[thermometer raised=2428 target=3500 width=150px align=left currency=$ alt=‘Thank you for the donations!’ trailing=false] As we enter the holiday season, we reflect on the generosity of our Action Kivu family - you! Though we can't all gather around a table to celebrate and thank you in person, we gather online, in emails and Facebook posts and Instagram photos, to share stories of the lives of the children and women, siblings and mothers, who have new hope because of your support. We're asking you to help us reach our $3500 goal to gather 300 kids together in Mumosho to celebrate with a pair of shoes, clothes, and a holiday meal, often the only shoes and clothes they'll receive all year.
Many of the children in our Action Kivu family have lost a mother, a father, or both parents to the ongoing conflict in Congo. They are "silent victims of violence," as this NYT piece reports, and "over 4 million kids have been orphaned in Congo."
"These children have grown up amid conflict fueled by ethnic strife and the fight over Congo's valuable minerals. The violence and displacement are eroding the tradition of families caring for their own."The breakdown in family means some orphans are forced to look after themselves and their younger siblings. Some are vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups. And many also face sexual exploitation, in a country where rape has become commonplace on the streets."'They are the orphans with a story of violence since 1994 — it's a generation of victims that continues,' says Francisca Ichimpaye, a senior monitor at the En Avant Les Enfants INUKA center. And the children 'lose their story in the violence.'" We'll share some of the stories of the kids we know to let them know that their stories are not lost. Kids like Arsene, who last year told us: ”I am so happy again today because the red t-shirt I am wearing was given to me last year at the Christmas Celebration. I have nobody since my father passed away 4 years ago. I am in school because of your support, every year I get a new pair of shorts and a shirt or a T-shirt and a pair of shoes.”
Please visit our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter page to help us share their stories and ask others to join you in investing in the kids and women of Congo. And please consider giving this week to buy shoes, clothes, and a meal for 300 of these kids in Mumosho!
Microloan Mom Bahati: A Life-Saving Loan
The power, if accessible in remote areas of eastern Congo, is off more often than on. Bahati sits in her small shop, selling the vegetables and fruit that grow in this lush part of eastern Congo as well as odds and ends, flour, canned food, and the batteries that are necessary in an area with poor infrastructure or no access to electricity.But because of your partnership in Action Kivu's work, Bahati has access to a different kind of power, the Power in Unity Microloan group. Created and organized by a group of entrepreneurial women, the women pay forward an original investment, each borrower paying back part of her profit to provide the funds for a new member to take a loan for a small business.Her husband has no job, so Bahati's loan was life-saving. They were struggling to feed their children. Starting with her $100 loan in 2013, Bahati began her small shop, and began to not only feed her kids, but send her children to school - five of her seven children are now receiving an education, and she plans to send the youngest to school when they are old enough."This business has helped me because I can pay school fees for my children and also feed them," Bahati tells us. "I saved some money and I bought a pig. I repaid the loan I borrowed and I have an amount of $130, this is what I gained." Bahati sends her thanks and blessings to you, Action Kivu partners, who make these life-changing programs possible.“The story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all.” ~ Frederick Buechner
Connect with the women and kids in Congo:
- Microloan Moms: Adherents of Hope Writing the Future of Congo
- Microloan Mom Faida's Miracle
- Mama Aimericiane: Accomplishment and Vision [Sewing Workshop Graduate]
Dig deeper: Donate today to invest in this life-changing work!
Water is Life: The Lasting Impact of the Mumosho Water Project in Gender Equality and Education [Congo]
When Amani asked what this water tap means to this little boy, he replied: Let me show you!
Our partner Amani Matabaro's leadership in his local Bukavu Mwangaza Rotary Club made water flow into areas where people previously had no access to clean drinking water. Thanks to a Global Grant facilitated by the Montecito Rotary club, Amani was in charge of overseeing the project implemented by the Mumosho Local Water Committee. The task was to build one large reservoir and repair three existing reservoirs in Mumosho, where Action Kivu works with Amani in vocational training, education, and community building programs.Amani does not settle for what is, but asks: what might be? And in this case, his community organizing turned the 22 water taps scheduled to go in to six villages into 51 taps that now serve 12 villages! Mark Magid, a representative of the Montecito Rotary Club, traveled from California to Congo to witness the work, and was amazed by the success of the project, that also included repairing 30 dysfunctional taps, so there are 81 newly working water taps.How did Amani more than double the impact of the grant? We witness this in his work with Action Kivu every day – how Amani engages people in his passion, giving them ownership of the project. He invests his time: connecting with individuals, community leaders, church priests and pastors, and small groups of people. Once they’ve embraced the vision, in this case – access to clean water for their communities – they reach out to bring others on board. The community also talked to their children who had moved away from Mumosho, and found one person able to donate 150 pipes to the project. Local workers volunteered their labor.The water project now provides the Mumosho Health Center with a water tank and a tap to ensure clean water is available there, especially for the maternity clinic. The grant requires training for the water committee to maintain the reservoirs and taps, as well as instruction in water testing, sanitation, and the components of water and peace, and the protection of water infrastructures.In more ways than one, water is life. The project is also training the community on gender equality: shattering myths and long held traditions, the training teaches men and boys that collecting water is NOT only women’s work, it is everyone’s responsibility. The training also highlights the importance of education – children should be in school, not walking long distances or waiting in long lines for water. The increased number of taps means shorter wait time for life-giving water.We’re honored to work with Amani and invest in the various ways his tremendous community building leadership creates lasting change in Congo. Please read more about his life-changing programs on our blog, and consider investing in this work through a one-time or monthly donation today!
- Namwezi to Antoinette: My Goat is Your Goat
- Tearing Down Taboos: HIV Education Saves Lives in Congo
- Meet Mama Aimericiane: Accomplishment and Vision in Congo [Sewing Workshop Graduate]
- Women and Girls Grow a Healthy Congo: Field Report from Action Kivu's Shared Farm
Mama Aimericiane: Accomplishment and Vision in Congo
Four years ago, Aimericiane was unsure how to feed her six kids, let alone find the funds for their education. When she heard about Action Kivu's Sewing Workshop, she enrolled as quickly as possible to learn the skills and business training that would help her create a new life for her family.During her eight months of sewing training, Aimerciane continued to help her husband cultivate their field, the only source of income and food for their family. Daily survival was difficult, and farm labor typically yields around $1 per day of work. They could not afford the six to ten dollars per month, per child, to send to their six children to school.Aimerciane graduated the Sewing Workshop in 2012, and is proud to report that with the sewing machine she received at graduation, she started her own business. Four years later, with weddings, special events, and regular customers, she averages earning $60 USD a week."I am so proud of myself, and proud of my business because it has helped me to solve so many problems in my family: now I am able to pay for school, food, clothes, and the hospital for all my children," Aimerciane tells us. "With my sewing machine I earned money to buy a $40 table where I can put my machine. Before children start school, I sew uniforms, and earn around $150."My vision is to work hard, to become a great seamstress and also to buy a plot of land where I’ll build my cutting and sewing workshop, a place that will allow me to train others, people who are in need. I say thank you so much to ABFEC (Action Kivu's Congolese partner) because they gave me knowledge and they changed my life. I pray for them to prosper and expand in the whole word. God bless them."
Read more about how investing in the women and children of Congo through Action Kivu transforms lives!
- Adolphine's Story of Hope: It's Never to Late to Learn
- Namwezi to Antoinette: My Goat is Your Goat
- Tearing Down Taboos: HIV Education Saves Lives in Congo
Adolphine's Story of Hope: It's Never Too Late to Learn
The rainy season in the Sub-Saharan country of Congo makes many of the dirt roads in its eastern corner impassable, and the journey to school almost impossible. The road to an education for girls, in a culture where they are not valued as equal to boys, is fraught with even more barriers, from extreme poverty to early marriage. But Mama Adolphine never gave up hope.In 2012, a study conducted by UNESCO and UNICEF revealed that 52.7 per cent of the 7.3 million children out of school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — some 3.8 million children — are girls. Among the obstacles to girls’ education are low family incomes and lack of school infrastructure. And according to A World at School, in some areas of the DRC, "around 70% of children who start primary school will drop out before the end of school. If you’re a girl, the risks of dropping out are even higher – as many as 77% of girls drop out of primary school in some areas of the country. ... Early marriage contributes to the low secondary school attendance for girls."Aldophine doesn't need to be reminded of these statistics - she lived them. Her parents did not think it important to spend money on their daughter's education. "Women did not have any right to go to school," she says. "But I liked studies so much. I never lost hope that one day I would study."Adolphine is 60 and the mother of six. Two of her daughters are married, four of her children are in school, and Adolphine is now a student in Action Kivu's Literacy Program.
"I am learning how to write and read," Adolphine reports. "I am very happy because now I can read my bible, I can choose and write the name of the candidate I want when there is an election in my country."The Literacy Program is the entry point to all of Action Kivu's vocational trainings - teaching girls and women to read and write gives them the first tools needed to run their own businesses upon receiving skills training in sewing, bread baking, basket weaving, and the micro-loan project. To support this critical step in the road to equality for women and girls, please consider a monthly donation!Adolphine is an inspiration: it is never too late to learn!Read other stories from the girls and women in our Literacy Program here.
Namwezi to Antoinette: My Goat is Your Goat
In Shi culture, the dominant tribe in the areas where we work in eastern Congo, a goat represents good standing in the community, as they are payment for dowries in marriage, or given as gifts as a sign of cementing goodwill and friendship. They've also come to represent the rooting in connection and community inherent in Action Kivu's programs. In "My Goat is Your Goat," one family's goat becomes the mother of the next family's goat, passing one kid forward, growing the family, one goat at a time.
$80 is the cost of buying one goat for a family in Congo, and Action Kivu is working to raise funds to buy more goats to expand the program in Congo, which currently serves 600 people in area of 50,000. Our goal for 2017 is to buy milk goats from Uganda ($185 to purchase and properly transport the goat to Mumosho, DRC), to expand the animal husbandry program to milking and making cheese, not only to combat the malnutrition that is a cause of death for children under 5, but to provide new entrepreneurial opportunities for the women in Congo to earn income and invest in the future of their children!Consider a monthly donation to Action Kivu today!
Meet Brigitte: Stories of Hope and a New Future in Congo
Read more about Brigitte in the following stories:
- To Achieve Their Dreams: All Together Against HIV/AIDS (Congo)
- New People, New Actions, New Congo: Christmas Celebration and New Year Resolutions
To partner with Action Kivu, click here.
Harvest Party + Goats to Benefit Action Kivu's Work in Congo
$50 suggested donation for those 21 + older (kids are free) | RSVP today!
When: Sunday, October 30th, 4 to 6pmWhere: 3293 Fryman Road, Studio City 91604What: Grab a date or your kid, come carve some chèvre and pumpkins, clink glasses of wine, and pet a goat's kid as we raise money for Action Kivu's work in Congo!Alongside their goat co-hosts Bootz & Meadow, hosts Jennifer and Jonas Pate welcome you to their beautiful home in Fryman Canyon.Come celebrate the success stories of the graduates of our programs in Congo, girls and women who now have hope and a path out of poverty to be able to change the future of their communities. Hear updates on the latest from Mumosho, and learn more about the My Goat is Your Goat animal husbandry program, and our goal to grow it to make goat cheese in Congo! We're excited about creating greater business opportunities for the women and their families, as well as combating the epidemic of malnutrition in kids in Mumosho.We clearly love kids: all ages are welcome, under 21 is free! Please note in your PayPal donation "note to seller" or in a message to us (actionkivu@gmail.com) if you need more than one pumpkin per donation. Carving tools will be provided, but feel free to bring your own. Light bites and kid snacks (human AND goat friendly) will be served.Learn more:Virtually travel to Congo to meet Amani, our partner and inspiring leader, here.Learn more about our My Goat is Your Goat program (and the difference between a goat and a sheep): “Our goat is our wealth,” says Nshokano Patrick. “We’ll bring back one of these small goats to ABFEC [Action Kivu’s partner organization in Congo] and keep one small goat and the big goat. My mom has said she will sell our small goat for her to start a small business to make sure she can start taking care of us.”Read all about Action Kivu's programs on our blog.
Tearing Down Taboos: HIV Education Saves Lives in Congo
To shake off the stigma that surrounds AIDS and HIV testing, our partner Amani volunteered to be publicly tested at the opening of World Soccer Day this September 25th. Funded by the Dillon Henry Foundation, the tournament brought together 8 teams of footballers to play it out on the pitch, 4 of which were girls’ teams, a first in Mumosho, which explained the crowd of 4000 spectators.In front of the crowd gathered at the Mumosho Women’s Center, Amani stepped forward to have his blood taken by Nurse Jeanine for an HIV test, and was quickly followed by one of the star players from the community, a young man geared up for the game. Shortly after him, a line formed to be tested, as kids and community members signed on to learn more about the disease, and how to stop it from spreading.
One week earlier, on a hot September Sunday afternoon in Mumosho, Congo, a slight breeze stirred the air in the sparse room of the church where Nurse Jeanine sat in front of 45 students and community members. Though they had just started the school year, these students were spending their Sunday in a different kind of class, learning the facts about HIV/AIDS, so that they could share their education with their peers and family members. Sub Saharan Africa represents almost 70% of the total new HIV infections in the world, according to UN AIDS. Nurse Jeanine, Amani, and the kids and community leaders of eastern Congo learning about the disease intend to change that.
“HIV / AIDS is considered taboo in Congolese society, thus the high risk of going untested and spreading HIV. The message of education about HIV/AIDS can deeply penetrate the fabric of society, and literally save lives,” says our partner and community leader, Amani Matabaro.Working in tandem with Amani’s community building programs and vocational / educational training workshops, Nurse Jeanine is committed to changing how the new generation of Congolese thinks about HIV/AIDS, spending much of her time in the villages of Mumosho, proctoring tests and raising awareness to the facts about living with the disease, while not passing it on.The determiner kits that Jeanine uses to test on site for HIV offer an immediate reading of whether the person shows the signs of HIV/AIDS, at which point she contacts them confidentially, and schedules a full blood test at a nearby hospital for the conclusive results. With those results, the person is then referred to Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, or the local clinic in Nyantende for treatment with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.Even then, knowing they are HIV positive, many people in eastern Congo ask to be sent to a clinic in neighboring Rwanda, terrified that their family, friends, and neighbors might find out they contracted the disease. Thus, the critical, life-saving aspect of Amani and Nurse Jeanine’s program ALL TOGETHER AGAINST HIV/AIDS consists of diversified activities centered in the community, with a focus on settings with large populations such as schools, churches, and community-based organizations in eastern DRC. Thanks to the generosity of Robin Wright and Karen Fowler’s company Pour Les Femmes, Action Kivu currently pays Nurse Jeanine a monthly stipend that helps with her tireless work, but the HIV field test-kits are paid for out of Amani’s pocket at $25 per kit, and each tests 80 individuals. If you would like to give toward covering that cost as well as for Nurse Jeanine’s assistant, please donate today, and in your PayPal “note to seller” mark HIV. We are grateful for your investment in this life-changing work!
Songs of Hope from Congo: There is Peace Here! Hear Our Voices, Oh You, the World
"There is peace here. Hear our voices, oh you, the world!"Celebrate with the girls and women of Action Kivu's Sewing Workshop Class of 2016! Thanks to donors like you, the sewing community who donates via Alissa Haight Carlton's fundraiser, and our partners Stand With Congo and Pour Les Femmes, 63 women and girls graduated this year with the skills and sewing machines to start their own businesses.Check out a sneak peek of the video from the graduation celebration, and stay tuned for more stories from the women!