Dateline ACT

DR Congo 02/04

‘We have to be there for people,’ ACT members say

by Callie Long, ACT International

Kisangani, DRC, July 9, 2004—Ask anyone in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to describe the situation in her or his country, and almost to a person the response is the same: "Very complicated. Very complex."

It is this very complexity that continues to bedevil DRC, those engaged in brokering peace, and those responding to the needs of people trapped by a disastrous cycle of conflict, displacement, poverty and fear. The complicated web of political allegiances and intrigue, the lack of social infrastructure to support communities and the years of violence and instability have all caused whole regions of the eastern DRC to remain mired in conflict.

Complicating matters even more is the inaccessibility of vast areas, except to the most determined.

"This is a place where distance is not measured in kilometers," says Emile Mpanya of the Goma-based Lutheran World Federation's World Service (LWF-WS) office, "but in how long it takes to get there. Some places can only be reached by plane. Others only by motorcycle. It makes our work [with beneficiaries] very difficult."

The rural areas of eastern DRC are a patchwork of villages tucked into large stretches of forests. But there is nothing pastoral or idyllic about these small villages. Instead, they are home to the poorest of the poor, populated by people who, on the face of it, seem to have been forgotten by the world.

But "not forgotten by God," says Rev. Kamate Kiro Kachalewa, a local 3CBCA (Third Communitée Baptiste au Centre de l'Afrique) pastor who lives in the Beni area in North Kivu.

However, he says, it is not easy to explain to people why they are suffering so much, and their suffering is difficult for them to accept, he says. "It is not because they are good or bad people," he says he tells them, rather "it is just the way of the world, this suffering. God has not forgotten us. God strengthens us through these difficulties. And here people from the outside have assisted much."

And the needs of people are enormous.

In North and South Kivu, Ituri and Oriental Province, treatable and curable diseases and ailments--diarrhea, measles and malaria—continue to claim the lives of people. It is a region where in some places people are considered wealthy if they own as much as a bar of soap. In Oriental Province, in village after village, clusters of children too weak to stand, thin to the point of being emaciated or bloated from malnutrition, watch silently as their mothers explain to aid workers the pain of not being able to feed their children.

Some of those who are assisting are members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, the global alliance of churches and their related agencies. BOAD (Bureau Oecumenique d'appui Developpement), Eglise au Christ du Congo (ECC), Christian Aid (CAID) and Lutheran World Federation's World Service (LWF-WS) continue to tackle what seem like insurmountable odds. And always, it is a race against time—to save the life of a child, to get a pregnant woman to a hospital, to provide care to the elderly—an endless list.

And it is becoming harder to assist people in the eastern DRC. Recent events in South Kivu's capital Bukavu saw many NGOs pulling out of the strife-torn area, several thousand people fleeing to neighboring Rwanda, and many more remaining trapped in their homes, hospitals or other compounds in the town. Rwanda sealed its border with DRC for close to a month, allowing only refugees to cross to safety. ACT members responded on both sides of the border, but expressed concern that this was a conflict that would not so much shatter the fragile peace process aimed at ending years of conflict in central Africa as simply smother it. Constant movement of troops and renegade soldiers has added to the general sense of insecurity. The general feeling is that this compounds the crisis for this country, if root causes of the ongoing emergency are not addressed. Complex problems related to such issues as nationality and access to resources, basic or not, need to be resolved, and sooner rather than later.

For an NGO worker (name withheld at his request) whose brother is a doctor at the Pentecostal Church-run Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where several hundred patients, staff and visitors were stranded at the height of the clashes between renegade soldiers and government troops, the conflict amounted to nothing more than a crime. "People have suffered so much in this country. To start a 'war' now, that is a crime."

Complicated and complex, fraught with problems and challenges that often defy belief—the story of eastern DRC. But, this is not the only story. Whereas war and the suffering that invariably accompany conflict make the news, the quiet stories of courage and compassion, kindness and commitment, solidarity and great strength, the stories of people going about their daily lives under the most difficult of circumstances often do not.

In the small community near Beni in North Kivu that formed when people fled the conflict in Ituri Province a year ago, now known as Tuha Camp, assistance, in the form of seeds, agricultural tools and other non-food items, has been minimal. The effect, however, has been profound. Every spare patch of ground is being cultivated. Tuha Camp is a busy and productive place. Elie Molo, the camp's president of agriculture, says, "If people are more healthy, it is because of the food and the interest and devotion you showed us," referring to the local churches and LWF-WS which provided the assistance. They "are much closer to us and see how we suffer, and understand that we need to be self-sufficient by all means."

Minimal assistance in this instance has translated into a deep-seated change in people's lives. Here, where a year ago there was nothing, hope, however small, is alive again, although people have not lost sight of reality: that they are afraid of returning to Ituri because of their safety and that they will somehow be completely forgotten and abandoned.

For LWF's Mpanya, as with other staff of ACT members in the region, it is crucial to be 'there' for people. Even if the funding for appeals is low, even if the assistance is often piecemeal, Mpanya says it matters. "We have done big jobs with small teams and little money."

He recounts a personal moment of despair years ago as a humanitarian aid worker when faced with some difficult choices in assisting people. "Someone told me that even if the little bit we do seems to be nothing but a drop in the ocean, it is often that one drop that fills it for that individual you are helping." A simple truth perhaps, but one that continues to inspire Mpanya.

"We have to be there for people," he says. "If not us, who?"

ACT Home Latest news Other Datelines Photos from Emergencies