Heroes of Healing in Congo: Dr. Denis Mukwege & Amani Matabaro

This past weekend in Ethiopia, a Peace Accord was signed to attempt to end decades of conflict in Congo. According to reports, despite this encouraging step, the accord does not specify enough detail or plan of action, and there are signs of a return to fighting between the Congolese government and the M23 rebels.

That same weekend, a celebration of peace was held in eastern Congo, as the Bukavu Rotary Club honored 108 years of the Rotary Foundation. Dr. Denis Mukwege, the main speaker at the event, is a hero of healing whose Panzi Hospital has served multitudes of women in the war-torn region. Mukwege only recently returned to Bukavu after an attempt on his life in October of 2012. Amani, a member of the Bukavu Rotary and friend of Dr. Mukwege, noted that the doctor is a great inspiration to him.

Mukwege addressed the Rotary gathering in light of their theme, "Peace and Global Understanding," and Peace through Service. "I was renewed by  his moving speech," Amani wrote. "[It] gave me hope again in the fight to end  war and poverty and injustice by not only empowering the most impoverished communities to help themselves here in the Eastern Congo, starting in Mumosho, but also making our voices heard to the international community and regional policy makers!  I was encouraged when Dr Mukwege said: 'It's high time we stood up and fight corruption, impunity and injustice and no, no to the balkanization of Congo.'"  Amani added, "Violence against women should stop once and for all!"

Dr. Mukwege addresses the Bukavu Rotary Club, Feb 2013.

The Rotary's celebration of peace started Friday in Mumosho, where Rotary leaders met with ABFEK / Action Kivu's hero of healing and peace, Amani Matabaro. In honor of the  celebration, Amani opened the new Mumosho Women's Center. Still needing funds and work to be completed, Amani gave a tour of the center, which will house Empower Congo Women's teen-mother program, giving a year of safe shelter and skills-training to 10 young mothers, empowering them to provide for themselves and their children.  The center will house Action Kivu's multiple projects, including our literacy programs, skills-training workshops, and a workspace for graduates of the sewing workshop. It will also serve as a community gathering place, hosting forums and trainings toward building peace in the family, in the community, and in Congo.

Amani explains how the Mumosho Women's Center will serve the community.

A leader of the Bukavu Rotary speaking at the Mumosho Women's Center.

A group of young mothers in Mumosho.

More to come on the opening of the Women's Center!  If you'd like to partner with us in covering the costs of the construction, please note that in a donation.  All donations go directly to the programs already running, but the need is great, and we're excited to grow with your partnership!

When I Think of Beauty - Gifts of Possibility

"When I think of the word "beauty," some of the faces of those that I love come into my mind. When I think of beauty I also think of beautiful landscapes that I know. Then I think of acts of such lovely kindness that have been done to me, by people that cared for me, in bleak unsheltered times or when I needed to be loved and minded. I also think of those unknown people who are the real heroes for me, who you never hear about, who hold out on lines — on frontiers of awful want and awful situations and manage somehow to go beyond the given impoverishments and offer gifts of possibility and imagination and seeing."

~John O'Donohue, from "The Inner Landscape of Beauty"  (Listen to the full piece at On Being.)

 (Photo by Cate Haight)

Safi's Story: Sewing to Support Her Mother

"The vehemence of emotion, stirred by grief and love within me, was claiming mastery, and struggling for full sway; and asserting a right to predominate: to overcome, to live, rise, and reign at last; yes, — and to speak."
~ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

As we listened to Safi softly answer our questions in Swahili, I remembered how important it is, that moment you speak up, you find your voice, discover not only what you want to say, but what you need to say.

Safi, at the Bukavu Sewing Workshop

On our visit to Congo, we met more and more women in workshops and classes, in the fields and at their homes, and asked to hear their stories, not of rape or abuse, but of daily life, daily struggles, and hopes for the next day to come.  We began to hear individual voices growing stronger in clarity and volume, and the shared voice of place, of community began to form a song.

Safi, 17 years old, had little to do before she discovered the Bukavu Sewing Workshop. Her father had abandoned her family, and she was too poor to have gone to school. Her face brightened as she shared with us how much she loves her mother, and likes to cook and help take care of her mom when she returns from her back-breaking work of transporting goods and wares across the nearby border to Rwanda.

When Safi discovered the Bukavu Sewing Workshop, she found a place where she could learn skills that will help her mother.  Young and still shy with us, strangers to her, we saw how sharing her story made her stronger, and wanted to share it with you. When asked what she would tell you, partners of Action Kivu in the U.S. and around the world, she asked that God might pour blessings on you, and said, "We will never forget them in our lives."

A woman carrying a load of bricks, for which she will be paid approximately $1 USD for a day's work.

(Photo credits: 1. Safi sharing her story, photographed by Cate Haight, 2 & 3 Women working, photographed by Amani Matabaro)

Meet JD Stier, Action Kivu's New Board Member

When Amani first introduced us to JD Stier, the Campaign Manager for Enough Project's Raise Hope for Congo, we were excited to have another friend and ally in our work in eastern Congo, especially one with so much experience.  Little did we know what the future would hold.

JD's enthusiasm knows no bounds, and his heart for Amani, Action Kivu and the women and children of Congo have been evident through his own work and his unending support of Action Kivu.  JD oversaw the creation of Enough's "I am Congo" video series which so beautifully shares Amani's story and his life's work.

We are honored to have JD join our board, and welcome his insight, intelligence, and compassion in leading and partnering with Action Kivu this new year! 

JD Stier (right) with Amani (left) and Fidel (middle) in Amani's ABFEK offices in Bukavu, DRC.

Born in Georgia, USA to a civil rights attorney father and a mother deeply connected to her church, JD was raised with a respect for social justice and fighting inequality. JD has fought for social justice, environmental protection, and youth affected by gangs and drugs throughout his life.

While studying at the University of Wisconsin, he traveled to Africa with his housemate and friend Kou, a former Lost Boy from Sudan, on his homecoming trip in 2002. Through that and numerous trips back to east and central Africa, JD grew to know and increasingly fight for the people he came to call friends and the communities he now considers an extension of his home.

JD has held leadership positions within numerous campaigns, including the 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign, leading to a Presidential Appointment in the White House in 2009.

After serving in the White House JD was tapped to lead the Enough Project's Raise Hope for Congo Campaign. Under his leadership, the campaign increased public pressure on the electronic industry to further address their role in cleaning the conflict minerals supply chain. In 2012, Raise Hope for Congo highlighted Congolese activists, including Amani, in the I Am Congo documentary series. The campaign also initiated a gold campaign calling on the jewelry industry to lead the way to a clean gold sector in eastern Congo.

He is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, advocating for solutions to the crisis in eastern Congo. He asked Apple for increased leadership addressing conflict minerals; partnered to raise awareness of the crisis in Congo; and asked President Obama to increase his engagement in eastern Congo.

JD has forged a friendship and partnership with Amani, spending time together throughout eastern Congo as well as in Washington, D.C. JD holds Action Kivu and Amani in the highest regards and is deeply passionate about supporting Action Kivu's life-saving community-building work.

Top of the Class: Girls Sent to School by Action Kivu Supporters

As school begins again this January, Amani wrote that three of the top students at Horebu Elementary are supported by Action Kivu. And that they are girls, which is a great success in a region where girls are often not sent to school solely because of their gender.

Amani, with three of the top students at Horebu Elementary

From the right, meet Feza, who lost both her parents to HIV/AIDS. With your financial support, Feza is now in grade 5 of elementary school, although at 15, she should be in grade 3 of secondary school. After her parents died, she moved in with her grandmother, who is a widow and has had no means to pay for Feza's school. She likes mathematics and is determined to become a medical doctor.

Second from the right is Asifiwe, who is 13 and is in grade 4. Asifiwe and her six siblings lost their father, who died in the conflict. She is the only child of the seven in her family who goes to school.

And on Amani's left is Mapenzi, who is 10 and is in grade 2. Mapenzi also lost her father. At the top of her class, Amani notes she is extremely intelligent with 92% average in school.

Amani included this group shot of many of the children at Horebu Elementary, signing his email: "I love these kids and they give me hope!"

Reading these words from Amani, and reading Brené Brown's new book Daring Greatly,  a previous blog post came to mind, on the definition of hope:

Dr. Brené 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 partnering with him, 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, translating that hope and belief into their lives.

By partnering with the women and children in Congo, you're telling them their stories matter, and you believe in them, too.

(For more student stories, click here to read "Back to School Stories: Hope and Thanks from Congo)

We Belong to Each Other: Aime's Dreams of Sharing her Sewing Skills

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.   ~Mother Teresa

The eldest of six, with four sisters and one brother, Aime and her siblings had to leave their home in Kinshasa, Congo's capital city, and move 940 miles east to Bukavu. Both their parents had died, and the six children had to move to the eastern city to stay with Aime's father’s family.

Moving was very difficult. “I am having a tough time here, because nobody is taking care of us. In Kinshasa it was okay because we had parents who were taking care of us,”  Aime told us in a small office behind the Bukavu Sewing Workshop.

"I went to school, but in the third year of secondary school, I had to quit, I was not able to keep going.  When I was in school, I dreamed of becoming somebody who could help other people."

Aime discovered the Sewing Workshop in Bukavu when she saw a group of women together on the street talking.  Curious as to why they were gathered, she approached them, and met Amini, Amani's wife and the lead trainer at the workshop.  When Aime learned that girls and women were being trained as seamstresses, for no charge, to be able to earn their own income, she asked to join the program. No, it was too late in the term, Amini told her. But, "When I explained my problems, when I explained my situation, that I had come from Kinshasa, that I had lost my parents, she [Amini] welcomed me, even though it was a little bit late."

Aime is 25, and some of the girls in the sewing workshop are as young as 15.  "In the program, [age does not matter] older, younger, we are all one, we are all friends," Aime explained.

She was eager to share her goals with us, dreams that had not changed since she was a secondary school student, her hopes for an education to share with others.  "As soon as I graduate from this program, I am going to gather all the orphans and other people around me who are unable to take care of themselves, and help them, to create conditions where I am able to help them.  I don’t want to keep what I’m learning for myself, I want to make sure I train other people who have difficulties."

To many, Aime seems to have nothing, but to her, an education and vocational training has empowered her to live her dream of serving others with her knowledge.  With her generous spirit, she's always thinking of others, even when asked what she would say to you, the partners of the workshop through Action Kivu:  "Thank you. We love you. [You] should not keep on helping only this group, but think of other people who are suffering, too." 

To help women like Aime realize these goals, please consider a donation to Action Kivu today! 

(Photo by Cate Haight)