A six-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) killed more than three million people and displaced another two million. Eighty percent of the nation’s population struggles to survive on less than a dollar a day. For many of the people with whom Concern works, that can be a little as 25 cents a day.

Now that DRC has held its first elections in almost 40 years, displaced families are returning to the villages they were forced to abandon during the fighting. Schools and homes have been burnt to the ground, livestock and crops were destroyed, and people—although ready to make a new start—have been literally left with nothing.

Sarah and the Concern team in DRC are responding to the crisis by rebuilding 30 kilometers of road and 18 bridges as well as by distributing seeds, tools, oil, salt, food and resettlement kits to people in 64 villages in Katanga. 

May 10, 2007 – Shamwana Village, DRC. I’m settling in well to Shamwana life now. I have gotten into such a routine and am kept so busy here that I hardly notice the weeks passing, so I can’t believe it’s the weekend again.  We work a half day on Saturdays, so Sunday is my day for sleeping late—assuming the singing from various churches and the neighbor’s pet bird aren’t too loud!

We have to bring in all our food from Lubumbashi—the nearest large town—because there isn’t much available at the market here. Since people have only recently returned to the area after being displaced for so long, the markets are not yet fully functioning and there is little fresh food to buy. Tomatoes and bananas are the only things we get locally.  During the war, all the animals were stolen or killed, so people have no livestock to sell, and you cannot get fresh meat here either. We live on tins of tuna and sardines.  Things are gradually improving though.  Concern has been working on rehabilitating roads and bridges in the area so supplies can get through. Already since I’ve arrived, a “bakery” has opened, and we now can get bread each day. This is a great improvement—before, we were getting bread once a week and eating around the green mould after a few days!

Still, we are lucky we can afford to bring in food. For the people who live here, it’s a different story. Most must depend on agencies like Concern for food and for seed supplies so they can start growing crops again. In the last few weeks, we have distributed World Food Program food rations to over 11,000 people.  It wasn’t actually 11,000 people lined up for the rations: one person came per household, usually the mother. It’s a lot of work for the team because they have to measure out rations of flour, peas, oil and salt for each person.  It’s more work for the mothers who have to carry it home though.  It’s quite amazing to watch the women throw a 20 kilogram bag of flour on their heads while carrying cartons of oil and sacks of peas in their arms—usually with a baby strapped to their backs as well!  

Concern Worldwide’s team is supported by members of the local community, who volunteer to help us distribute the rations. They work in exchange for lunch and occasionally some of the empty plastic containers or sacks that the food comes in.  It’s amazing that something we consider worthless at home can be of such value here.  If I throw out so much as a coffee jar or a Pringles container, it is rescued by someone. For people who have lost all their belongings, even small things like these are valuable.

That’s the news for now from Shamwana. The only other exciting event this week was that one of the team found a snake in the toilet. There was great excitement as half our staff chased it around with machetes! One of the guards eventually killed it and brought it to show me. It was quite cool actually; he had cut it in two, and both pieces were still moving!  I put on a brave face, but have to admit that since then, I’ve been doing inspections of the toilet with my flashlight before locking the door!  While I have now gotten used to sharing my room with various insects and my shower with a frog each day, sharing the toilet with a snake is just taking things one step too far!

---
Image:  Vendor at local market, DRC. (Credit: Concern Worldwide.)

Visit the Concern Worldwide website at www.concernusa.org