Adele, age 34 and a resident of Rwenena, tells us about the improvement of living conditions in her household.
I am Adele. I am married since 2008. I have given birth to 8 children, but only 5 are alive. My husband had made decisions about everything: What he deemed good was done. I lived mainly from the products of the fields that I had to plant, maintain, harvest, and transport to market as well as to prepare for my family’s consumption. Sometimes my husband would beat me because the food was either insufficient or prepared late.
At the time of the first FOPAC-facilitated General Assembly of Peace in 2019, I went there to participate. But when my husband arrived, he asked me to leave as I did not have his permission to attend, so I returned home. In the evening he came home and asked me to forgive him. The Assembly was good, he reported, with new opportunities for women to expand economic development in the community.
He asked me to participate in the women's meeting that was held the next day. I did so and I shared with him the minutes of the meeting, which asked parents of children to reserve at least one day of family dialogue during the week. At this household-level discussion, he would assign tasks to all the children so that each one would know what the other would do during the week. This method would be useful for him to get the support he needed.
The following week, my husband started to accompany me to the field and to divide the tasks to the 3 older children. Until then, as the female head of household, it was my responsibility to work the field and it was not easy. Since 2019 and, despite community setbacks of food insecurity and lockdowns in 2020, we expanded the production spaces in our field. Under our new system of household-level organization following the Assembly, now everyone knows what to do. This is how my household lives now.
I have learned how to sell. Buyers are interested in and purchase my products. With this income, my family’s health has also improved and we are able to pay for medical expenses. We know we are contributing to the economic success of Rwenena.
I thank our team at FOPAC SK. They raised awareness and sensitized community members who have come to recognize women’s valuable role in improving family economies.
Here is a record of how Adele’s income has improved since she received small-enterprise business training from the FOPAC team:
In March 2022, Adele received small-enterprise training from FOPAC-SK and received start-up funds totaling $25, or 50000fc. From this payment, she used $1 for family health expenses. April brought 15000fc, or $7.50; and May earned 28000 or $14.
Adele is also a member of the Pama Kaci licensed and registered enterprise. She participates in its meetings as well as those for women and the greater community and serves as a model of success to others.
We hope you will contribute well-utilized funds to continue providing training, materials, and other services for more women in the Rwenena community.
(Don’t miss an important alert at the end of this report.)
For this month’s report, we are sharing feedback from the Rwenena community gathered during our economic empowerment assistance that was offered to the women of Rwenena and as described by the Project Manager Jean Marie.
A typical workday for Jean Marie might include finalizing an urgent report for a development project, addressing a water supply emergency by working with local authorities, attending a meeting with a consortium of other organizations and international entities, and working intensively by phone with the Project Leader committed to advancing the impact and programming in Rwenena, DRC. He must catch the last bus home to his wife and children to avoid security-related dangers at night.
Jean Marie is a professional agroecologist (see link below). He has made the human dimensions of the science a critical piece of his work in serving 11 of the 12 territories in the province of S. Kivu. He encourages and equips passionate changemakers who have endured loss, violence, and a protracted conflict for more than 25 years. Jean Marie’s end goal extends past successfully completed work. He listens to community stakeholders who are interested in enacting sustainable change from within. He has practiced community-led development since before the term was coined.
Two years ago, in his role as Program Manager, Jean Marie introduced the principles of community-led development to people in Rwenena. But circumstances make this community stand out among all the rest he has served. It’s why he remains committed despite meager compensation.
“Rwenena has a peculiarity,” he explains. It’s a place that has been routinely overlooked, starting with the chief of the village cluster. He fails to inform outside development agencies that Rwenena is safe to serve – or even that it exists at all. As a result, the community has been deprived of skill-building and income-generating projects. Two such programs have passed them by or served them minimally, despite high-level reports that indicate otherwise. The second was a multimillion-dollar consortium.
“People are under the now-mistaken impression that Rwenena is unsafe due to enduring ethnic based conflicts, including personality differences of chiefs.” But in the last 2 years, it is peace that has endured, thanks to the initiatives taken on by the village’s democratically elected General Development Committee.
The second factor that stops outsiders from going to Rwenena is its distance from the main road. Infrastructure does not exist. The community lives without electricity, connectivity, or even basic text or calling features.
I asked Jean Marie how people’s attitudes may have changed since he and his teammate began serving the community.
“We have witnessed profound change. The progressive awareness of men, women, and young people from three sub-communities (Rwenena I, II, III) currently allows a cohesion of ideas for the whole village. “By collaborating with and valuing one another, they can organize themselves and reach positive community ownership. The Pama Kaci women embrace their namesake, which translates to “Let’s Cultivate Love/ Let’s Cultivate Community”). Jean Marie testifies that they have learned and grown with one another.
For the month of February 2022, through the donations that were raised, a total of 50 women were supported across the three sub-communities of Rwenena. For a detailed breakdown, see our attached document, “Breakdown of Women Served....”
From the assistance, we could learn that the people of Rwenena are not yet fully equipped to build a sustainable economy. As they look toward a sustainable future, Jean Marie affirms, “all activities and changes depend on financial and material resources.” Women still need the core components of our project:
(1) Training and launching of microenterprises with startup funds strengthened by Village Cooperative Savings and Loan Associations. We need to raise $1000 dollars to provide our penultimate group of women with this service.
(2) Support for the Pama Kaci enterprise as they continue to produce and sell hand-sanitizing gel, including transportation costs and refreshment for day-long market transactions in the hub of Uvira.
(3) Critical business skills through a months-long literacy and numeracy training program. Jean Marie stresses the importance of this training “to support women’s leadership so they can associate knowledge with innate abilities.” We are eager to begin this program when all micro-enterprises have been launched.
Quite simply, we cannot meet our goals without your donations.
GlobalGiving is holding its bi-annual Little by Little campaign the week of April 4 - 8. All donations up to $50 will be matched by 50%. Larger donations are encouraged. This is a perfect time to generate additional revenue for our work.
We send our deep gratitude for your ongoing support. Please spread the word throughout your networks by voice, text, email, or by sharing our project so that others can learn about our growing impact.
Be well, everyone.
Links:
(This project is implemented by the Congo Federation of Smallholder Farmers Organizations of South Kivu [FOPAC-SK])
It may not work in other places, but in Rwenena, a Peace Summit is a big deal with big results. Held last summer, this year the duration expanded from one day to two. The hope was to replicate the success of the one last held in late 2019, which resulted in an annual plan and the election of 2 new leadership committees. The ultimate goal was to advance peace and resilience in a community that was war-torn, conflict-ridden, and insecure for many years. Rwenena is on a trajectory of success.
On Day 1, the chief of “Rwenena II” (the second of 3, each in ethnic-based subdivisions) convened the summit. A variety of stakeholders aired their grievances and expressed hopes for community-based solutions.
Among them? A contingent of children. Some wished for shoes and sports equipment. Others lamented their inability to attend school. The latter is due to some parents losing interest in sending their children to school because of prohibitive fees as well as prolonged teacher strikes due to lack of payment. In response to the children’s concerns, the presiding chief and others agreed and documented the need for education-based resources. This serves as an example of how the community can come together with common concerns.
Representatives of municipal authorities attended, providing a forum to address community concerns and facilitate understanding in key sectors: police, military, veterinary, and health.
Day 2 was dedicated to women’s issues. The director of the health clinic reported on the dire need for a birthing bed (subsequently funded through a GlobalGiving microproject). The Pama Kaci women’s enterprise reported on their successes and challenges. Men shared their resentment: Over the last year, they no longer volunteered to help the women with enterprise business. (This issue would be addressed in subsequent discussions and the amazing outcome will be shared in our next report.)
The summit concluded with the election of new committee members of the two leadership committees, along with an annual plan, facilitated by the FOPAC team. The plan lays out problems in the areas of peace and security, society, the economy, education, and the environment. For each area, proposed solutions are recorded, along with appropriate groups to implement them.
From the perspective of this project, thanks to the summit, the Pama Kaci enterprise and other economic incentives centered around women are better placed to thrive and accelerate positive community development.
We thank you for the support you have provided as the community continues its journey to peace, resilience, and prosperity. It was your generosity that funded this summit. It’s not often that your donations can lay claim to peacebuilding, but in this case, it’s true. We are also grateful that your generosity helped keep the Pama Kaci enterprise alive during its dark days.
Please remember us on Giving Tuesday and beyond as we continue to provide activities focused on women's economic growth.
Since April, the Rwenena community, along with other parts of Uvira territory and South Kivu province, has experienced 2 large influxes of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). At the height of this crisis, IDPs in Rwenena numbered 626. According to a June 2021 report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), with more than 6 million forcibly displaced people, DR Congo has at least a third more displacement than any other country in Africa.
The first of these 2 groups fled from their homes in the highlands (Hauts Plateaux) of South Kivu province following a resurgence of longstanding violence dating back to 1996. More IDPs followed in May and June. Out of some 487 IDPs who arrived in Rwenena in May, 439 remained as of June 25.
The second group of IDPs arrived in late May and early June, following the catastrophic eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo volcano in North Kivu province. Thousands fled in all directions, with 139 arriving in Rwenena, located more than 100 miles from the site. As of June 25, some 39 people remained primarily because humanitarian agencies ended transportation services back to their homes.
So how have these influxes impacted the Rwenena community?
Residents have experienced ongoing food insecurity since April 2020 due to a series of unfortunate events including devastating floods and lockdowns due to the threat of COVID-19. Despite not having ample food for themselves, 134 host families came forward to accept the 478 IDPs. Temporary shelters and provisions at schools and churches were far away, and people preferred to stay with family or friends. Unfortunately, authorities failed to recognize Rwenena as a site needing humanitarian assistance.
These events have caused changes to our project activities. We postponed our long-awaited community peace summit as well as our training for a limited number of women in the Pama Kaci enterprise. Each has just been implemented, and after all the data and media have been processed, we will share the results with you in our next report.
FOPAC has extensive experience with IDPs relocating to local communities in S. Kivu province. They know that some IDPs will remain and may well be integrated into the permanent community, as were 75 families last year. Sometimes the team needs to adjust programming to accommodate new conditions. But we are all committed to the Pama Kaci women who continue to make sacrifices as they work tirelessly for success, despite inadequate funding. We will continue to facilitate a climate in which disadvantaged women can attain lasting economic growth.
Your donations are needed now more than ever to provide the women of Pama Kaci the boost they need for them and eventually for fellow residents to prosper. Please consider a donation of any amount, for example, $20 for a market stall shelf, $200 for preparing more women with their own microenterprises to help alleviate hunger, or even $2,000 for a robust array of production-related supplies and materials to transition to a large-scale operation, along with additional training.
Thank you in advance . . . and don’t forget to spread the word about this project to your friends, family, and other connections. This simple act is key to our success.
Annette Scarpitta
Director and U.S. liaison
The Rwenena Project
FOPAC
Links:
We begin this report with a reminder that this project is implemented by the Congo Federation of Smallholder Farmers Organizations of South Kivu (FOPAC-SK, or FOPAC). Thanks to your generous donations received in April, we are pleased to report that the “Pama Kaci” women are now excited to begin a pilot program of launching individual micro-enterprises that will assist them in providing food and other necessities for their families. After the program launches with training and seed funding, updates will be shared in our subsequent reports.
How did the vulnerable women of Rwenena—living in chronic poverty—become a driving force in their community? For ten years, an American woman remotely directed small-scale programming through a series of 5 Congolese organizations. She introduced a literacy and human rights training program bringing together mothers from 3 ethnic groups who didn’t even share a common language. Over time, they learned to understand one another as a sisterhood emerged. A subsequent program for the women provided training & practice in shared permagardening—growing food throughout the year in small gardens—and livestock production activities, during which a 5-person management team was elected. Group members formed a cooperative and named themselves Pama Kaci, a Shi term meaning “Let’s Cultivate Love”. The term has since become the name of their current enterprise.
This year, thanks also to your donations, we look forward to a peace summit in late June. To understand why this event is so critical to the success of Pama Kaci, we look back to the previous peace summit, held in November 2019. FOPAC conducted interviews and explored initial pathways to community-led development. Outsiders have long considered Rwenena too much of a security risk to include in organizational programming. Tantamount to this perception was a longstanding rivalry between 2 chiefs of different ethnicities. Besides residents, the summit included representatives of major sectors, including the police, the army, health services, & education. Their inclusion was key to a newfound understanding with the community. As significant was the inclusion of women in the male-dominated society. As FOPAC senior officer Jean-Marie noted, “We focus on the woman in our programming because she is at the center of the household and of community activity in general.”
A key outcome at the 2019 summit was the election of 2 gender-balanced committees—one for general, community-led development and the other for women’s issues. Both groups remain active today. Among those elected were some of the women of Pama Kaci, further securing their places as leaders across ethnic divides. Two months after the summit, the first elected committee had facilitated high-level peace and reconciliation between the rival chiefs, while the second lobbied successfully for the service of a licensed midwife to reduce or eliminate maternal and neonatal fatalities. Through earlier programming experiences, the Pama Kaci women have subtly demonstrated to men how peace can lead to community and economic growth.
It must be pointed out, however, that some of the sector representatives at the 2019 summit—namely, the police and the military—have been replaced by new ones who do not yet understand the complexities of the community and its ultimate desire for peace. Male jealousy & disdain have emerged toward Pama Kaci. Therefore, at the June 2021 summit, we will invite a broader array of current stakeholders—including representatives from organizations that may reconsider the value of Rwenena in regional growth. And just as in 2019, this year will feature a new segment on the value of women & Pama Kaci in the long-term economic prosperity of Rwenena.
We depend on your continued donations to implement more components of our programming and to ultimately set Pama Kaci on a path to profitability. Included will be providing additional micro-enterprises for more women, training, and development for the sales and marketing team, and offsetting of production costs.
Attached to this report are a few pictures with captions of the Pama Kaci women from the field.
Sincerely,
Annette.
Director and U.S. Liaison,
The Rwenena Project
FOPAC.
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