Feb. 23, 2009 issue
War’s horrors haunt Congolese refugee family
By Gladys Terichow Mennonite Central CommitteePage:
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SASKATOON, Sask. — It is not unusual for Leonie Mandeba Lwamba to wake up from a recurring and distressing nightmare.
Lwamba
The images in her dreams are not fictitious. They are images of a family friend killing her mother in 1994 during the violent conflicts in Zaire, now Congo.
“The man who killed our mother used to come to our house and eat at our table,” she said. “That image keeps on coming back to me. I still have great difficulty trusting people.”
Loving support from Mount Royal Mennonite Church in Saskatoon is helping her deal with this horrific memory along with other painful memories of violence in Zaire and her escape to a refugee camp in Kenya.
She is especially thankful for the support of Eric and Verna Olfert, who understand the situation in Congo through serving with Mennonite Central Committee in Chad and Nigeria and travel in African countries.
“People love me and encourage me. They are like my parents; they are like my relatives,” she said. “I don’t want to ever move away from here.”
Lwamba and five children, ages 3 to 14, arrived in Saskatoon in March 2004. They were sponsored by Mount Royal Mennonite Church through MCC’s refugee assistance program.
Lwamba was a teacher in Zaire, and her husband, Stephen, was the school principal. They had two children when her mother was murdered. Their youngest child was only six months old.
Fearing for her life, Lwamba’s pastor helped her escape to a refugee camp in Kenya. One month later her husband and her children joined her in the refugee camp. She lived there for nearly eight years. Her sister Julienne was also at the same camp.
Mount Royal Mennonite Church heard about these families when her brothers, Michael, Fabian and Aliston, founders of an award-winning Canadian gospel group, Krystaal, performed in the church.
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