In honor of International Women’s Day, the women and girls of ABFEK / Action Kivu wrote and performed these poems and a play for all to hear:

RAPE

Rape!  Where did you come from? Who gave you a name?  Who brought you to my home country?
Those who use you have taken my sister like a cow to slaughter.
They have taken my friends to unknown countries, where are they?
Rape! Why can’t you answer me?  Do you hear me?
They have taken my mom in front of me! You have no mercy.
Rape! You have damaged our bodies.
Rape! Because of you, my family and my community have rejected me
Rape! Because of you, my husband has run away
Remember what you did to me mercilessly in front of my beloved ones.
Rape! Because of you, love on me has changed into hatred.
Rape! You have taken my smile, my joy far away from me. BRING THEM BACK.
Rape! You have traded my happiness to bitterness.
Today, I will ask the whole world to help me and Bury you
They will help me erase your name and what you’ve caused against my community.
Rape! My family, my community, my country, the world and myself, we All Hate you.
 
~ Author’s name withheld for privacy and security reasons

Violence has  no Mercy & Excuse
  Violence!
  Why do you not forgive?
Why do you not master yourself?
  Why do you not have reservations?
Why do you only do evil against evil?
You sow terror wherever you go.
You fear no one
You spare no one
You do not negotiate
But you treat with force
And everyone complains about you
For you are the enemy of peace.

La Violence est sans Pardon
Violence!
Pourquoi tu ne pardonnes pas?
Pourquoi tu ne te maitrises pas ?
Pourquoi tu ne te réserves pas ?
Pourquoi tu rends le mal contre
 le mal ?
Tu sèmes la terreur partout où tu passes.
Tu ne crains personne
Tu n’épargne personne
Tu ne négocies pas
Mais tu traites avec la force
Et tout le monde se lamente de toi
Car tu es l’ennemie de la paix.

~Author’s name withheld for privacy and security reasons

ABFEK also performed a play to highlight the plight of women’s lives without equal rights and understanding. Using humor and pathos to educate and inform, the play covered a range of issues facing these women, girls and men in their community on a daily basis.

Using hyperbole to show the disparity of home life and housework, the play asked the question, do men think women have a thousand hands? They must, if they don’t offer to help as she goes to collect firewood, fetch water, cook food, mop the dirty floor, take care of the kids, go to market for trade and when she comes back she gives the earnings to the “king” husband.

The play addressed the lack of basic, equal rights in marriages where men can decide at any time to reject their wives for no reason, can divorce their wives simply because they never give birth to baby boys. Men who say women have no right to inheritance. Who make decisions about everything in family life, able to sell the property of the family without asking the opinion of the wife. An opinion that doesn’t count in bed either, for men who decide when to have sex, regardless of how the women feel. Men who decide what types of food a woman is allowed to eat. Families who cannot afford to send all their children to school and discriminate against girls for being born a girl, and choose to educate a boy, even when he is not as good a student as their girl.

We’re so thankful for the women using poetry, plays and songs to change their lives, and the men who are awake and aware and are fighting alongside them for equal rights! Your support helps send girls to school alongside their brothers, teaches women a trade to support themselves and their families, and reminds us all that we stand together, and what affects one of us affects us all.

In a country that has been deemed one of the worst places to be a woman, girls, women and men walked together, proudly bearing banners and marching to the beat of drums to celebrate International Women's Day.   "Over 2000 women joined forces in Mumosho. It was wonderful," wrote Amani, Action Kivu's/ABFEK's leader, who has been working with the communities in Kivu and Mumosho in preparation and anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the day. He shared his excitement that local authorities, leaders, and police came to witness the performance of plays and poems that denounced gender based violence.  To engage the men in the fight, they catered their messages in sports speak and sang songs to invite them to jointly end violence on a larger scale.

We'll share more of the poems, plays and video as we receive them from Amani.  We're thankful for your support of these strong women, giving voice to their lives, shaping and changing their future.

Kevin Sites and his finacée Anita Paul are running the Los Angeles Marathon in March, and they’re doing it all in the name of Action Kivu! Each of them is aiming to raise $5000 by March 20th, the day they hit the pavement. But they’re not only competing on the race course, they’re racing to $5000! Who will reach their goal first?

Visit their fundraising page and pick a side - who will you help over the finish line first?

If you’d like to run a road race in order to raise awareness and funds for Action Kivu please contact us. We’d love to partner with you and help you achieve your goal!

Who knew that Santa was a relatively unknown Congolese man with a giant heart?   After Amani heard from the kids ABFEK sends to school that they were too poor to celebrate Christmas or the New Year, he organized a day for the children in Mumosho. 

This year was especially hard for families, as the lack of rain caused a food shortage, denying families the beans they usually survive on this time of year.  As one of the parents on the committee helping to gather and organize the children relayed, "There has been lack of rain. Our beans are not ripe, how do you want us to celebrate Christmas and the New Year? This is the first time in our history, we used to celebrate Christmas by boiling beans and offer some in our churches as symbol of thanking God to have kept us strong up to the end of the year. Is it this time a punishment by God ...? We are all hungry.''

 
Your financial support helped ease that hunger and add the joy of Christmas for 298 children.  Amani and his helpers passed out packages filled with biscuits, sweets and, as a special gift, toys for 12 of the children who volunteered to be a part of the day by sharing their stories of Christmas and the New Year.  The kids call Amani "Papa Amani," so in addition to his own six kids, he is the father to 100s.  "These kids are our own!" Amani claims with joy.

The start of a new year offers a time for great hopes and dreams -- the symbolic end of one year allows us to learn from our mistakes, to celebrate the good, to mourn the losses, and to move forward.  From all of us at Action Kivu, we want to thank you for your financial, emotional and practical support this year.
 
Amani writes, "May 2011 bring Joy and Peace to each of us, wherever we may be, that we may each be a source of happiness and peace in our troubled but extraordinary world."