ACT News Update

DR Congo 0104

Despite limited resources, ACT members assist people returning to their homes

Geneva, February 7, 2005--Years of intermittent war, along with a volcanic eruption in Goma in 2002, have caused thousands of people in the provinces of North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to flee their homes. As these displaced people return to their home areas, they lack basic needs such as food, water, shelter, medical care and clothing as a result of looting and destruction of their homes and to areas where they carried out their livelihoods.

Members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International in these provinces have continued to work over the past year to meet some of the needs of these displaced populations despite very limited resources and some areas of instability and insecurity.

In early 2004, the Church of Christ in Congo, North Kivu Province (ECC/NK) formulated a comprehensive plan to: assist 1,005 families displaced by the Masisi war, 40 families in Goma affected by the volcanic eruption, 570 women in Goma who are victims of sexual violence, 55 children in a marginalized group and 218 children left malnourished following the volcanic eruption; construct seven classrooms that were burnt by the volcano; and build the capacity of church members of ECC.

However, because of the very small amount of funding it received as a response to the ACT appeal in 2004 for the DRC, ECC/NK was forced to choose to implement only the activity dealing with the malnourished children. ECC/NK was able to assist 167 children, and in November it reported that 112 children had recovered while 55 were still being assisted. Among the children ECC/NK sought to assist were orphans, those responsible for a family, or those who had no other form of assistance.

ECC/NK reported that the lack of food arose among families because of the displacement of the population far from their farms for the past 11 years, the destruction or the taking over of farms by rebels, or the dry growing season and not being able to grow enough. This situation was worsened by the destruction of schools, houses and health centers by the volcano.

The children whose health improved and who were released from the Maman Maombi center, one of the places where children have been treated, were also given dry rations – oil, corn flour, beans, salt, unimix – as well as soap and blankets. ECC/NK also gave soya and bean seeds to parents and guardians to plant.

In its November report, ECC/NK said among its major challenges were lack of financial resources and parents or guardians of malnourished children who “are so poor they have not enough to assist their children.” Among the children who were discharged from their treatment were two who relapsed into malnutrition and had to return, ECC/NK reported. In its future work, ECC/NK hopes to put more emphasis on education - of parents and of affected people in general in order to achieve lasting results.

Even with its success on a very small scale with malnourished children, EEC/NK was pressed into responding again to another group when, early in December, fighting erupted between the Rwandan military and DRC troops in Kanyabayong Village and its surroundings in North Kivu, forcing approximately 15,000 to flee their homes. ECC/NK, along with the Lutheran Church, provided food, jerry cans, kitchen utensils, blankets and medicines to 206 of the most vulnerable families. Churches are providing shelter, and some of the displaced people are being hosted by families. This assistance is being provided for three months with $47,000 in ACT Rapid Response Funds.

Like ECC/NK, the Church of Christ in Congo, South Kivu Province (ECC/SK) received very low funding for its projects included in the same appeal for DRC – only 14 percent. After severely scaling down its project, ECC/SK, beginning in July, used the funds it received to provide 900 families with seeds and tools and 60 families with pigs and goats as part of a rotating credit scheme.

As the security situation improves, displaced people have started to return to their homes in South Kivu. However, they are returning to houses that have been destroyed or fields and cattle that have been looted. ECC/SK said in its report in November that the “agro-pastoral rehabilitation assistance which was distributed thanks to [ACT] Appeal AFDC41 has reduced, more or less, the misery in some reached households.”

ECC/SK said the assistance the returning families received will help them resume their farming and, after their crops are harvested, help them meet some of their daily needs, such as feeding themselves and generating income to pay for their children’s school fees through the sale of surplus food. The small animals some families received will help replace the animals decimated in the war. In addition, ECC/SK’s local partners have carried out training with these families in the techniques of animal rearing, growing food and composting, which will improve their situation further.

In its report, ECC/SK concludes that “the complexity of the humanitarian situation makes us state that there is still a lot to do to assist the displaced and vulnerable families” in its region. ECC/SK said that many displaced people want to return to their homes, but the destruction of socio-economic infrastructures in some areas, lack of structures to help them resettle, and the presence of armed troops in some areas are major hindrances to this.

A new ACT appeal for DRC will be issued this month.