What's it like to live and work in Goma right now?
Do you wonder how people live and work in Goma in the middle of the conflict? Do you wonder how the Congolese continue to work, go to school, farm, and write music in the circumstances of the country in the eastern provinces, with many armies and militias vying for power and control of the land?
Here's a blog from Harper McConnell, a young woman who grew up in Kansas, lived in Minnesota before coming to HEAL Africa as a volunteer in September 2006. She was sent by the Upper Room community in Edina in a new type of partnership model. She's been involved in developing the HEALing Arts program (skills training and school), and in new ways to help families keep kids in school. She's smart, sensitive, and has learned Swahili and French as she's lived in Goma this past year and a half. We're grateful for the way she gives of herself on a daily basis!
Judy Anderson
Here's Harper:
I am sitting on my balcony as the sun is setting. It rained a lot today so I can see the island which is about 20 km in lake in front of me. The mountains are a deep violet and its sharp points are balanced out by rolling contours. The sky is pink in the place where the horizon converges at the furthest point you can see.
But, outside of my house on the lake and right outside of Goma the beauty is completely demolished…it still exists tangibly but how could rural inhabitants notice it with the recent developments in the war? Since January 2007 over 370,000 people have been displaced in North Kivu province alone and new internal refugee camps have popped up surrounding Goma. About 80km away refugees are rioting against the UN peacekeeping troops for allowing Nkunda (the pro-RPF Rwandan backed rebel) to remain in their town in order to keep his supply line from Rwanda open as well as rioting against other non-profits who are filling the refugee registration process with complicated bureaucracy. There is an 18 year-old sharp mouthed, strong girl in the hospital who was shot in her hip by Nkunda’s soldiers and fled, but has no idea where her parents are. We brought back another bloody 18 year old with a shattered femur who had been hit by a huge truck. The 1 ½ drive back from the village was filled with excruciating anticipation of how every bump on the dirt road would hurt this boy laying on the floor of the car.
There is a boat pulling a wakeboarder blaring techno music driving past me right now on the lake just to show the dichotomy in living situations here.
War and insecurity hinders any type of development. HEAL Africa is a development focused organization rather than relief focused and so it adds an extra problem to our programs when we must concern ourselves with security. Despite this our staff is wonderful. In Maniema province we have someone doing extensive research on income generation grants and over 900 women from North Kivu have received fistula repair surgery as well as income generation grants to start a business or start cultivating when they return home. Our public health nurse has been invited by vying military factions and rebel groups to come and educate their troops about HIV AIDS and basic health care. We are starting a program called Gender and Justice which educates rural communities about the new constitution, the justice system, provides justice and gender relations curriculum in primary and secondary schools, and will establish 18 legal clinics throughout the province. We believe these are taking steps to developing a grassroots movement to enforce the law and deliver justice. We have had successful training seminars for health care professionals, pastors, and activists throughout the past several months at HEAL Africa. Participants came from all over the provinces seeking professional development so that they could do their job better.
The other day over lunch I was discussing with two of my best friends from Goma the feeling of complacency and victimhood that seems to permeate the population’s attitude towards the war. We all have fairly revolutionary attitudes, but they tried to get me to see how the mentality now has been shaped. Up until 1997, DRC (then Zaire) was ruled by Mobutu who brutally killed and tortured anyone who spoke against his regime and used the state treasury as his personal pocketbook. From the coup that overthrew Mobutu until present, different military and political groups have instilled an incredible fear in the population that if you criticize or involve yourself with the wrong people you will pay for it with your life. There is not a weekend that goes past without hearing some story about how someone was robbed or shot because he/she associated with someone from the other side, etc. This fear has inhibited any type of revolution of the people. If you go on a peace march through Goma tomorrow, several people will inevitably die that night at their homes.
These friends I was having the discussion with started a film, music, art, dance, and culture organization called Yole! Africa which has been operating for about 5 years and seeks to portray Africa in film and art through an African perspective. You can check out their website at http://www.alkebu.org/index1.html . They are trying to break this cycle of victimhood through film, art, music, and communication. They put on a 10 day film festival in Goma last month showing both fiction films and documentaries. Many of the documentaries focused on struggles for freedom in surrounding African countries and social issues many African countries have in common. One of the nights we had the festival at HEAL Africa. Government ministers attended as well as HEAL Africa staff, the youth of Goma, Yole Africa participants, non-profit foreign workers, and uneducated patients from the hospital who are from rural areas. The demographic that night was incredible and we all went away with hope and a bounce in our step because we were able to bring together completely different groups through film and art and have a constructive conversation between the different groups after the film.
Despite all the setbacks and discouragement with the recent increase in violence and insecurity I still am encouraged every day by my Congolese co-workers and friends. Though they are used to these situations as the regular ebb and flow of life, there is never a pervasive attitude of negativity, but instead a tireless attitude with the conviction that they are in the historic process of building their country.
peace,
harper
ps. If you would like to read more regular updates please check out my blog at www.where-is-harper.blogspot.com
Here's a blog from Harper McConnell, a young woman who grew up in Kansas, lived in Minnesota before coming to HEAL Africa as a volunteer in September 2006. She was sent by the Upper Room community in Edina in a new type of partnership model. She's been involved in developing the HEALing Arts program (skills training and school), and in new ways to help families keep kids in school. She's smart, sensitive, and has learned Swahili and French as she's lived in Goma this past year and a half. We're grateful for the way she gives of herself on a daily basis!
Judy Anderson
Here's Harper:
I am sitting on my balcony as the sun is setting. It rained a lot today so I can see the island which is about 20 km in lake in front of me. The mountains are a deep violet and its sharp points are balanced out by rolling contours. The sky is pink in the place where the horizon converges at the furthest point you can see.
But, outside of my house on the lake and right outside of Goma the beauty is completely demolished…it still exists tangibly but how could rural inhabitants notice it with the recent developments in the war? Since January 2007 over 370,000 people have been displaced in North Kivu province alone and new internal refugee camps have popped up surrounding Goma. About 80km away refugees are rioting against the UN peacekeeping troops for allowing Nkunda (the pro-RPF Rwandan backed rebel) to remain in their town in order to keep his supply line from Rwanda open as well as rioting against other non-profits who are filling the refugee registration process with complicated bureaucracy. There is an 18 year-old sharp mouthed, strong girl in the hospital who was shot in her hip by Nkunda’s soldiers and fled, but has no idea where her parents are. We brought back another bloody 18 year old with a shattered femur who had been hit by a huge truck. The 1 ½ drive back from the village was filled with excruciating anticipation of how every bump on the dirt road would hurt this boy laying on the floor of the car.
There is a boat pulling a wakeboarder blaring techno music driving past me right now on the lake just to show the dichotomy in living situations here.
War and insecurity hinders any type of development. HEAL Africa is a development focused organization rather than relief focused and so it adds an extra problem to our programs when we must concern ourselves with security. Despite this our staff is wonderful. In Maniema province we have someone doing extensive research on income generation grants and over 900 women from North Kivu have received fistula repair surgery as well as income generation grants to start a business or start cultivating when they return home. Our public health nurse has been invited by vying military factions and rebel groups to come and educate their troops about HIV AIDS and basic health care. We are starting a program called Gender and Justice which educates rural communities about the new constitution, the justice system, provides justice and gender relations curriculum in primary and secondary schools, and will establish 18 legal clinics throughout the province. We believe these are taking steps to developing a grassroots movement to enforce the law and deliver justice. We have had successful training seminars for health care professionals, pastors, and activists throughout the past several months at HEAL Africa. Participants came from all over the provinces seeking professional development so that they could do their job better.
The other day over lunch I was discussing with two of my best friends from Goma the feeling of complacency and victimhood that seems to permeate the population’s attitude towards the war. We all have fairly revolutionary attitudes, but they tried to get me to see how the mentality now has been shaped. Up until 1997, DRC (then Zaire) was ruled by Mobutu who brutally killed and tortured anyone who spoke against his regime and used the state treasury as his personal pocketbook. From the coup that overthrew Mobutu until present, different military and political groups have instilled an incredible fear in the population that if you criticize or involve yourself with the wrong people you will pay for it with your life. There is not a weekend that goes past without hearing some story about how someone was robbed or shot because he/she associated with someone from the other side, etc. This fear has inhibited any type of revolution of the people. If you go on a peace march through Goma tomorrow, several people will inevitably die that night at their homes.
These friends I was having the discussion with started a film, music, art, dance, and culture organization called Yole! Africa which has been operating for about 5 years and seeks to portray Africa in film and art through an African perspective. You can check out their website at http://www.alkebu.org/index1.html . They are trying to break this cycle of victimhood through film, art, music, and communication. They put on a 10 day film festival in Goma last month showing both fiction films and documentaries. Many of the documentaries focused on struggles for freedom in surrounding African countries and social issues many African countries have in common. One of the nights we had the festival at HEAL Africa. Government ministers attended as well as HEAL Africa staff, the youth of Goma, Yole Africa participants, non-profit foreign workers, and uneducated patients from the hospital who are from rural areas. The demographic that night was incredible and we all went away with hope and a bounce in our step because we were able to bring together completely different groups through film and art and have a constructive conversation between the different groups after the film.
Despite all the setbacks and discouragement with the recent increase in violence and insecurity I still am encouraged every day by my Congolese co-workers and friends. Though they are used to these situations as the regular ebb and flow of life, there is never a pervasive attitude of negativity, but instead a tireless attitude with the conviction that they are in the historic process of building their country.
peace,
harper
ps. If you would like to read more regular updates please check out my blog at www.where-is-harper.blogspot.com
posted by The HEAL Africa Team @ 6:46 PM
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