack of electricity in remote village areas)
•One bolt of fabric to begin business ($15)
•One pair of sewing scissors ($5.00)
•One tape measure, plus oil for the machine ($5.00)

Your donation goes directly to the graduates, who have worked so hard towards self-sustainability and helps them gain immeasurable pride as they provide for their families. No donation is too small!

We saw the results with our own eyes on our trip to eastern Congo this year, when we met Nzigira, age 20, and Tantine, age 18, two of the graduates from last year’s sewing program in Mumosho. Parking our truck on the main village road, we wandered down a dirt path, beneath the green of banana trees and lush foliage that surrounded small homes and thatched huts.  Approaching the women’s workspace, we were confused. A pedal-powered Singer sewing machine sat out in the open, situated in the corner of a maze of wooden beams that we soon realized formed the frame of a future house. The only sound was the occasional whirring of the machine’s needle, the chirping of birds, and the chatter of curious kids who’d followed us, pied-piper style, as we’d wound our way into their world.

Nzigira and Tantine have set up shop in one of the corner "rooms" of the construction site. They run their business there, protected by a roof, but otherwise open to the air, sun, rain, a few chickens and one duck who roam freely through.  Nzigira’s uncle is building this house next to his current thatched, round hut, and has offered the space with a roof over their heads for the women to work. However, when the house is finished, the seamstresses will have to find another location to run their sewing shop.

Nzigira and Tantine decided to team up when they met at the sewing workshop. Both hard workers, they recognized in each a partner, and told us that two are better than one. That adage has proven true; they’ve needed no marketing for their work, as word has spread through the local community about their talent.  Women buy fabric and bring it to the makeshift workspace, where they take measurements, press fabric with coal-heated irons, and pedal power their designs into beautiful blouses and skirts, for wedding parties and daily wear.  They live at home with their parents and family, who do not work, and from their shared small business, in which they charge a mere $4.50 for a complicated blouse, they meet their families’ basic needs.

They are ever grateful for the Action Kivu supporters who helped purchase their sewing kits for graduation, and offered a blessing for those who helped them: "May you live as a lake, being replenished and refilled, never dying."

Donate today, and know that you are making a huge difference in one woman’s life. No amount is too small.  We are 100% volunteer in the U.S., which means all of your donation goes toward the purchase of the sewing kits for the May graduates (minus nominal banking fees).

Want to know more about the women? Read the story, hopes and dreams of Ernata, a graduating student, here.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Give Peace a Chance: Amani's Dream of a Peace School

Amani Matabaro, our partner in Congo, works to empower and educate women and children in his native eastern Congo via Actions for the Welfare of the Women and Children of Kivu (ABFEK). A college graduate and former teacher, Amani speaks several languages fluently, is a husband, a father of six, and is known as “Papa Amani” to the 115 vulnerable or orphaned children he sends to school through an education assistance program. In Congo, where years of war have decimated the population and over 5 million people have died from the fighting and the resulting poverty, HIV and other illnesses, education offers hope for a different, better, peaceful future. Through the support of American non-profits including Action Kivu, Kids4CongoKids, Rotary Clubs and others, Amani is making this happen.The current village schools, mud rooms with little light or equipment, are not up to the challenge, and Amani dreams of opening a Peace School. Using the land where his childhood home is built in the village of Mumosho, Amani, whose name is translated “Peace” in Swahili, has plans for a school to serve all the at-risk children in the district. To offer a free and safe education, teaching not only the basic Congolese curriculum, but to build up the future leaders of a peaceful Congo through the education of human rights, the arts, non-violent communication, good-governance and community building.The cost to build the infrastructure of the school, including a health care facility and an area for a goat and cow husbandry project to provide milk and nutrition for the kids and bio-fuel and fertilizer for the ABFEK shared farm, is approximately $185,000.00 USD*. All donations via ActionKivu.org are tax deductible, and nearly 100% (minus nominal banking fees) go directly to the work on the ground, due to the all-volunteer staff in the U.S. To support the building of the school, please note “Peace School” on your PayPal donation or check.In the current village schools in the Mumosho district in eastern Congo, the kids sit shoulder-to-shoulder on rows of short wooden benches, their knees acting as desks, their feet clad in dusty rubber sandals rest on the dirt floor, a blackboard the teacher’s only tool. A sunny day, the window cut out of the mud wall allows a bit of light into the dark room. The school uniform is a bright, cobalt blue skirt for the girls and shorts for the boys, their white shirts ranging from button downs to tee-shirts, all yellowed with age and dirt, frayed and torn. Almost every child sports a pair of rubbery plastic sandals in a variety of neon colors that are dulled by dust.On Action Kivu's recent visit, we were introduced to Shukura, a 10-year-old girl in the 4th grade, sponsored by ABFEK / Action Kivu, who is at the top of her class. In fact, all girls had taken the top three spots of the fourth grade, the other two sponsored by Kids4CongoKids. Sponsoring kids, especially girls, whose families cannot afford the 5$/month school fees, makes a marked difference in a community where poor families often choose to educate sons over daughters.Shukura tells us shyly that she wants to be a teacher when she graduates. Most of the children in the schools we visited plan to be doctors or teachers, two of the only professions they see in their villages. Zawadi, however, whose name means "gift," wants to be an agronomist. The land here is wildly rich, but despite the beans, bananas, corn and cassava growing like weeds, many of the children are malnourished.Zawadi is in the second grade at APSED, a sort of charter school formed by neighborhood parents who wanted to ensure war orphans and poverty stricken kids receive an education. ABFEK / Action Kivu sponsors 19 kids there. With so many children at the school, and only three small, dirt-floored classrooms, the kids only go a half day, so the other classes can meet the second half.We waited to meet 11 of the sponsored kids in the principal's office, a few chairs and two desks filling the room, posters of basic anatomy and a hand-printed list of the school's objectives decorated the mud-brown walls. The first girl, around eight years old, walked in and confidently shook our hands with a clear "Bonjour! ça va?" An extremely serious boy wearing a torn shirt with a brick red collar somberly shook our hands, then solemnly gave Amani a fist-bump.The principal explained that the kids at APSED school come from particularly bad situations, and that it is his job to encourage them. Many live with extended family or host families, having lost parents in the conflict. He singled out one little girl, showing how her right ankle and leg curved unnaturally out, making it difficult for her to walk and play. She was scared speechless by the cameras and the muzungus (white people), her lips moving, but making no sound. The serious boy, Bisimwa, volunteered to take her place, putting her out of her misery. Without cracking even the smallest smile, he told us how he likes science and nature, and plans to be a teacher. He lives with his dad, after his mother died.Ashuza stepped into frame, wearing an over-sized tee-shirt that nearly covered his blue shorts. He balanced easily on his right foot, his left foot twisted inward at a right angle. The principal explained that he was born with the defect, another reminder how few medical treatments are available or affordable here. Ashuza loves to read, and wants to be a doctor. They took the gifts of crayons and candy (snack-sized snickers, m&ms and twix) with a whispered "merci," and carefully put the chocolate in their pockets, to savor later.These children in eastern Congo have experienced only uncertainty, and seem to have a hard time envisioning a bright future. In response to Amani's question, "What is wrong with Congo," the kids at Burembo Elementary answered:• Hunger• Killings• People robbed going to and from mining areas• Rape against women should stop• Theft• Teachers should be paidWhen you were 6 or 10 or 12, did you even think about what was wrong in your country? How would you have answered the question? How can we create change so the next generation of Congolese kids answers differently?From Amani: Sub-Saharan Africa has over 30 million kids who have no access to education. Their countries governed by ill-intentioned politicians and warlords, they are often used as child soldiers for armed groups. The peace school will offer conflict besieged children a chance for an education, and act to prevent conflict by educating the young generation.

*The budget for the capital campaign to build a school, now titled Shalom Congo School, has been updated as of 9/2015.

Hope from Mumosho Sewing Workshop: Ernata's Story

Just pretend that we’re not here, said the two American Muzungus (white people).  As the women of the Mumosho Sewing Workshop huddled around the two instructors, we hovered over them with cameras, trying to find the right light in the small, dark room, lit only by two windows. The workshop was at capacity with peddle-powered Singer sewing machines, tables for ironing with a heavy iron filled with hot coals, and over 25 women, a couple who carry quiet, wide-eyed babies.

One woman, Ernata, had a hard time looking away from the camera, her smile wide and friendly and frequent.  A bright red-orange scarf added color to her simple white tee-shirt, and like every other woman in the workshop, a measuring tape hung from her neck.  Amani, who started this sewing program in his home village of Mumosho in 2009, explained the importance of the women sharing their stories with us, so that people in the U.S. and around the world could connect to them, individually, and feel a sense of sharing life and building this community through their support of the sewing workshop.

Ernata volunteered to be the first to talk with us, meeting us behind the building where ABFEK rents the room for the center.  Sitting on a simple wooden stool, ignoring the crows of a rooster and the questioning looks and giggles of a few neighborhood kids, she eyed the camera with confidence, and looked directly at us as she answered the questions Amani translated for her. 

Ernata was her Christian name, she told us, but her grandfather also named her Barhadosa. "Simply because my mother was suffering a lot," she explained. "She was facing domestic violence, and when she gave birth to me, my grandfather said my name would be Barhadosa.  My mom didn’t ask (permission) if she could marry my dad, into that family."  Barhadosa means "they never ask," Amani said.

Born into a society where women have very little rights or value and can be divorced without recourse for not bearing a male heir, Ernata’s own story has not turned out well. 

"My first marriage, I spent two years in my household.  I didn’t have any children, and I suffered a lot from my husband.  He kicked me out because I didn’t have any children.  After being kicked out by my first husband, I returned home, and spent six months at home.  Another man married me.  After about 6 to 7 months with my second husband, I could not conceive. He also kicked me out, divorced me."

Then came another man, from a different village, whose wife had died and left him with seven kids.  Ernata married for the third time, and after only three months, she conceived.  "I was blessed to have one child, a boy, but it was after surgery (a cesarean delivery).  After two years and three months, my only child died.  I was there, living with my husband, but I was afraid.  Six months had passed after my child died, and I hadn’t conceived again.  I was afraid, and things had changed again, become negative, with my husband."

Though he already has seven children, he wants another from Ernata.  "And me, too," she said. "Because if I have a child, I’m stable there." 

"I have a big wound inside my heart," Ernata told us. "If I don’t have children with my husband, he will kick my out.  I’m noticing some changes, bad behavior, from his family members, who might urge him to chase me (from the home)."

When asked what the village needs, to grow as a community, to provide better for its people, Ernata responded, "I don’t want to sound selfish, but I’m going to talk about the needs of women in this community.  The women need to learn more professional skills, to make sure they can take care of themselves."

The sewing workshop is well-known and respected in Mumosho, especially after its first graduation last September.  Due to support from quilters and seamstresses who donated through a fundraiser on Handmade by Alissa, Action Kivu / ABFEK was able to purchase sewing kits for the graduates, providing each women with her own sewing machine to start her business.

"Tell those women we love them, we are thankful for them," Ernata said with a smile.  "They helped the first program graduate.  I am in this program, and my hope is that I also get my own sewing machine, to make sure I can start my own business.  You understand, my life is very difficult.  I’m not sure I’m going to stay with my husband.  But if I’m not with him, I’ll have my sewing machine, I’ll go back to my parents, and I’ll be working for myself."

Ernata, who left school after the 5th grade and had never sewn before, is proud to be part of the sewing workshop.  "I heard about the sewing workshop from one of the trainers, who knows my story, who knows how I’ve been suffering, how men have been treating me.  I decided to come here, because I’m not sure if I’m going to stay there, in that household.  I want to learn professional skills to make sure I can take care of myself, that I can do something, become helpful to myself."

From California to Congo, Notes from the Field: Hope Happens

Greetings from Bukavu, Congo! We crossed the border into eastern Congo last week, to spend just over two weeks in the presence of Amani and the women and children he serves via ABFEK and Action Kivu. To see firsthand the sewing workshops, to meet the women gaining valuable skills and building community there, to say "Jambo!" (Hello!) to all the children who giggle wildly to see themselves on our cameras' digital displays. To visit the children sent to school by ABFEK's education assistance program and observe their classes. To shake many, many hands as we walk through the Peace Market to see the newly built latrine soon to be dedicated to the community there. To visit the goat project and the shared farm, and see the land where Amani envisions a Peace School, where the girls and boys in the surrounding villages can study without worries about tuition fees. Where the curriculum can be flexible to meet their needs, teaching not only maths, science, languages and art, but trauma therapies, animal husbandry and how to grow food to sustain the community. Amani wants a school that will educate and inspire the future leaders of the Congo in human rights.

We already knew that every penny we raised was going directly to the programs Amani has instigated, but being here, seeing it all in action, is inspiring. Amani is the unofficial Mayor of Mumosho, where he was born and raised, and a local celebrity in Bukavu, where he taught secondary school. Driving or walking down roads in either area, we are frequently stopped as people call to him, and he takes time to greet them warmly.

In only a few days of visits along the rutted road to Mumosho, a bone-jarring ride termed a "Congolese massage," we have met women who are leaders in their community. Excited by the trauma therapy training they're receiving from Gunilla of The Peaceful Heart Network, the women had the space and opportunity to share the stories of trauma in the community, from domestic violence that is too often the norm, to women's rights around marriage, land rights, and the birth of a son as heir. Amani listened with a troubled face as the conversation in the local Mashi dialect grew louder and more heated, and when we asked him to translate, and why he looked so upset, he said, "Because I am man, and men are doing such terrible things."

The women's stories are not falling on deaf or uncaring ears. Amani is a man of action, and before returning the class to a semblance of order to complete the trauma therapy training, he began brainstorming ideas for group meetings to discuss violence against women and women's rights, to provide a forum for discussion of women amongst women, men with men, and then bringing them together with the local leaders to educate men about equal rights. It might not change their behavior immediately, he admitted, but they will know they are doing wrong, and that others will be watching.

Everywhere we go we see faces of people, some traumatized and withdrawn, some open and smiling. The stories of atrocity and trauma are as numerous and varied as the handshakes we receive, but so are the stories of healing and hope. In her research for the book The Gifts of Imperfection, Dr. Brene Brown discovered that "hope is not an emotion, it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process." She quotes the research of C.R. Snyder, who defines hope as a trilogy of goals, pathways, and agency. "Hope happens when

• We have the ability to set realistic goals.
• We are able to figure out how to achieve those goals, including the ability to stay flexible and develop alternative routes.
• We believe in ourselves. 

Amani is the face of hope in Congo. In over a year of partnering with him, and in the week we've spent in his constant peaceful presence, we have witnessed him set realistic goals, find the necessary resources, move with grace and flexibility through the obstacles he faces from both people and the physical terrain. He not only believes in himself, he believes in the power of the people of the Congo, particularly women and girls.

More times than we can count, he has expressed overwhelming gratitude for you, the people who support Action Kivu and make possible all that is changing the lives of these women and children. We can't wait to share more stories, photos, and videos with you when we return to the U.S. and consistent power and internet connectivity.

"The human face is an artistic achievement. On such a small surface an incredible variety and intensity of presence can be expressed. This breadth of presence overflows the limitation of the physical form. No two faces are exactly the same. There is always a special variation of presence in each one. ... In a certain sense, the face is the icon of the body, the place where the inner world of the person becomes manifest. ... The face always reveals the soul; it is where the divinity of the inner life finds an echo and image. When you behold someone's face, you are gazing deeply into that person's life."
~ John O'Donohue, Anam Cara - A Celtic Book of Wisdom (pp 38,39)