Dateline ACT

DRC 0105

Opening books opens a whole new world
Women in north-eastern DRC see literacy as way to empower themselves

By Emile Mpanya, Lutheran World Federation/ACT International

Bunia, Ituri, DRC, June 16, 2005—The group of women who attended the trauma counselling meeting in the town of Bunia in eastern Democratic republic of Congo, were all victims of sexual violence. It was an opportunity for the women to tell the staff of ACT member Lutheran World Federation World Service what kinds of recreational activities they would like to have organised as apart of the trauma counselling program.

The discussion centred on games, music and theatre, but no one could reach consensus on what they wanted to do as a group.

Then one of the participants, 58-year old Ms. Oloi, suggested that reading books would be a good recreational activity.

The group burst out laughing.

But Ms. Oloi insisted, asking the other women how many of them could read and write. Of the 42 participants, only three said that they could read and write without difficulty, 17 said that they had a basic knowledge of words, while the remaining 22 said that they could barely make out the difference between numbers and the letters of the alphabet.

Ms. Oloi then again surprised everyone when she showed them that she could still read and write the letters she had learned when she was about twelve. The letter were all vowels—a, e, i, o, and u. But she explained that her education had stopped there, as her parents had felt it inappropriate for girls to attend school. (She also knew approximately how old she was, as she had been told that she was born just after World War II.)

So many years later, she was still proud of her knowledge and literacy, however little it was. She believed that literacy lessons would be an opportunity for her to fill the void she had felt for so long.

The group found it difficult to resist this kind of enthusiasm and agreed that literacy now had to be carried out as a recreational activity. I was personally doubtful as to how literacy lessons could possibly be recreational, but the women kept on talking, wondering for instance whether the fact that they were mostly illiterate could possibly be one of the reasons so many of them had been so unfortunate in life.

A few days later, the "center of literacy for women" was opened in the town of Bunia, which is the principle town in DRC's Ituri district.

The first week saw more than 200 women of all ages rush to enroll in the program—a problem, as the center's resources simply could not accommodate so many people. This meant coming up with a set of selection criteria, which essentially gave preference to girls and young women.

But there was simply no getting rid of Ms. Oloi, who had been looking for exactly this kind of opportunity for so long.

"You have to push me out by force to prevent me from attending the lessons," she declared and literally fought her way into the classroom. Ms. Oloi was not the only person to force her way into the lessons. Everyone was astonished to see a 13-year old boy, Kawaya, insisting that he too be enrolled in the class meant for women. (He had lost his parents when he was very young and his grandmother who brought him up, but had no means to send him to school.) The women all sympathized with him and recommended that he be allowed to take part in the lessons. Two classes with 80 participants would be conducted.

Three months after the original meeting when it had been decided to open the literacy center, the results were interesting: fifteen percent of the young students had dropped out and had been replaced by older women. In general, it seemed that the older women were more motivated. Ms. Oloi was one of them.

When visiting the center, she rushed up to me saying, "Now I can write a letter and I can read the Bible myself!"

And yes, she was indeed able to do so, and proved it by writing a few words in Swahili.

The words were ones of gratitude to all those people who had contributed to make her dream come true.

Another woman, Ms. Anto Malimba, a widow at 24, said, "When my husband was alive, he was helping me to count the money from my petty trade. Since he died, my nephews have been cheating me, but no one will cheat me now."

The women who are attending the literacy classes now believe that being illiterate had exposed them to many difficulties in life. They feel that by being together and learning to read and write together, they will be able to stand up for their rights better and by doing so, protect themselves and other women from acts of violence and rape in the future.

Emile Mpanya is the LWF Rehabilitation Coordinator in DRC. The centre is part of Lutheran World Federation's response to the ongoing crisis in eastern DRC and is funded through ACT appeal AFDC51 (Revision 1).