Report, October 14, 2011
By David Zarembka, AGLI Coordinator
The program was divided into two areas, Goma, the capital of North Kivu, and Masisi, an up-country community.
Goma: The project proposed AIDS testing, literacy classes, sewing/cooking classes, and a micro-credit loan program for fifty rape survivors.
The AIDS testing program ended up being more difficult than anticipated as the women were afraid that if they tested positive they would be sent out of the program. With extra counseling thirty-seven members were tested in June. and two were HIV positive. These two decided to run away, but were later found and given individual counseling. The remaining thirteen were tested in July.
The literacy classes were completed and the students did an exam in writing, reading, and some simple math.
The sewing machines were purchased along with sewing materials. The sewing program for the first twenty-five participants is nearly finished. Those in the sewing class will take their exam in September and be able to make and sell clothes commercially as their business. Then the remaining twenty-five women will begin their sewing classes.
The micro-credit seminar was conducted in June and the first loans were given out in July and $551 has already been reimbursed to the group. The July report states “We can see some positive changes in the lives of our beneficiaries.”
Since this first group of fifty rape survivors has finished their program, a second group of fifty rape survivors is being recruited. The first fifty women will then be mentors of the second group.
Agathe Bahati, the HROC coordinator in Goma, North Kivu - see her story on pages 182 to 183 in my book, A Peace of Africa - related these two stories to me when I visited in September. In eastern Congo, when a woman is raped, she is ostracized by her community with her husband, father, and brothers expelling her from her home. She and her kids, if she has any, must then fend for themselves as best they can. One of the objectives of the program is to develop support groups for these women. Agathe implemented his idea. Once each week, forty-nine of the women visit the fiftieth woman. Each woman brings a “little something.” It cannot be much because these women are poor, but if forty-nine people each brings a little it adds up to a lot. The woman who is being visited naturally cleans up where she lives and does the best she can to welcome her peers. The neighbors also notice that this woman, who has been ostracized, has many friends. These rape survivors who have lost their community have in effect created a new one.
This leads to the second story. Once a visitor was addressing the group of rape survivors and she asked, “Who are Hutu?” All the women raised their hand. “Who is Hunde?” All raised their hand. “Who is Kumu?” All raised their hand. These are the various tribes in the Goma area. If only the politicians in the region would do as these women did there would be a lot more peace!
Testimonies:
Kahindo Nabakatsi from Masisi is 41 years old and the mother of six children; the oldest is 20 years old and the youngest is 7 years old. She joined the group in 2009. She comes from a family of seven children and never attended school. When her youngest child was three months old, Kahindo joined seven other women from her village to go and look for firewood. As they were in the bush, two armed men approached them. Four of the women managed to escape and three couldn’t because they were carrying babies on their backs. They were raped at gun point. Soon the news got to Kahindo’s husband. Instead of coming to her rescue, he decided to abandon her. Through our program she has received counseling and is shaping her own future. Kahindo now knows how to read and write. With the loan ($60) she can afford a meal for her children. She is also excited because she tested HIV negative. She is grateful for all. Her recommendation is that we should continue teaching them skills that will help them make a living like baking mandazi and chapatti (baked goods).
*****
Iramumpaye Geneviva from Masisi is 40 years old; the mother of five children, and a widow whose husband died in 2000. The oldest child is 18 years the youngest is 18 months. In January 2009, Geneviva left the Mugunga IDP camp to go back to the village to check on one of her children who remain in the village with her grandmother. On her way back to Goma, she met three armed men in half military uniform. They all raped her at a gunpoint in front of her ten year old son and she conceived her youngest baby, Laetitia, who she is holding in the photo below. Geneviva didn’t know how to read and write but now she can write a letter. “I am glad I learnt how to read and write for free,” she says.
With the loan of $50 she sells Irish potatoes. She can afford a meal for her family.
She is grateful to God for she was tested HIV negative.
*****
N.nsengiyumva Zawadi from Mweso is 30 years old and has five children. She was kidnapped at age fourteen when she was on her way back from school and was taken far from her village. When her parents reunited with her she had three children and had been abandoned by her husband who battered her. During the war, she fled to the Mugunga IDP camp where in late 2008 a young man approached her and they began living together but all didn’t go well as she thought. When the camps closed down, the man began mistreating her and he later abandoned her leaving her with a baby. Through our program she has been counseled. She got a loan of $50 and this allows her to do catering to meet some of her family needs so she doesn't have to look for casual jobs at construction sites. Now she is learning to sew and can make a baby girls’ dress, a shirt and shorts. She is also thankful to God for she tested HIV negative. She can see a bright future.
*****
Nyamitaba, Masisi: The project in Nyamitaba includes AIDS testing, literacy classes, sewing/cooking classes, and an agricultural project for a group of fifty rape survivors.
There were problem with the AIDS testing as the women did not want to be seen going to the hospital to be tested.
The literacy program was complete in August. Nine began the classes, but two dropped out because they gave birth. They will need to continue practicing their skills.
By the end of August, the women in the sewing class had learned how to make dresses and were beginning to learn how to make shirts and shorts.
For the agricultural project, Irish potatoes, cabbages, and onions were planted. The potato crop was doing well until heavy rains infected them. The potatoes were sprayed, but this was not sufficient to keep them healthy. As a result only a small harvest resulted and they will save the eight bags of potatoes for seed for the next season.
The group plans to do the Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) workshop with all fifty rape survivors since they had not yet gone through the program.
What impact has this project had on your organization?
People are very interested in this project. So much so that they have donated sufficient funds for AGLI to purchase a one acre plot of ground on the road from Goma to Mugunga where the IDP camp used to be. The intent is to build a safe place for the rape survivors to meet and hold their various workshops and trainings. Funds that would be going for rent can be used to construct buildings on the property. This implies a long-range concerted effort of continuing to work with these rape survivors.
What difference has your project made for the people you serve?
This is a difficult program. The rape survivors are psychologically, emotionally, physically, socially, and financially at rock bottom. Many have children, often young ones, and have little or no education and no marketable skills to earn a living. I once questioned Zawadi, the Coordinator, why her phone bill was so high. Her reply was that the women are always calling her for counseling and, of course, she has to call them back in order to pay for the phone calls.
As the testimonies above indicate, the program has a profound benefit on these women as they try to stabilize their lives. On the other hand, it is ironic how little it takes in personnel and finances to significantly improve their lives in all the aspects listed above. One reason for this is that the program builds upon the solidarity that women in the Great Lakes region of Africa have with each other. The result is essentially building a new, alternative community where the women are accepted, appreciated, and helped and are helped as needed.
One major issue is that the program is helping fifty women in Goma and fifty in Nyamitaba, but there are so many other women needing the guidance, services, and solidarity that the program brings to them. In Goma, they are selecting the next fifty women to enter the program with the original fifty helping with the mentoring, thus building an even stronger community between them.
Yet we have not reached the men/soldiers who perpetrate the rapes, nor even the fathers, husbands, and brothers who ostracize the women when they are raped. There are indications that rape is moving from soldiers with guns to the wider male population as it is becoming more acceptable to the male community to rape women. More women are reporting being raped by other than soldiers. This is a worrisome trend.
Nonetheless, the rape survivors program in North Kivu needs to be focused on the women it is serving, doing a good job with a few, rather than dissipate its resources on working poorly with too many women, who, frankly, all need assistance to better and promote the life chances for themselves and their children.
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