July 12, 2010 issue
Tools help Congolese rebuild lives
By Mennonite Central Committee staffKASIKA, Congo — Hoes, rakes, forks and machetes are more than gardening tools for 635 families.
Loading new tools on their backs, women from eastern Congo head to their homes to begin preparing their fields. — Photo by Tim Lind/MCC
They are keys to rebuilding their lives. The families were forced from their homes last spring because of conflict among armed groups. As the families started returning home in the fall, many found their homes destroyed and their belongings gone.
The Church of Christ of Congo, a Protestant organization and longtime Mennonite Central Committee partner, distributed farming tools May 17 to help the families get re-established. The tools were supplied by MCC.
A second stage of the program will include providing seeds and a limited supply of food to help people cope until harvest.
Eastern Congo has been plagued with war and the displacement of more than 2 million people over the past 16 years. The 1994 Rwandan genocide brought hundreds of thousands of refugees to the area.
At the moment, this part of the South Kivu province is relatively secure, allowing the tool recipients, who are mostly women, to begin planting.
Niminenge Bondo, one woman who received implements, was asked how soon she would start to prepare her fields. “Tomorrow,” Bondo said, without hesitation.
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