November 16, 2009 | 8:51 pm

JWW in the Congo: Our “Collective”

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by Michael Ramsdell

Greetings JWW blog readers.  My name is Mike Ramsdell.  I have had the privilege of capturing this “Congo journey” in still and moving images.  I am pleased that Janice has asked me write a guest blog for two reasons.  The first is so I may shamelessly plug my most recent film – THE ANATOMY OF HATE: A DIALOGUE TO HOPE. (You can learn all about it at www.anatomyofhate.com)  The second, and admittedly more important reason, is to speak about the one thing my travel partners have not spoken of – themselves.

At the risk of repetition, it is important that I define the scope of meaning when I refer to “my travel partners”.

13 days ago, having never met John or Diana, and having had very little interaction with Naama and Janice, we boarded an Airbus – destination:  the center of Africa.  From that day to this, we have flown the span of the Continental United States, the North Atlantic Ocean, Western Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and the northern half of Africa … twice.  We’ve driven the entire circumference of Rwanda as well as significant snaking journeys into the belly of the North and South Kivu Provinces of Congo-Kinshasa. We’ve boated the entirety of Lake Kivu, one of the largest fresh water sources in Africa, the long way.  And we’ve walked endless mountainsides, village roads, agricultural fields and the border of Rwanda and Congo-Kinshasa … twice.

For most of the trip, we 3 men on the trip shared a room – Isaiah, the Tutsi minister born in Congo who served as our interpreter,  John the head of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, and myself, a Lebanese-American filmmaker.

Our days would begin with our faithful scheduler, Naama, kicking our bedroom door at 6 am and politely telling us to get the hell out of bed.  We would.  The three of us stumbling from under our mosquito netting, like the perfect preface to an off- color joke – an African, an Arab and a Jew stumble around in their underwear….

At breakfast much coffee was consumed.  Perhaps because it was phenomenal coffee, perhaps it was because of an addiction to caffeine, or perhaps because it was the only thing on the table.  Whatever the reason, it worked – conversations and Blackberries began to hum at a frantic pace.

From there we would pile into an array of vehicles:  a small van, a few station wagons, or at times an NGO caravan.  The roads in Congo are reminiscent of a river-bed, long ago dried – replaced by lava flow and red clay cut through the world’s largest post-apocalyptic homeless shelter, where the only things which have survived are Chinese motorcycles and goats. Sometimes our vehicles had windows which opened, sometimes not.  (And although I readily admit I contributed to the odor to an embarrassing degree, there is something quite indescribable about the smell of a taxi that has been packed full of humans and baked in the equatorial-sun for the last 30 years.)  The trips on average were an hour and a half in length.  During these trips conversations ranged from the definitions of Genocide and the feasibility of the previous days visits, to family anecdotes and useless trivia.  All amidst a blur of power bars, text messages, and road block shakedowns.

We would arrive at our destination - a village, a hospital, a refugee camp.  At times uplifted by the faces and stories, at other times the horror cut to the bone.

From there we would pile into the vehicles and do it again, and then again.

Around 6 pm, we would start back home in our square-wheeled vehicles for dinner.  This was followed by hours of email attempts, photo uploads, and driving conversations about the day’s experiences. Then back to the rooms for a bucket shower and a few hours of sleep before the sound of Naama’s voice started the joke all over again.

At the end of such travels there are two possible outcomes – either you never speak with your travel mates again, or you are bonded to them in a way words and images fail to express– no matter how capable the auteur.  A simple silent expression, a wordless moment, confirms that these strangers have now become woven into your experiential fabric in an inextricable way.  Or more appropriate to the work we have seen –we have now become a “Collective.”  A team united – working together for a communal benefit.

And what a collective it is….

Diana – the world traveler, whose kind smile and motherly voice was as comforting to those of Africa as it was to those of us from the US. Her tireless notations, questions and insights were an act of inspired will, as I’m sure she didn’t sleep a full night for the entire trip.

John – a man who wouldn’t complain under torture.  His profound command of pragmatism and compassion is a balance not many can walk and even fewer can so capably articulate. In short, he is an incredibly wise man.  To have John as an ally is to have an advantage.

Naama – a warrior who one day, I am quite sure, will back Genocide into a corner and kick the living hell out of it, making it beg for mercy and promise to never, ever show it’s face on this spinning rock again. I thank God for Naama.

And Mama Janice – a woman who was never short on prayers, hugs, snacks or tears.  She is a force of nature with only two speeds – on and off.  Her compassion, her intelligence, and her will have no linguistic or cultural boundaries.  Her ability to motivate and focus, while never hesitating to meet the emotional and empathetic demands of the situation, is nothing short of amazing.  In just a few days Mama Janice changed many lives in Congo.  And I have no doubt that before she is done, she will change many, many more.  Mama Janice – the Starfish are more grateful than you will ever know.

If this sounds as though I am boasting about Jewish World Watch – please know that I am.  And not just about the four representatives with whom I had the pleasure of traveling.  I am boasting about the thousands of you who have contributed and supported this incredible organization with time, money and action.  I am boasting about the profound Rabbi Schulweis whose vision and wisdom catalyzed this small but fervent group of people in work that is, by anyone’s measuring stick – Godly.  And I am boasting about the men and women at Jewish World Watch who are working tirelessly and passionately to bring the words “NEVER AGAIN” out of the esoteric emptiness of intention– into the Samsara of reality, where “will and action” must cut the path for prayer.

I traveled through Africa with five individuals looking for hope.  And although many wonderful people with incredible stories proved hope in Congo is alive and well, I have left Africa with this collective as my most profound hope. The six of us, proof that it is not about the God we pray to, but the Peace we work for. I am certain that if enough of us heed the words of Leviticus – then we can leave our children a world we have so long aspired for and will “NEVER AGAIN” have to offer an explanation to our God or ourselves – as to why millions of our human collective were murdered in horror as we stood idly by.

“DO NOT STAND IDLY BY!”

God Bless and Shabbat Shalom,

www.anatomyofhate.com

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November 15, 2009 | 6:51 pm

JWW in the Congo: What I Love and/or Will Miss About Congo

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by Naama Haviv

How strange to be out of Congo. As Isaiah, our incredible translator, and I walked across the border he showed me the river that marks the boundary between the two countries here: on one side, chaos – a young man shaking down every old lady carrying insanely heavy loads up the mountain side, everyone crowding the immigration window at once – on the other, relative order, neatly organized single-file lines, gas stations, power lines. How strange to be on that other side again.

Rwanda certainly isn’t LA, but it definitely isn’t Congo either. And though I spent the first few days of our trip wallowing (I think understandably) in despair, overwhelmed by the pain that I saw everywhere, I must admit that in the end it is hard to leave. Congo is a remarkable place, and working with its incredible people I know that the Jewish World Watch community will be able to make a profound impact.

For a change of pace, here are the things I love and/or will miss about Congo:

1. That “mama” is the term of respect for women and that “papa” is the term of respect for men. To me this means that family is the center of society here, that a woman’s capacity to build life and create a home is recognized and honored.

2. The unbelievable and arresting beauty of Congo’s landscape. I don’t think any of our pictures (even though Mike has an incredible eye) can do it justice. Between the vast blue of Lake Kivu, the towering volcanoes, the rich, fertile soil and the mountainsides patchworked with gorgeous pastureland and criss-crossed farms, this is absolutely the most beautiful country I have ever seen, ever. Sorry Turkey, Brazil and Ireland – you have been bumped.

3. The very real and very profound capacity of the Congolese people to take charge of their own communities. We have had three incredibly uplifting days in a row, visiting community-based projects that show how the Congolese, despite obstacles thrown up in every direction, step up for themselves – building their communities with no help, or hand out, from their government. Incredible and beautiful women in sewing collectives, widows and single mothers receiving microloans and running small businesses, a community that has built itself three schools – parents chipping in whatever they could, even just a little bit of wood, to keep programs running. These people are amazing.

4. Congolese faith. It will never cease to amaze me that the men, women and children of Congo can undergo such horrors and virtual abandonment – and often outright betrayal – by the government that should be protecting them, but still raise their arms to God and praise. Our experience at the Heal Africa chapel last Sunday was incredible, six separate choirs raising their voices in blessing and healing in the midst of such unbelievable pain. Not one word begging God for relief – just praise and acceptance that they must work and carry on to see God’s blessings. I don’t think I could do that.

On our last car ride in Goma, careening down to the port to catch the boat to Bukavu on Goma’s treacherously potholed and lava-covered roads, I asked our friend Ziko if the Congolese made their tires out of some special indestructible material. When he said no, they were just regular tires, I was shocked. After five full days of driving down these churned-up streets we should have blown our tires at least twice a day, every day. Ziko told me “You know, we are all children of God, under His grace.” I told him that possibly God should be focusing on higher priority issues than Congolese tires (like perhaps the roads? Or the nonexistent government infrastructure that can’t get them fixed?), but I see his point.

5. Dr. Mukwege and Panzi hospital – perhaps the most well-known center taking in survivors of sexual violence (an average of 10 rape survivors every day) in Congo. Dr. Mukwege is a pioneer of fistula repair surgery, a dedicated force working to, quite literally, put the women of Congo back together again. I expected Panzi to be a place of sadness, the women there having experienced atrocities that I don’t ever want to think about, let alone suffer. Instead, Panzi is a place of healing, a place where dignity is restored and women are made whole – it is astounding.

6. Our translator, Isaiah. Though he lives in Rwanda, he is originally Congolese and has been with us from the second we landed in Kigali, so I’m claiming him for Congo. He is amazing, a truly incredible thinker and a profoundly sensitive soul. Plus, he has six kids of his own, has taken in eight others and his wife still seems to love him, so that should tell you something.

7. Activists: Congolese, European, American, you name them – there is a community of strong, committed people dedicated to ending the atrocities in Congo and leading the way towards recovery. They try to absorb the pain of everyone they see around them while staying strong enough to get to work. Those that live in Congo struggle day in and day out to make a small difference in the lives of those around them and struggle even harder to reach even further. If you are reading this, you are part of this community – expect a call from Jewish World Watch very soon.

8. This is not so much about Congo itself, but about our trip: I have loved, and will truly miss, traveling with everyone on our team. We have come together as a group supporting each other when it was hard, shrugging our shoulders together when it was ridiculous, and bursting into laughter together when there was just nothing else to say or do. With Janice, John, Diana and Mike on Congo’s side, honestly, I think we’re incredibly strong.

9. Also not about Congo specifically, but still: I love my job. I don’t know how else to say it – I love my job. I work in a place that supports everyone, not just me and the rest of our amazing staff, but the entire community to work towards a better and more peaceful world. How many people can say that? Thank you Rabbi Schulweis and Janice for building an amazing organization, and Tzivia for giving me the opportunity to do this work. I am aware of how lucky I am.

10. Last, but definitely not least: Goats. They’re everywhere – tied up in fields, grazing on the mountainside and, best of all, being led down the road by a rope like little dogs. If my wonderful husband lets me, and doesn’t think our dogs would be terrorized, I think we should get one.

All of this is to say that Congo is a beautiful, curious, fascinating place. The Congolese people are strong and do not deserve (as if anyone would) to be preyed upon – and certainly not in the brutal and intensely destructive way that this conflict has progressed in the last twelve years. With the right mobilization and enough noise, we have every opportunity to help Congo and the Congolese move towards a more just, free and peaceful society that can begin the important work of recovery.

Let’s go.

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November 14, 2009 | 4:48 pm

JWW in the Congo: Humanity Gives Us No Choice

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by Janice Kamenir-Reznik

Ten days ago we arrived in Kigali with trepidation and expectation.  It seems like a day or two ago in some ways; yet in other ways it seems like lifetime ago.

Today we drove across the entire country of Rwanda—from Bukavu at the Congo-Rwanda border to Kigali.  It took almost 8 hours.  The countryside is completely gorgeous.  But I was struck by how different Rwanda looked to me today than it did when we stopped here en route to Congo.  Once you have seen girls and women brutalized by repeated gang rapes, or children with swollen bellies and infected watering eyes, men full of shame for having failed to protect their wives and daughters,  widows carrying hundreds of pounds of charcoal or produce in massive bundles on their backs, strapped around their foreheads, bent over as they climb up and down the mountainous terrain to sell just enough to put a totally inadequate amount of food into the mouths of her children – once you have seen those things everything looks different.

The other day we were at the famous Panzi hospital in Bukavu; Panzi is the hospital which treats the massive majority of the most brutally raped rape victims in Eastern Congo.  Panzi receives an average of 300 rape victims each month. We had the honor of meeting with Dr. Mukwege, the surgeon who runs the hospital and who, with love, sensitivity and enormous skill, does everything that is humanly possible to put the women’s bodies back together.  Dr. Mukwege told us, with tears in his eyes, about the destruction and devastation he sees every day.  It is almost impossible for me to write about what he sees…what we saw…it is unfathomable…it is unspeakable.

But, we have no options.  We must fathom the unfathomable and speak the unspeakable.  If the women of the Congo must endure the brutality, and if Dr. Mukwege must confront these ravaged women each and every day and reassemble bodies which have been so hatefully and brutally destroyed, then how can we not speak?  How could any person with even a small modicum of humanity not be outraged and stirred to action to learn that men threw acid into a woman’s body, destroying that very part of a woman that was intended to bring forth life?  How could anyone with a conscience not be impelled to act when he hears about a woman whose insides were decimated by sticks and prods?

We don’t want to speak these things.  We don’t want to hear these things.  It’s too terrible and too sad and too distracting to our lives.  But, how can we pretend we do not know when we know?

What John, Diana, Naama and I experienced over the last ten days has been life changing.  None of us will ever forget the women we met.  We will remember the faces of the children and we will remember the incredible humanity we found as well.  We return to Los Angeles in 24 hours.  We do not return depressed by these images.  We do not return in despair.  We do not return with lost faith in humanity.  No, we return to you.  We return to the warm embrace of our families and loved ones.  And, we return to our incredible community of people of conscience who know that we must mobilize into action.  We know this because lives depend upon our actions, and our humanity gives us no choice. 

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November 13, 2009 | 5:43 pm

JWW in the Congo: Teach the Children

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by Diana Buckhantz

Suddenly we are surrounded by a sea of children.  As we stand there they begin to form a circle around us and move in closer and closer.

Janice and I came outside after seeing an impressive women’s sewing collective.  We are in a remote village called Kamisimbi, two hours outside of Bukavu in the hills.  We have been brought here by Gila Garaway, an Israeli/American who heads an incredible organization called Moriah Africa, to see the women’s empowerment program she helped start.  We step outside just as one hundred children, it seems, ages 2 to 16, come pouring out of their classrooms for recess.  They surround us. We are trying to communicate with them.  Some of the children speak French so Janice and I make feeble attempts with our school French.  We are all laughing. By their expressions I am sure we are the source of many jokes.  But what we don’t understand doesn’t bother us.  So we all just laugh.  It feels so good –a welcome relief from the many days of sadness and despair.

This was a very hopeful, positive day.  With the help of Gila, Pastor Grace has implemented several programs in the village to improve the lives of the mostly women and children. There are several programs that teach them skills that will enable them to live better, less arduous lives.  A sewing cooperative teaches girls and women to make beautiful bags and clothes which they then sell at market.  It also teaches them how to run their small businesses.  Most importantly, this program will spare them the backbreaking plight of the thousands of women we saw each day, who were carrying enormous heavy piles of charcoal on their heads as they trudged up and down the hills for miles trying to eke out a meager living.  Another class teaches the young men to make hand carved furniture (we were all tempted to ship a piece home, but it’s not really possible).  There was also an agricultural coop.

For me, however, one of the most optimistic aspects of the village was the school.  There is 70 per cent illiteracy in Bukavu alone, and I have worried since I arrived here how Congo can one day heal and reconstruct itself if its children are not educated.

Since I arrived in Congo I have seen thousands of children, at all hours of the day, playing in the streets when one would expect them to be in school.  Kamisimbi School was an example of what can be done with determination and resourcefulness.  The Pastor proudly took us to each grade level where the students politely stood as we walked in and warmly greeted us.  In one class the geography teacher was out sick – but when we walked in, the class was sitting and quietly studying its assignment– not what you would expect to see in LA!  It struck me that these students knew how lucky they were and truly valued the opportunity to go to school.  I loved what I saw.

But I need to add that under this hopefulness remains a biting poverty and desperation.  For example, the roof of the school, which is made of corrugated metal sheets, had blown off twice in five months due to heavy winds.  The village was having difficulty obtaining the $100 needed to repair the roof.  (I proudly report that we exercised discretion and donated the new roof on JWW’s behalf!). In addition, even though this is probably the best of the rural villages, due to the attention of Gila and Pastor Grace, the people are still hungry, a fact which we evidenced first hand:  at the end of our visit, the villagers gave us each a gift of an ear of corn from the communal garden.  But while Janice and I were looking at the sewing cooperative, a young woman signaled to us that she was hungry and wanted our corn.  It was heartbreaking…here was a vegetable cooperative and the villagers were still hungry.  Janice and I sneaked our corn back to the hungry villagers – hiding it so that they wouldn’t get in trouble.

With all of the challenges, it is nevertheless evident that programs like the ones developed in Kamisimbi with Moriah Africa will help to assure a better future for the people of Congo.

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November 11, 2009 | 9:38 pm

JWW: Congo Curse of Riches

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by Diana Buckhantz

I don’t sleep here, even with sleeping pills.  I wake up after a few hours, images of the day racing through my head, trying to make sense of all I have witnessed and heard.  This morning I got up at 4 am.  I just couldn’t stand it anymore.  I preferred to get up and busy myself with packing to leave for Bukavu.  It wasn’t long before Janice and Naama were up also, trying to get pictures of the sunrise—some beauty amidst all this sadness.

As I write this we are on a boat on gorgeous Lake Kivu going between Goma and Bukavu.  It is a very comfortable boat showing a Steven Segal movie—just what we all needed, more violence.  But this is stupid, mindless “entertainment”.  The scenery outside is exquisite.  It feels like we could be in some beautiful vacation spot.  It is a moment to decompress.

Instead, I talk to Giorgio, Director of Operations for International Medical Corps (IMC) in Eastern Congo.  We discuss the complexity of the political situation here.  I am trying to make sense of it all.

If the humanitarian situation feels desperate, the political one seems completely impossible to untangle.  There are various armed groups that continue to rape and pillage the country.  There is the CNDP, former soldiers of the ousted rebel general Nkunda, now members of the Congolese army.  Then there is the FDLR, comprised of Rwandan Hutu rebels who escaped into the Congo after the Rwandan genocide.  There are also the Maimai, who are local militias created supposedly to protect their communities, but instead have morphed into terrorist groups.  And then there is the FARDC, ostensibly government loyalists, but made up a various poorly integrated former rebel groups.

The situation is so complex and goes back so many years.  Added to this there are the constantly shifting loyalties and allegiances of the different bordering African countries—Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Angola, Rwanda, and Namibia.  These allegiances change depending upon perceived self interest.

The final layer onto which all of this must be laid, concerns the minerals which make Congo one of the most natural-resource-rich countries in the world.  All of this destabilization leaves different mineral mines in various hands—none of which benefits the people.  That is the tragedy here.  I am told that 70% of all the mineral resources in the world are here.  It is also one of the most beautiful countries in the world.  And none of this benefits the people.  Many tell us that the situation here is getting worse.  A village was burned recently in North Kivu and last week IMC had to evacuate all their staff from Baraka due to fighting in the area. (Although I was told that they are going back today.)

I ask everyone the question of what needs to be done to move towards peace.  No one gives me an answer.  I come away with the feeling that until someone much smarter than I am can figure out a solution, or the various parties decide that enough is enough and the bloodshed and violence must end, all we can do is try to provide as much help and assistance to the innocent victims of this immoral war as possible.

While we are here we hope to identify programs that not only provide immediate assistance, but ones that help to change the culture of impunity that exists here.  Perhaps then the true beauty of Congo will be allowed to flourish.

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November 11, 2009 | 4:32 am

JWW in Congo:  Ready When You Are

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by Janice Kamenir-Reznik

We are taken by convoy on an impossible 3 hour drive, high up in the mountains where the Congolese Tutsis control the terrain.  The “roads” are indescribable.  Half the time our vehicle is gliding through the mud and the other half it feels as if it is almost on its side.  Torrential rains fall, the wheels of our land rover spin in the mud at one moment and get caught in a crevasse of the boulders that purport to be part of the roadway.  When Naama and I are not holding each other for dear life (no fear of violence, just of the lack of infrastructure that would have provided roads suitable for driving—but, it is definitely starting to feel like the violence and infrastructure failure are two sides of a single coin) we look out of the windows to see magnificent mountains, valleys and rivers which give new definition to the word “green.”  It’s Maui on steroids.

When we arrive at the International Medical Corps clinic in Kausa, a village where 17,000 Congolese Tutsis live and control the land the territory, John, Diana , Naama and I were stunned by many things. First, we were stunned that we had safely arrived.  (To myself I did say a sort of “shehechiyanu” blessing thanking whatever spirit had safely guided our drive.)  We were stunned by the torrential rains and by the sheer beauty of the cliffs.  We were stunned by the welcome speech which Sebastian, the IMC clinic director gave—he welcomed us with a booming voice, words rehearsed, as if he was giving a speech in front of the United Nations to dignitaries who were powerful enough to change the very direction the earth is spinning.  And then after Sebastian led us to the birthing room where two women had just given birth, we were once again stunned to find out that nearby lay a young teenage girl who had been raped just a few hours earlier.  We do not feel prepared or equipped to speak to this young woman lying just behind the door. They open the door and the beds in the small room are full—one with a young woman who laid silently, her head covered under a blanket.  Next to her lay a woman who had been severely beaten by her husband, and in the middle was a woman and her very young baby—something about rectal bleeding…we did not ask.  We then proceed to the small covered porch where a hundred or more male villagers and their village dignitaries are seated to receive us.  Several of them give nice speeches about how grateful they are to IMC and how without IMC they would have no care at all for their people.  Now they have nurses, some very basic medicines, a few hospital beds and a birthing room.

They are right to be grateful to IMC—it is a miracle, given the terrain, the political climate, the war, the weather, and so many other variables, that IMC has actually built and staffed a medical clinic on this remote cliff.  I suspect that they might not even realize how lucky they are to have people with the extraordinary humanity and quality of Giorgio, head of the IMC Eastern Congo team and Lorenzo, the Projects Manager for this and other clinics, living here and working here and risking their lives here to bring services to remote places like this

I am then, as I am so often on this trip, invited to say some words and to offer some prayers or thoughts.  So, I thank them for welcoming us and agreed with them that they should feel gratitude to be working with IMC and its spectacular staff.  I wish them peace.  Then, after I completed my 2-minute “thank you for inviting us” speech, I felt a rage building inside of me.  I had already relinquished the floor, but I ask if I could address the community one more time.  I am not quite sure what I am going to say, or if it is even appropriate for me to express myself in this context, but I decide that my conscience requires me to say something honest to these men in light of everything we have seen over the past four days, and specifically, what we had seen 2 minutes before in the room right next to the porch on which these men comfortably sat.

I am so shaken as I speak, that I do not have full recollection of what exactly I said, but it went something like this:  “We congratulate your community on the birth of the new beautiful babies, and we share your joy in this gift of life.  But, we cannot leave this place without expressing our profound sadness about the violence being done to the women in this community.  The tragedies which lay before your community and your country will not be solved by foreign relief workers or donors alone; these problems can only be solved if the people of your village are willing to take responsibility for your actions and make violence unacceptable amongst yourselves.  When the day comes that your community wants to roll up its sleeves and confront the issue of gender based violence and wants to protect rather than victimize the women, we will be first in line to forge a three way partnership between IMC, the Kausa community and Jewish World Watch.” 

I simply could not ignore the culture of rape and violence and their responsibility for the 13-year old rape victim and all of the others.

I am so grateful for the people at IMC and those at Heal Africa, and those at all of the other NGOs who have the humanity and courage to be here every day, exposing themselves to the sadness, grief, and disease.  I am also so grateful to my dear travel mates for agreeing to make this very difficult and trying journey.  Diana, Naama and John are amazing human beings, each of whom is guided by an oversized heart and a supersized conscience.  I am also incredibly grateful to YOU, the Jewish World Watch constituency, which has enabled us to fulfill the lessons of our rabbis and our Torah by not standing idly by while the innocent are destroyed. 

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November 10, 2009 | 10:29 pm

JWW in Congo: The People of Congo Are Its Greatest Resource

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by Naama Haviv

Yesterday I felt completely engulfed by sadness. I wrote a blog entry that I will not post with you now, crushed by what I had seen and heard during a long day visiting clinics with International Medical Corps.

I had hoped that when I came here, I would be able to focus on the stories of survivors, the stories of strength and resolve. But I realize that I have fallen prey to reducing the people of Congo to their victimhood. I have given in to the faces of the starving children, the raped and burned women. I think anyone would have.

It is true that Congo is a place of brutality and atrocity. But it is not the only truth.

I have seen pain – in the eyes of hundreds of malnourished children, their bellies swollen and their hair turning orange, their mothers desperately wanting to return home and make a life for themselves and their babies away from the clamor of the IDP camp. But I have also seen healing, the kindness and warmth of Mama Gisele, the head nurse at the IDP camp’s clinic, who with tenderness and concern in her eyes shows us where children are fed, where women and girls are counseled. She tells us about doing home visits for girls that have been victims of sexual violence, trying to get to them within 72 hours so that pregnancy and HIV infection can be prevented. She and her team of nurses – all Congolese, mostly female – counsel families to ease their fears and educate them not to reject their daughters, wives and sisters that have already been violated once, and do not need more violation.

I have seen destruction - of a young teenage girl who had been recently raped, lying alone in her bed at one of the clinics we visited. But I have also seen incredible strength and recovery – of mothers collecting as associations, helping each other pay for prenatal and maternity care. Of a little girl (a rape survivor herself) who told our friend Christine, when she had lost all faith in her work caring for victims of sexual violence, that she needed to remember that even when it was cloudy, there were always stars in the night sky – so too with God.

I have seen atrocities that have made me doubt there could possibly be a higher power – women broken and destroyed, their communities destroyed with them, their children displaced, growing up without a home, raised in exile and resentment. But I have also seen amazing faith – in the beautiful children in bright yellow “Love Not War” t-shirts, singing praise with arms outstretched to God. In the women and men who have been preyed upon by armed groups time and time again, that nevertheless thank God and heaven for the blessings that they do have, the food around their table and the community around their hearts. In the grace that these same men and women show us, we offer them our prayers, from our hearts to their community.

The people of Congo are not solely victims – you and I have to break out of this routine, of pain and destruction and despair. They are survivors. The people of Congo are its greatest resource. They are not waiting for us to speak for them – they need us to speak with them, in a strong, unified, amplified voice.

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November 10, 2009 | 4:07 pm

JWW in Congo: Maybe the World Has Not Closed Its Eyes

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by Diana Buckhantz

I thought it couldn’t get worse.  Yesterday listening to Renee and Sabine tell the stories of their rapes I felt my heart begin to splinter.  But today my heart was shattered.  Today we visited one of the last remaining IDP (Internally Displace Persons) camps where 3500 refugees live - men, women and children who are either too afraid or too ill to return to their villages.  They live in squalor and filth with minimal food and only the most basic medical care.  The children suffer from chronic malnutrition, their bellies swollen from starvation.  I know of no words in the English language to describe what we saw.

The children look at us with beautiful piercing eyes.  They want their pictures taken.  They want our attention.  Our visit is a diversion from the endless days of nothingness - no school, no toys.  This is all those Sally Struthers World Vision commercials, except it is real and in front of my eyes.  I am afraid I will burst into tears, and I don’t want them to see the hopelessness I feel.  It is impossible for me to describe my sadness.

And then, we meet five more women who have been victims of rape.  Two are about 14 years old; two have babies, which I assume were babies of rape.  We do not ask their stories this time.  We don’t want to make them relive their pain, and frankly today we are not certain how much more we ourselves can hear.  But they all want to tell us something.  They want to tell us about what they need.  They want to tell us that we have given them hope.  They want to thank us for coming.  I feel so inadequate.

At every project, the staff and community has prepared for our visit.  They greet us with songs and we are meticulously introduced to each member of the staff.  At one remote health clinic, the entire village came to meet us.  Everywhere we go, we are told how our visit has brought them hope.  It tears my heart out.

These truly are forgotten people ravaged by decades of war and conflict.  It feels as though, with the exception of extraordinary aid workers like those from the International Medical Corps, the world has closed its eyes.  But then, I remember that we are here and with every group, we have promised to take their words and images back home.  We have promised to let people back in the US know how the people here are suffering.  How they have been and continue to be decimated and violated by war and poverty.  Maybe the world has not closed it eyes, maybe they just haven’t been opened yet.

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