School Stories from Congo: 3 Teen Moms on Bringing Back Lost Hope

“If there are people who think nothing can bring back their lost hope, they should come talk to me.” ~ Cikwanine, Secondary Student, Mother, Future Lawyer.

The three girls squint into the sun, posing for the camera in front of the Mumosho Women’s Center, their home for over a year.  Wearing white shirts and blue skirts, the uniform of the Congo student, they hold hands and radiate confidence in their smiles and posture, a hip jutted out here, shoulders thrown back there. Looking at these three girls, you’d never guess their stories of sexual assault, unplanned pregnancies, and being abandoned by their families, but you believe they’ll pursue their dreams. 

Nadine is an 18-year-old student and mother, part of the Teen Mothers Program Action Kivu’s partner ABFEK runs at the Women’s Center.  With unplanned, unwanted pregnancies from rape forced upon so many girls and women in eastern Congo, they are often kicked out of their homes, abandoned with a baby on the way. Nadine had already lost both parents to HIV / AIDS when she was just 13, and was forced to drop out of school.  Her elderly grandparents took her in, but already lived in poverty, with no source of income to send her back to school.  Nadine found work on other people’s farms to earn a dollar to help buy food.

Nadine holds hands with Chanceline, her new friend and now adopted sister at the Women’s Center. Chanceline is also 18, and before moving into the Teen Mother housing, she was homeless, abandoned by her family after her sexual assault and resulting pregnancy. After learning about the Teen Mothers Program from a former classmate, she found her new home there, first learning to weave and sell baskets in one of the vocational training courses, then deciding to return to school.

Having just finished Grade 3 of secondary school, Chanceline is excited to start Grade 4 in the fall. Living at the center with the other girls, she is learning new skills with the women in the various vocational trainings, classes that give structure to her life. “Before [joining the Teen Mothers Program] my head and heart were always in the air, with no plans,” she says. “I was only thinking about being hated, but now I know that there are people who care about me, I feel I am not alone!”  Chanceline hopes to continue her education after she graduates secondary school: “Going to university will help me have the chance to access jobs, create change in my life, and help me care for others.''
      
Cikwanine stands a head taller than her friends.  At 20 years old, she had been out of school for five years after giving birth to her child. “I spent five years out of school as an unwanted pregnancy was forced on me,” she says. “I had no hope and was thinking that was the end of my life.”

A woman who is a member of ABFEK’s microloan program told Cikwanine about ABFEK’s vocational trainings for girls of her age.  The next morning, Cikwanine visited the Mumosho Women’s Center, where she was greeted warmly, and was instantly interested in the Sewing Program. Moving into the Teen Mothers’ housing in the center, she finished the sewing training, and decided it was time to go back to school.

The Educational Assistance Program, sponsored by Jewish World Watch, has transformed Cikwanine’s life.  “If there are people who think nothing can bring back their lost hope,” she says, “they should come talk to me and I will tell them how first of all the sewing program brought me back some hope, but the Educational Assistance Program is a recovery for me. I know my life has changed. My thoughts have changed, my feelings have changed, I have recovered. I am so happy, I have become a new person.” 

Cikwanine’s plan for this new life? “My goal is to go to university and become a lawyer to be able to stand for and with the people who have no voice!”

Graduating from secondary school will give Nadine the opportunity to work as a primary school teacher, but she too plans to continue her formal education.  Having lost her parents to HIV/AIDS, she hopes to study medicine, but also dreams of becoming a lawyer, to defend the rights of the oppressed and create change in Congo.  “I thank everyone, and especially Jewish World Watch for supporting my education,” she tells Action Kivu’s partner and leader, Amani Matabaro. “Without you, I had no other hope, and now I have new hope for the future!  Being at the center has changed and transformed my life, it is a new experience living with people who show me love and compassion.”

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Your support makes a difference.  Consider a donation to ensure the continued success of all of Action Kivu's programs, and follow Action Kivu on Facebook, Twitter, and our blog for updates and stories from Congo: the women in our Vocational & Entrepreneurial Trainings including our Sewing Workshop, Literacy Courses, the kids and women in the Educational Assistance Program, our community empowerment meetings, photos of goats and chickens from our Animal Husbandry programs, and stories from the shared teaching farms! Meet our leader in Congo through this powerful video: "I am Congo: Amani, the Community Builder."

Robin Wright's Pour Les Femmes "Pajama Campaign" Changes Women's Lives in Congo [Video]

Mumosho, Congo

Celebrating, the women held high their graduation certificates, sang songs of gratitude, and made plans for their new small business ventures as designers and seamstresses. It was Action Kivu's Sewing Workshop graduation day for 60 girls and women in a village in eastern Congo, a day made possible by pajamas, you, and Robin Wright!

Robin watched the video (below) of the graduates celebrating and sharing their stories of how their lives have been changed by learning to sew and starting small businesses, and sent this message to the women.

“Congratulations to the graduates of Action Kivu! This is only the beginning... You are setting the example and reminding all of us that self-reliance is the key to a sustainable and rewarding life. Bravo!!!” ~Robin Wright

(Filmed & edited in Mumosho, DRC by Patrick Byamungu.)

“Mama Robin,” as many of the Congolese women who met Wright on her 2011 trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo call the actor, is a vocal activist on behalf of the people of Congo. Late last year, Robin partnered with her friend and fashion designer Karen Fowler to create a campaign for the women of Congo through Pour Les Femmes, a luxury pajama company.  The profits from the PJ sales traveled 15,114 kilometers from Los Angeles to Congo, and purchased sewing kits for these women to start their own businesses, earning income to feed, clothe, and send their kids to school, helping to break the cycle of poverty and change the landscape of their lives.

Some women walked one kilometer, some trekked five or six, a few bused in from the city of Bukavu, braving the unpaved dirt roads made muddy and dangerous from two days of the non-stop, rainy season wet weather. It’s just this wet weather that makes travel in Congo so dangerous, yet also makes it look a lush, verdant paradise, with its rolling green fields and the wide leaves of banana trees leading up to the misty mountains surrounding the valley. But the potential for paradise in Congo has long been marred by conflict, extreme poverty, and violence against women as a weapon of war.

That Saturday in March, in a corner of Congo, a country in which it is reported that 2.5 million girls are out of school, 60 young women ages 14 to 28 made their way to celebrate graduation from Action Kivu’s 8-month sewing program. They walked through the rain to the Mumosho Women’s Center, the heart of Action Kivu’s work in Congo.

Amani Matabaro is the man and the inspiration behind Action Kivu.  In 2006, Amani and his wife created Action Kivu’s partner organization in eastern Congo, Actions pour le Bien être de la Femme et de l'Enfant au Kivu (ABFEK), after learning that his cousins, victims of the ongoing conflict, needed work and a place to live.  At the March 2015 graduation, Amani congratulated each seamstress for her diligence in learning a new skill and gaining an education, invoking empowerment that no one could take away from them.   Often overwhelmed by tears of joy, Amani handed each woman her certificate of completion, and draped her new tape measure around her bowed head, a sort of sewing stole denoting achievement in education.  

Amani congratulates Cibalonza Claudine.

Each woman received her graduation kit: a push-pedal sewing machine (for working in villages with little or no electricity), fabric, a box of threads, scissors, and her tape measure.  The rain abated, and the women stepped outside to pose for photos and share their stories of how learning to sew and having the means to earn income has already changed their lives.

"I am the happiest person on the planet today because of this graduation kit, I had never expected this, I waited for a long time but today is the day,” said Cibalonza Claudine, the sewing program’s star student, who was wearing a dress she had made. Cibalonza walks an hour and a half each way to attend the sewing classes at the Center, and was never late, never missed a session, said Amani.

Action Kivu’s work in Congo provides women with a variety of entrepreneurial programs to create sustainable change in their community, from bread baking and basket making to the sewing workshops, from literacy classes to a demonstration farm for growing food to sell and eat, as well as education assistance for the kids in the community whose families cannot afford to send them to school.  Your partnership through Action Kivu, whether an annual gift or a monthly donation, changes lives. 

“Before I came to this center, I was nothing, I meant nothing at all,” Cibalonza said at the graduation ceremony. “After learning the sewing skills, I started rebuilding my life and today, I AM SOMEBODY. No matter the rain I will carry my sewing machine and show my mom and my child that I have to start a new life.  My plan is to open a new business and I promise I will prosper – thank you ABFEK, thank you Action Kivu, thank you Robin Wright, God bless you all and keep you strong for changing my life.”

These women, who have so little in terms of money, power, or influence, have so much to teach us.  Their gratitude for what you give them to start them on their path to earning income and caring for their families, reminds us of our connection to everyone in the world.  Thank you for partnering with Action Kivu through the Pour Les Femmes campaign!

Please consider continuing your partnership with Action Kivu — it provides the means to continue these life-changing programs for the women and children of Congo.  All donations are tax deductible in the U.S., and make a tangible difference in the lives of these women, as they share, in the video above. 

ABFEK is registered as a local non-governmental organization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Action Kivu, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) charity in the United States. Our EIN is 27-3537799.

~Rebecca Snavely
Executive Director & Co-Founder, Action Kivu

Week by Week, Creating a New Congo Through Strength & Vulnerability

There are many places for people of all ages to find community in Mumosho, Congo: the church, the local elementary school yards, or a hot day at the Peace Market, where people are happy to be crowded under the market's roof, selling or buying peppers and fish, bananas and plastic woven bags, happy for respite from the relentless sun or downpour of rain. If the women who are learning sustainable farming on Action Kivu's demonstration farms aren't there at the Market, selling beautiful fruits and vegetables, they may be found down the road, at the Mumosho Women's Center. 

Over at the Center, the place is swarming with, well, women.  They move from the sewing workshop to take a break and stretch their limbs outside.  They walk down to where the literacy class meets in the afternoon.  They swap caring for babies so the teen moms who live at the center get a break.

Outside the Mumosho Women's Center

But at least once a week, both women and men gather at the Center, where they meet for the community's weekly empowerment session.  Men and women, often with children in tow, gather together at the center to discuss how mismanagement is hurting Congo. And more importantly, how to take ownership of their own actions, the behaviors and relationships that will affect the community and eventually, the entire country.

"We talk about the worth of sharing in the community," Amani explains. With Action Kivu's animal husbandry goat program, the families are required to return to the Women's Center when the new kid is born, to set into motion the title of the program, "My Goat is Your Goat." Amani shares the example he shares with the men and women at the weekly meeting. "If you sell the goat without telling the organization, you are just like those who embezzle funds / resources in Congo."  It starts with you. Amani's face lights up: "The women and men LOVE that. They respond to that."

Nearby village chiefs are invited to attend, to share the sessions with their communities.

Through this center, these weekly meetings, the entrepreneurial courses and literacy classes, Amani and his staff are providing the education, training, and safe space for people to explore what it means to be those leaders in their own lives, in their personal relationships, in their families, communities, provinces.

"It starts at the micro level," Amani says. "Change in Congo has to start in our households. If I’m a bad father, in my household, then how am I going to act in the greater community of Congo? We inspire people to be honest in all their transactions, in relationships, in promises, in contracts, to create the Congo we want for our kids."

I was reminded of the empowerment trainings in Mumosho, Congo, while listening to a re-broadcast of Brené Brown's conversation with Krista Tippet about the strength of vulnerability, and stepping into hope and the fear of unknown at the same time. 

..."It starts by an openness to seeing ourselves and seeing kind of how we're protecting ourselves from vulnerability. I think that's where it started. I think ... even for me today, I am the most successful doing, you know, this work and trying to be real and transparent and me and feel good in my own skin when I stay very aware of what kind of armor I'm throwing up or when I feel afraid.

"I think maybe the definitive piece of knowing that has helped me with this is that I was raised in a very kind of binary culture. If things were good or bad, you know, you were brave or you were afraid. You were courageous or you were fearful. And I think for me, one of the definitive moments in my life was realizing that most of us are brave and afraid in the exact same moment all day long."

~Brené Brown with Krista Tippet, On Being

We're so honored to work alongside our friends in Congo, who through your support are stepping into and helping create a better present and future for Congo.  Read more from our blog to learn about the entrepreneurial programs, the informational meetings, the Peace Market, and more!

A Goat's Good Standing: Creating Community in Mumosho
Mumosho Sewing Workshop Vision Statements: Mystery, Meaning, Measurements
Claudine On Community & Coming Back to Life Through the Sewing Workshop
Maombi's Story: Designing a Life of Dignity



Family Planning in Congo: Babies on Backs, Children in Tow, Women Arrive to Ask Questions
Visit the Peace Market with Amani in I am Congo: Amani, the Community Builder (VIDEO)
Meet Marhonyi & Her Students: Literacy Training in Mumosho

If you'd like to set up a recurring monthly donation to support these projects, click here! Every dollar makes a difference to create sustainability and a better future for those we work with in eastern Congo!

Discovery Through Play in Mumosho, DRC

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
― Plato

When we asked Amani what the kids call a teeter-totter & merry-go-round in their local language, we learned that the teeter-totter is called ''musumba'' in Mashi and that the merry-go-around has no name in Mashi.

These games were not in the children's vocabulary before the Swedes from Direktionen för Nytta och Nöje in Strömstad created this playground in Mumosho, DRC.

Here's to kids having a place to play, and all of us sharing games and culture without borders or boundaries. We can't wait to learn more about games and play from kids in Congo who have more peace, freedom, and safety to explore!

Mumosho Sewing Workshop Vision Statements: Mystery, Meaning, Measurements

"The tyranny of the quantifiable," Rebecca Solnit writes, is "the way what can be measured almost always takes precedence over what cannot: private profit over public good; speed and efficiency over enjoyment and quality; the utilitarian over the mysteries and meanings that are of greater use to our survival and to more than our survival, to lives that have some purpose and value that survive beyond us to make a civilization worth having." (~"Woolf's Darkness," Rebecca Solnit)

In honor of setting intentions for this new year, of living life with purpose, of creating the space and opportunities for dreams to be fostered,  for mystery to have a place to play, and of unearthing the meaning of community and caring for each other, we'd like you to meet some of the women in Action Kivu's sewing program in Mumosho, Congo, and share in their visions for 2015 and the future.

Cigarhulirwa

Land rights for women in eastern Congo are practically nonexistent, yet critical in a place where a woman can be divorced with no legal access to alimony or child-support. Cigarhulirwa wants to use her new sewing skills to earn income, and buy a plot of land and build a house to stay in. "My mom is very poor but she loves me. She takes care of my child when I am at the center," she said.

Mushekuru

Growing up, Mushekuru's father did not think it necessary to send a girl to school. At 16, her education is beginning at the Mumosho Women's Center, where she's learning to sew, alongside her sister. "My vision is to work hard and help my mom and my grandmother," Mushekuru said. Her grandmother is providing a home for Mushekuru, her mom, and her four siblings, after Mushekuru's father divorced her mother without reason, leaving her with no money, or land.

Bulonza

"My wish was to get an education but my father did not send me to school because I am a girl. I want to have a sewing collective, and when I get married I will educate all my children, regardless of their gender." Bulonza, 19 years old.

Mumosho Women's Center, DRC

Thank you for partnering with the women, girls, and their families in eastern Congo.  They'd love to hear from you: please leave a note of encouragement in the comments, and we will pass it along!

Your support is what make our entrepreneurial programs possible: If you'd like to donate, please click here to help make these visions a reality.

World Toilet Day: Would You Donate your Birthday for a Toilet?

It's World Toilet Day! Why, you might ask, is a World Toilet Day necessary?  It warrants its hashtag because being toilettes provides potential for outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like cholera.

Yesterday we announced the amazing, fantastic news that Robin Wright launched a sleepwear line and campaign to raise money for the women of Congo, donating 100% of the profits to both Action Kivu's work and another amazing organization, Synergie!

It makes you want to be like Robin Wright, right?  Here's another opportunity to help.  First, check out how Robin Wright donated the funds for the latrine at the Peace Market in Mumosoho in 2011. On our visit in January 2012, we witnessed the completion of the project, and the careful chiseling of the sign to honor "Mama Robin" for her generosity.

Next, think about how you might take your toilet for granted.  There are 2.5 billion people who are toilettes, and we are looking for $8,500 in funds to build latrines for a few hundred of them. There are 475 elementary and secondary school children at the Burhembo school in eastern Congo, for whom the current “facilities” are holes in the ground, surrounded by insubstantial walls. As it is now the rainy season, these toilets are a safety hazard as well as a public health risk, when the girls fall in and get hurt.

It’s not a sexy subject, but it’s a vital one for the kids in Congo. If you’re interested in helping to raise funds for the school kids at Burhembo, consider donating your birthday – instead of friends taking you for dinner or lavishing you with gifts, they can give to Action Kivu, and kids can have safe toilets, all because of you!  Email Rebecca Snavely at actionkivu@gmail.com to connect.

Robin Wright Launches Sleepwear Line to Benefit Women of Congo!

We are honored and thrilled to announce that Robin Wright has chosen Action Kivu as one of two organizations to receive the profit of sales from her new sleepwear line through socially-conscious sleepwear company Pour Les Femmes.  Robin met Action Kivu founder Amani Matabaro on a visit to eastern Congo, and has since supported his work with the community there, using her voice and celebrity platform to raise awareness, and giving her time, energy, passion, and money, to people who are too often overlooked.  She documented her visit over at The World Post, noting:

"The women from the Action Kivu sewing center also came out to meet us and asked that we carry their message of triumph and hope back tothe U.S. What they were most looking forward to was the completion of Amani's ongoing project--the Peace Market.

"Mumosho is a small village located about 16 miles from Bukavu, situated right on the border with Rwanda, which means it is 16 miles away from the nearest market. Therefore, the women of Mumosho were forced to walk for hours to purchase basic goods, including food, soap, and clothing. And during their trek through the forest, they were vulnerable to attacks from the roving militias, including the FDLR. As a result, many women simply did not make the journey for fear of being raped or shot, and the community in turn suffered.

"Now, less than a year after we visited Mumosho and saw the beginnings of the Peace Market, it is built, complete with a roof to protect people from the rain, and a place of refuge and shelter for the community."

Later learning of the need for latrines at the Peace Market, essential to prevent an outbreak of cholera, Robin promptly donated the funds needed to build the toilets.  Her compassion and generosity have made an indelible mark in the lives of the women and children in eastern Congo.  And she continues to do so, through this beautiful line of sleepwear, and invites you to make a difference, too.

Visit plfdreams.com to learn more about the pajamas and to purchase.   100% of profits are going to Action Kivu and  Synergie Des Femmes, to support the women of Congo!

Read more about Action Kivu's work in Congo here:

• Give a Goat! (or Chicken): Animal Husbandry in Congo
• Maombi's Sewing Story: Designing a Life of Dignity
• Claudine on Coming Back to Life & the Sewing Workshop
• Sewing students and grads: Cikwanine | Cozi | Ernata | Safi | Amie | Bienvenie | Evelyn
• The women and girls in the literacy program & Marhonyi, one of the literacy course teachers
• The women learning agriculture lessons on the shared farm & a second shared farm at the Mumosho Women's Center
• The community conversation (women AND men!) on the importance of family planning and contraception
• The women who weave beautiful baskets
• The school kids: girls at the top of their classes
• Meet Amani, community builder, leader, and visionary!  Watch the video to experience his corner of Congo here.

(Photo courtesy Pour Les Femmes)