DRC's 2nd Elections: Testing Democracy

 Pressure is on, tensions are high.. Democratic Republic of Congo's second elections since its traumatic civil war officially ended in 2003, began yesterday and have extended into today.  Eleven candidates are running in this year's Presidential elections, only the second election to be held since the war officially ended (to learn more about Congo's 1st and 2nd wars, second of which is known as The Great War of Africa, click here).  Incumbent President Joseph Kabila is widely expected to win another term because of the splintered opposition.  Etienne Tshisekedi is the leading opponent, at age 78, whose party has already claimed that these elections will not be fair due to logistical infrastructure nightmeres (how can ballot materials be delivered to some regions in time via long stretches of dirt roads, many undriveable, in a country one quarter the size of the U.S.?  They weren't.)  Also, some parts of South Kivu are reported to be inaccessable by election officials becauase it's just too dangerous.  This is perhaps the most profoundly affected region of the Congo, and they might not get their chance to be heard?

Logistical problems on Monday lead to keeping the polls open today.  Let's hope that the protests, reports of violence as well as tampered ballot papers don't escalate once the polls are closed and results come in (and people like Ben Affleck and Cindy McCain start counting the votes!?!).  How much really is at stake this (or any) election?  Do we put too much faith in the election process, and not enough attention on what happens in between elections?  What little progress has been made needs to continue and the focus will have to shift from this election as an 'event' to its outcome and results of the next leadership.  Whoever wins will face the same challenges, and the international community will hopefully keep a close eye on things, holding these elected officals accountable for their actions.

A few facts about these elections:

• More than 30 million registed voters (of ~70 million population)
• Results to be announced Dec. 6
• 11 Presidential candidates + 18,000 Parliamentary candidates (for 500 seats)
• 62,500 poll stations / 180,000 ballot boxes / 64 million ballot papers
• UN ran last elections and now current government is in charge this time
• No runoff allowed in this election

Still here..still working towards a better future..

We're still here, and still hoping for a better future for everyone in DRC, and our focus is still on trying to improve the lives of some of the young women and men in or near the village of Amadi by continuing their education. It has been slow going, but Georges and I are still in contact (via email) and he has not stopped doing everything he can during his studies and work in Italy, to move forward with this initiative.

George recently returned from 2 months in DR Congo, to visit his family in Dungu as well as Amadi where he saw firsthand a part of the impact he has had: Jeanette, pictured below with Georges, has completed her studies in Nursing!  Congratulations to Jeannette!

Jeannette and Georges in/near Amadi

Some of the other women in the village who now have young children of their own (they did not last time Georges visited), so there is still so much work to be done.

Please consider sponsoring an orphaned student (form a group and split the costs!)  Schools are starting now/mid-November, so please contact one of us ASAP if interested.  Your group will have direct contact with the sponsored student.  Costs involved:

• Secondary school:  60 euros every 4 months
• University:  135 euros every 4 months
  

Some other news highlights and info from 2010 up to now (as I get more info on these points I will elaborate):

• Travel was arranged for Jeanine Dasungu to pursue her academic studies in the nearest city.
  
• Land purchased in hopes of building a center for young mothers (like Jeannette, above) to alleviate living costs so they can continue their studies and still care for their children.
  
• Brick production began in Isiro for above mentioned building center (reception area plus temporary housing).  To keep costs as low as possible, a casting mold was purchased to produce the bricks themselves.
  
• While three previous students (Charly, Francoise, and Judoc) have unfortunately stopped their studies for various reasons, Massambra completed his vocational studies in masonry in 2010 and three new students have been added (Rita, Suza, and Clara).
  
• A pharmacy has been built in Kinshasha in hopes of raising more funds while simultaneously providing some vital medications to those in need (see photos below).
  
• Official campaigning has begun for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held November 28, 2011 -- this will be only the second democratic elections since Congo gained independence in 1960.

Exterior of the pharmacy.

Inside the pharmacy.

Thanks for your interest and much-needed support... please follow us to stay updated (and the more followers we see, the more we are likely to keep up our posting!) And, as always, comments and discussions are welcome and encouraged...

Gold from Congo smuggled into World Trade ... are you wearing "blood gold"?

A friend pointed me in the direction of this video, which was aired on 60 Minutes, a credible U.S. TV news show, a couple of nights ago. I hope you'll take the time to watch it, it really gives a good picture of not only the problems associated with smuggled gold, but also how this is tied to the catastrophes (war) happening in the Congo. It raises some other poignant questions too, a few of which I've listed below as quotes.

Do you know, or even care, about where your gold (and other minerals like those in your cell phones and laptops) come from? I hope you're at least a little more curious after watching..

Watch CBS News Videos Online

"Five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a war fueled primarily from gold mined in the country by warlords and smuggled out to be sold on the open market."

Some quotes I thought were interesting from the video and worthy of further exploration/research (perhaps for a future post!):

- "Uganda produced $500 worth of gold, but exported $75 Million (almost all from the war zone!)"

- "How would a consumer know where their gold comes from?"

- "The source of origin is not yet a part of the council's framework"

(Council being the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) which the "Jewelers of America" (JA) cofounded. The JA link takes you to their 'Responsible Gold Position Statement for retail jewelers' which addresses gold from the DRC, by saying that they and their members are "...doing what they can, within their spheres of influence, to ensure that none of the gold jewelry products they sell has contributed—in any way—to the funding of any current conflicts or wars.").

- "Why can't the industry cut off the Congo?"

- "Violence is localized and comes in spikes. These spikes have something to do with the contestation of resources."

- "Only Tiffany's traces all their gold back to its source: 1 mine in Utah"

(I knew there was another reason I liked Tiffany's!)

Would love to hear your thoughts/comments/questions about the video and/or the reality of this situation...

Thanks!

A HUGE thank you to my friends who came out to meet Georges last Monday in Munich and who were more than generous in supporting his program. Thanks for taking the time to hear his story. I hope you found his journey interesting and inspiring. Thanks for your concern in what he's doing to help some people learn to help themselves in a part of the world many of us will probably never see. He really enjoyed meeting you all!

For those who missed his talk, he (quite eloquently!) spoke about how and why he decided to go to Amadi from Rome before completing his studies in 2004, his first impressions of the village (you can imagine how different it was coming from Rome where he was studying for a couple of years!) and facing the reality of the country he is from. I also thought it was interesting how he went from initially beginning this as more of a social program - organizing soccer matches, clearing land, repairing roads, and sewing training - to realizing this wasn't enough. "What are they going to do play soccer their whole lives?" While that is a valuable activity to both boys and girls (they still play regular matches, although he was sad to report that one of the coaches recently died of AIDs), he felt something more needed to be done.

When he met a girl named Rose and heard her story, that's when it clicked for him: he would help young people with serious problems continue their studies, with a particular focus on young, unmarried mothers who deserved (and desired) to be helped.

Kudos to Georges for an excellent overview of the program - your English teacher in Dublin would have been very impressed with how well you spoke! And I hope you are close to reaching your goal of at least keeping the current students enrolled in school for the year!

Meet Georges and learn more about DRC this Monday, August 31 in Munich

Now is your chance to come meet Georges in person and hear his stories firsthand. He'll be in Munich this Monday, August 31 to speak casually about the program he and his parish have started in Amadi, Congo (depicted in above painting by a local artist) as well as the situation in general. He hasn't been in Munich for 5 years...lets see if he still remembers any of that German he learned before he began studying Greek, Latin, and English:) Note, he will be talking about the situation in Congo and what he's doing to help in English. Details below:

WHERE: Nero Pizza & Lounge - located at Rumfordstrasse 34 (about a 5-minute walk from Isartor S-Bahn- unfortunately Tram 18 is not running at this time)

TIME: 18:30

What you get for 10 euros: Antipasti and Pizza Pane - with 5 euros going to George’s program supporting Congolese youth in Amadi, Congo.

Spread the word, and feel free to bring a friend!
Georges will speak about the following:

• The work he and his parish are doing in Amadi, Congo
• Education in Amadi and DR Congo – including the youth currently being supported (as well as what they do themselves to generate funds)
• The current situation + causes of the conflict
• Personal stories, if interested, as well as any questions you may have!

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE CONFLICT IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC CONGO:

• It is the bloodiest war since WW2, having killed about 5 million people, according to UNO.
• "The United Nations calls eastern Congo the rape capital of the world because hundreds of thousands of women have been sexually assaulted by the various militias haunting the hills." (Increasingly, men are also being
• raped)
• Rebel movements, foreign fighters, and local militias – including some of those responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda – fight to control Congo’s vast natural resources and prey upon civilians.
• Since the war’s official end in 2003, more than 2 million people have died
• NE Congo is the part of the country most affected, this is where Amadi is located.
  

Eastern Congo: "The rape capital of the world"

Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, stopped in Kinshasa, Congo Monday as part of her African tour to "push the Congolese government and the United Nations to end the longstanding bloodshed here, taking special aim at the illicit mineral trade that helps fuel the conflict."

Many people, including myself, don't fully understand the roots of this long-standing, deadly war. But its pretty clear that one of the main causes is the Congo's vast amount of natural resources, which have created an enormous amount of wealth, for some... emphasis on "some." Along with this, of course, comes a vast amount of corruption.

Even if you don't have time to read the entire NY Times article, "Clinton Presses Congo on Minerals", take a glance at some relevant facts:

- "Illegal mining was one of the root causes of Congo’s violence"

- "The fighting and its fallout — mass displacement, hunger and disease — have claimed millions of lives in the past decade."

- "The United Nations calls eastern Congo the rape capital of the world because hundreds of thousands of women have been sexually assaulted by the various militias haunting the hills." (Increasingly, men are also being raped)

- "Women are being turned into weapons of war" (this isn't new... The United Nations estimates that about 3500 women have been raped since the beginning of the year and 200,000 women and girls have been raped in Congo over the last 12 years)

- "Nearly two out of every three rapes were carried out against children, most of them adolescent girls" (Source: Human Rights Watch)

On a sidenote, I like that former NBA basketball star, Dikembe Mutombo, has given much back to his homeland, having built a hospital and research center with his own money in his hometown, and capitol, Kinshasa.

Hopefully you'll read the article. I'm glad the U.S. considers it an important enough place for our Secretary of State to pay a visit (I try not to question motives). And hopefully something good will come of it and people will start to pay a bit more attention to what is happening here.

If you prefer videos, here's a video summary of her visit:

Education in Amadi, DR Congo - Part 2

This is a continuation of my previous post about some of the kids trying to turn their lives around. To read this previous post click here.

Below are 3 more individuals currently being sponsored. Keep in mind, all of these kids are covered financially through the end of this school year, however, there is not enough funding for all of them to continue and complete next year, which begins in October. Georges was hoping to increase the number of Congolese youth they give scholarship money to (as a result of their own fundraising efforts selling rice- more on this later), but they were not able to generate enough due to the insecurity caused by the threat of the Ugandan rebels in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) (This link on LRA will take you to a 20-minute video, "Inside the LRA", even if you watch just the first 3 minutes it will give you a clear picture of what the victims of this brutal war are dealing with). Now the program can only hope to give priority to those who have already started it, including these 3 students:

Massambra is 19 years old. He knows nothing about his parents. He has never seen his father and his mother died when he was 8 years old. He is studying stonework / masonry.












Chantal Sara, 22 years old. She got pregnant in her last year of high school. Abandoned by the father of her baby, who was a married man, she suffered greatly. After giving birth, we helped her restart the year and she finished high school in 2007. Since last year she has been studying commercial sciences in the superior school at Isiro.



Charly Nangumbie, 24 years old. After finishing high school with excellent notes, she spent 3 years not knowing what she can or should do with her life. She got pregnant during this period. At last we gave her a second chance and sent her to study laboratory in superior school.