Intervene at any cost
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In the middle of the night, everything changed! We heard the sound of bullets here and there, bombs rang out: "We are under attack, we must flee. In panic, a multitude of inhabitants of Kibumba, men, women and children alike, fled, heading 25 km down the region to end up in Kanyaruchinya for some and in Goma for others, having nothing with them, neither clothing, nor food, nor any other resource that could allow them to meet their needs.
On the night of Tuesday, May 24, some establishments in the city of Goma and Kanyaruchinya received displaced persons from Kibumba fleeing the clashes between the alleged M23 rebels and the Congolese armed forces FARDC for accommodation. The population being large, promiscuity is the order of the day. This leads to negative factors, notably those of hygiene and cleanliness, health, etc.
Our team went to the places where the displaced persons had been staying in order to provide urgent assistance by studying their needs. From there, we noticed a great need for food resources because we could see people weakening from fatigue and hunger. It was even announced that one person had lost his life due to starvation. For two years, people were living in inhumane conditions without food, water or bathing, and living in an estimated 20 households in one room.
The need was great on the part of the displaced and something had to be done no matter how. In Buhene, there were around 25 households in the 8th CEPAC church: "We didn't take anything with us, just our children and our wives and some of us got lost, I myself don't know where my wife and children are, I have only one child. I don't know how I'm going to get out of here. I'm worried and upset,” explains Moïse, one of the displaced persons from Kibumba. Unable to remain indifferent, we established an emergency program that consisted of helping these families with clothes and food, always with our psychosocial approach through community animations and listening with our psychosocial assistants.
In Kanyaruchinya, there were more than 35 thousand displaced men, women and children, but in spite of the quantity being beyond our means of intervention, we did not remain indifferent. Thus, in collaboration with the collective Goma Actif which had implemented an emergency aid to prepare porridge for the displaced of Kanyaruchinya, we supported and accompanied this activity. On occasion, we listened to the psychological approach with people who showed great signs of trauma and during this time we found a woman among the displaced who was pregnant and about to give birth that we urgently transported to the nearby center for maternity work with some layettes for the baby that was about to be born.
To meet the sanitary and hygienic needs of the displaced. A sensitization was made in Kanyaruchinya on the cleanliness of the environment. On this, we mobilized even more together with the community leaders and other young volunteers of the city who agreed to accompany us for the sensitization and support to Goma active in the preparation of the porridge on Sunday, May 29, 2022. With the ballais, some gans, of the Omo, which it was necessary to distribute to the displaced people for the cleanliness of the rooms which were used to them of residence. For one day, our team was motivated and determined to reach the goal; as long as we had to help, save and give back the smile, nothing should stop us.
We are an organization humanly dedicated to the other and with the displaced, we remain present by responding to the needs as much as we can and especially when the emergency arises because we remain convinced in the better world that must become our region and even our whole country under the motto of intervene, intervene and still intervene!