Kevin and Helens Journal - Congo (DRC) Wow, we’ve had a couple of days break from travel and running around, it feels great. I got back from The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday having spent 3 days there. It was a great time and I got meet a lot of great people. Let me introduce you to a few of them: George Atido – he’s our main man in Bunia, though he’s not living there at the moment. He lives in Nairobi, Kenya. About 9 or 10 years ago there was a huge ethnic dispute here, much like in Rwanda. Thousands of people were killed and raped as traditional enemies took out pent up frustration on each other. At the time George ran away to Kenya. We met him there not long after that at the home of one of our Kenyan partners. Since being in Kenya George has been continuing his studies and is about to complete a Doctorate in Theology with the help of Langham Fellowship. In about a year he will return to Bunia in the DRC to take up a lecturing role. But his heart has been in Bunia for a long time and he has put together a little partnership there supporting 60 vulnerable and poor kids to get an education. It’s pretty inspiring to see people like George caring for people. He has a number of other people on the ground, looking out for the students and making sure they are doing OK. I have to say in visiting the homes of a number of the families, these are very poor people here and most have a recent history of trauma of some kind. We heard some terrible stories. Rogers is a cripple. He lost both legs to Meningitis during the war. He was in hospital at Nyankonde having just had his legs amputated when the hospital was attacked. His parents were killed and many of his family members died or disappeared. He is a Christian in the brethren church and used to be a primary school teacher. He is not allowed to teach now; disabled people are not allowed to work for the government. After the loss of his legs his wife could not cope and left the family. But she was persuaded to return and it’s OK now. Since the war Rogers has never been back to his village though his wife and children have been. Joshua has a friend who is an elder at the church that Rogers goes to. That friend suggested to Joshua that this family could do with some help. He is delighted to have help with the children. His wife sometimes has employment as a cook at Medicins Sans Frontieres but it is not enough to keep the family well. They have 2 children in the programme but the eldest one is going on to secondary so now there will only be 1. Grace is going onto class 5. Rogers said that in the past people would care for those who were poor and disadvantaged. But nowadays there is little sympathy, schools give no time to pay if parents get behind and children are constantly being chased from school. Mmmmmmmmmm, chased from school, no disabled person can work for the government, no time to care, sounds like a just and fair society, yeah right 3 days of stories was enough really. I get the picture. If it weren’t for people like George this place would be a really bad place to live in. For those in the programme it’s still bad, but not really bad. Helen survived her 3 days in Entebbe over the weekend. Loud music a parties raged most of the night by the comments she made. But, I got back Monday and there hasn’t been any noise since….. nice to be back together safe though. It was great flying across Africa in a little plane seeing all the villages and following the roads. But it’s good to be on the ground again. In about an hour I’ve got an interview with a kiwi guy working here and overseeing a partnership further south in the DRC. It will be great to catch up with Stephen. Then tonight we meet 3 people from the USA who will be with us for 10 days. So next time we’ll be in touch we’ll be on the road in the north of Uganda. Stay safe. Kevin and Helen
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 21:05:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015