Creating New Stories for Women in Congo: Sewing, Reading, Farming, Your Dollars Make a Difference!

The stories coming from Congo are often about war: the crimes against humanity, the rape of women, the poverty and malnutrition that is created by a country constantly in conflict.We want to share stories of change —women learning to sew, to read, to farm vegetables and healthy grains to feed their families and sell at the market.  Women who are not giving up on their lives, or the future of Congo, flooding our Women's Center to learn to read, so they can choose whom to vote for in the next election. Starting sewing businesses or earning income through our partner in Fair Trade, The Peace Exchange, and earning the income to send their children to school, to educate and empower the future leaders of their communities and country.For $195, we supply our sewing grads with kits that include a pedal-powered Singer sewing machine, thread, scissors, and material to start earning income using the new skills they have learned.Any amount we raise toward that goal is crucial in creating sustainable growth in eastern Congo. Can you give today? Your tax deductible donation goes directly to the work on the ground, telling these women that they are not alone; you've heard their stories, and they matter.  When we invest in women and girls, we change the future.According to the United Nations Foundation, via the Clinton Global Initiative:
  • Women who have control of their own income tend to have fewer children, and fertility rates have shown to be inversely related to national income growth. Girls and young women delaying marriage and having fewer children means a bigger change of increasing per capita income, higher savings, and more rapid growth.
  • One quarter to one half of girls in developing countries become mothers before 18, and girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during childbirth than women in their 20s
  • When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families."

To move beyond the staggering statistics, meet some of the women we partner with.  Cozi, a girl whose life was changed with an unplanned for pregnancy.  She shared with us that her "entire life is a new story" since joining the sewing workshop.

And Cikwanine, whose family "gave up on her," after she was "impregnated without her consent," but she chose not to give up on herself, and joined the sewing workshop and Teen Mother program at the Mumosho Women's Center.  She shared, "My life has changed a lot since I joined the ABFEK program. I share my experience with other people here in the sewing program and I feel comforted, now I have hope, joining this program gives me a new hope for my future."
If you haven't met our partner, Amani, who started the non-profit ABFEK from his own income, this post tells why he so strongly believes that empowering women is the path to peace and growth in his country.  The video at the bottom of the post was created a few years ago by The Enough Project, and gives a great sense of who Amani is.

Please share in the story of one of our sewing graduates, Ernata, who graduated with her sewing certificate in June, 2012.  When we met her in January 2012, her story echoed that of a society where women have very little rights or value, and can be divorced without recourse for not bearing a male heir.   "I have a big wound inside my heart," Ernata told us. "If I don’t have children with my husband, he will kick my out.  I’m noticing some changes, bad behavior, from his family members, who might urge him to chase me (from the home)."

Nine months later, Ernata gave birth to a different dream, as she works hard to sew uniforms for the kids in her village.  She takes a break from her own sewing to supervise a fellow seamstress. "I am very proud of myself today," Ernata shares, "and my husband is proud of me and he's happy to have me as a wife, especially as I help make an income for the family."

There are so many stories of how the women's lives have been changed, both by our entrepreneurial trainings as well as knowing that people around the the world believe in them and support them.  Donate here! And please share the women's stories of hope with your friends, family, and colleagues!

Seed Distribution at the Demonstration Farm - Photos by Emma O'Brien

Action Kivu Intern Shatreen on the Joys and Needs of Working with ABFEK

We were thrilled when Shatreen contacted us, asking if she could volunteer as an intern in eastern Congo. Her impressive résumé, filled with speaking not only fluent French but also Swahili, work in Liberia and a background in reproductive health, made her appear  a shoo-in. Meeting her via Skype, and speaking to her references, we were reassured she would be a great help to Amani's work in Congo.  Her report after her summer in Bukavu and Mumosho was encouraging, as she, too, witnessed firsthand Amani's compassion, passion, intelligence, and trust amongst the women and families of the community he serves.  But she also noted that the lack of money often stops important work from being completed.As we work to raise the money to fully fund the ongoing programs that are changing women's lives, we ask you to read on, in Shatreen's own words, of her experience in Congo."From June to August 2013, I had the pleasure of serving as an intern with ABFEK and Amani Matabaro, in the South Kivu province, primarily in the cities of Bukavu and Mumosho. I had reached out to Action Kivu earlier in the year because I had been interested in conducting thesis research in Eastern Congo, and was interested in the fact that Action Kivu had paired itself with ABFEK, a Congolese-run organization focused on community-building. I was attracted to ABFEK because of the fact that it was run by Amani, a native of Mumosho, who was focusing on teaching marketable skills to women, while also securing funding for children’s education. The multi-pronged approach seemed to be very in tune with community needs, and Amani’s strong connections to the community, as well as his belief in empowering women, seemed to be a very powerful approach to NGO work.

Amani with the women of the shared farm, during seed distribution.

..."When we began our work, due to our limited budget, we were only able to travel to Mumosho a few times per week, and sometimes, even once a week. This appeared to one of the major obstacles that I saw.  It would often be costly for Amani to arrange transport to travel to Mumosho, especially as it was the dry season, when driving meant precarious conditions with lots of dust. It seems that if Amani were able to obtain a car, especially an all-wheel drive vehicle, this would greatly speed up ABFEK projects, since he or other staff members would be able to check in more regularly."Despite this hurdle, we were still able to carry out the project we planned. Because of my background in reproductive health, and my interest in conducting thesis research, we agreed to conduct interviews with 75 local women on their knowledge of family planning, and access and barriers to family planning. We noted that an overwhelming amount of women did not even know what family planning was, despite the fact that many of them expressed dissatisfaction with having had large numbers of women. Most women had between 6 to 8 children, with an extreme of one woman having had 15 children. Throughout the interviews, the women asked for some sort of lesson on what family planning was. I worked with Amani, and Annie, an ABFEK staff member, to plan presentations for men and women on explanations of family planning. The interest in these presentations, especially among the women, was staggering. We planned for roughly 50 women to attend the lesson, but about 125 women showed up, with standing room only. The women were especially interested in finding out how and where to access family planning."...My work with ABFEK was incredibly rewarding, and the positives far outweighed the negatives. Amani was a passionate, dedicated leader within his community, and the follow-through and communication on the project was incredible. We would regularly schedule meetings to discuss project planning, and within a few days, we had completed tasks and assessed how we were doing. As an intern, I consistently felt welcomed into every place I was with Amani, and I was respected and treated like a sister. I also never had any concerns about safety, despite the fact that there was some turmoil in the north. In terms of weaknesses, it appears that money and staffing is the main issue with ABFEK. Many of the people who worked for ABFEK, such as Annie, worked for practically nothing, simply because they were so passionate about improving the community. However, they still had families to feed and children to send to school, and it appeared that many of them were struggling to make ends meet. Money was the main obstacle for us, in terms of limiting our travel to Mumosho, and also limiting how broad the project could be."Throughout my time in Congo, and afterward, I have nothing but praise for Amani and ABFEK. If another student were interested in interning with ABFEK, I would wholeheartedly recommend to them to work with the organization. It was an incredible experience, and I fully plan on staying involved with ABFEK and Action Kivu in the future. My only regret was that I couldn’t have stayed longer in Congo to work with ABFEK. It was an absolute joy and honor to have been able to intern with Amani and his organization."We have so many needs, from paying the literacy teachers and sewing trainers good wages, to buying sewing kits for the 63 women who have learned a valuable, marketable skill through our workshops: $12,285 dollars to purchase the 63 kits: sewing machines, fabrics, thread, scissors, and more, to enable the women to start their own business and earn money to feed and send their kids to school, helping to break the cycle of poverty that lack of education creates.If you can give today, or on a monthly basis, every dollar makes a difference, and, minus nominal banking fees, goes directly to the work on the ground in Congo.Read more about the way these programs are changing the lives of the women there, and shaping the future of Congo!

We depend on your partnership, and couldn't do this work without you!  Thank you, from us, and from the women who share their stories with us, ask us to thank you, and ask you to share them with others, so that their lives and voices are heard around the world.

(Photos by Emma O'Brien)

Dear Cikwanine: Anything can happen child, anything can be

Dear Cikwanine,Our hearts break yet soar as we read this part of your story. This is "part" of your story, knowing that this is one chapter, and you have so much more to live, as you graduate the sewing program, work to earn income, live in community with the women you've met there, and raise your baby.  A baby you did not plan for, a pregnancy that was forced upon you. But, after your parents learned you were pregnant, and "gave up on you," as it is translated, you did not give up on yourself.Forced to drop out of school, you learned about the sewing workshop and Teen Mother program, you took action, asked to join, and, now, as you tell us, "My life has changed a lot since I joined the ABFEK program. I share my experience with other people here in the sewing program and I feel comforted, now I have hope, joining this program gives me a new hope for my future."You did not let something that was so brutally forced upon you yet simultaneously took something from you, make you give up hope, which is an inspiration to every one who hears or reads your story. Thank you for allowing us into your story and inspiring us to be strong in our own lives —  we hope to be part of your community from afar, sending support and encouragement as you walk a new path.

Cikwanine speaks to her situation with strength, sharing with us that Congo needs good leadership to ensure the rights of women and others are respected.  When asked what she would tell those of us, paying attention around the globe, she replied, "I want people to know that people here need their support to make peace happen, nothing will be sustainable if we have no peace. Rape against women should stop."March is Women's History Month, and today, the 8th, is International Women's Day. Let's celebrate women like Cikwanine, who do not give up hope!  She is part of the graduating class of the sewing workshop at the Mumosho Women's Center - if you want to support her and her classmates as they stitch together new lives and start small businesses as seamstresses, consider donating toward buying a sewing kit.  $195 purchases a machine, fabrics, thread, scissors, an iron - all that they need to launch their new lives.“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”~ Shel Silverstein

Read more about the people with whom you partner through Action Kivu:

UPDATE on Cikwanine here: School Stories from Congo - 3 Teen Moms on Bringing Back Lost Hope

Happy International Women's Day from Congo!

This International Women's Day, invest in the girls and women of eastern Congo!$150 / month pays the salary of one of Action Kivu's sewing trainers. Our trainers, including Rosine, give women and girls like Cozi the opportunity to earn money and change their lives, the lives of their children, and the future of Congo!"Clearly, more investments are needed. Girls and women are at the heart of development. They are the seeds of growth and the engines of power. Improving the livelihood of girls and women is central to the success of broader development goals, such as reducing poverty and hunger, improving maternal health and increasing overall economic growth and stability. We know that investing in girls and women isn't just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do." -Jill Sheffield, Women Deliver We need your help to continue this work and provide these learning and investment opportunities in eastern Congo. Can you start a monthly donation or make a one time gift today? Every dollar makes a difference, and minus nominal banking fees, goes directly to the work on the ground! And please tell / share with your friends and colleagues.Learn more here - http://actionkivu.org/donate.html

Happy International Women's Day!#IWD2014(Photo by Emma O'Brien)

Sewing Student Cozi: My Entire Life is a New Story

Cozi sits surrounded by women, girls, swaths of fabric, thread, scissors, and sewing machines. This is her new community at the Mumosho Women’s Center sewing workshop, and also her path to realize her dream of supporting her child as a single mother.
Cozi was raised in a family of seven children, where she helped her mother with her younger siblings, farming, collecting water and firewood.  For fun, she played a game called zero, “where you jump higher and then go down and you clap,” she said. Cozi went to school up until the second year of secondary school, but after her father died in the 1996 war in eastern Congo, her mother was unable to afford to pay for Cozi’s education.  She discovered the sewing workshop through her sister, Bienvenie, and Ernata, one of our graduates who frequently works at the Center, sewing school uniforms for the kids we send to school, and the pieces for our Fair Trade partner, The Peace Exchange. 
Cozi plans to start her own business with her new sewing skills and the machine and fabrics that she will receive upon graduation.  “Joining the sewing program … means I will become able to take care of my child whose father is not known and I will also be able to take care of myself and help my mother,” she tells Amani. “My entire life is a new story after I had joined the ABFEK sewing program. My colleagues in the program have become a huge support for me and my child. This program is an answer to so many of my problems.”
You can help Cozi make these dreams her everyday reality.  We are raising the funds to buy her sewing kit (and 62 fellow students) for graduation in May.  Your tax deductible donation of $195 purchases a pedal powered Singer sewing machine (critical in a place without electricity), fabrics, thread, needles, and scissors to launch their small businesses!  Can you give today? 
When Cozi was asked what she would say to you, she replied, “I want to thank people in America for their support to our Programs … and I would ask them not to stop. I want to ask People in America and Europe to support Peace  in the Congo. … Above all, war should stop!”
When you support these women, you empower them to send their children to school, to raise up a new generation of people to call out for peace in Congo. 
Every dollar makes a difference, and your partnership tells the women and girls that their stories are heard around the world, and they matter.  
Read more about the people with whom you partner through Action Kivu:

Meet Marhonyi and Her Students: Literacy Training in Mumosho, Congo

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." ~ Frederick Douglass"In 2012, a study conducted by UNESCO and UNICEF revealed that 52.7 per cent of the 7.3 million children out of school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — some 3.8 million children — are girls. Among the obstacles to girls’ education are low family incomes and lack of school infrastructure, in some areas."Meet Marhonyi, one of Action Kivu's three literacy teachers at the Mumosho Women's center. In spite of the statistics, Marhonyi was able to attend school, and graduated secondary school with her certificate in Pedagogy, which focuses on teaching. She now passes along that knowledge to other women and girls who, because of their gender, were not sent to school.

One of her students is M'Bidundu, who at 17 had never been given the chance at an education. She is very proud being part of the program and today can read and write a few words as a result of the literacy program. ''This program gives me a new hope for the future in, my life. I feel like I was blind but now I can see,'' she says.

Marhonyi leads literacy class, Mumosho, February 2014

Your donations make these programs possible. Please consider a donation and help us fund these important programs, and partner with the women in eastern Congo, studying and working to create change in their community and country!We're excited to share the women's stories and progress with you here, and to ask you to partner with them. If you have words of encouragement, please share them here in the comments, or via e-mail to actionkivu@gmail.com, and we will forward them to Amani, to share with the students! If you'd like to include a photo of yourself, please do, and Amani will post with your note, reminding the women and children that they are not alone.

Growing Change: From Seed to Harvest, a Second Shared Farm in Congo

From seed to harvest, the women in Mumosho are celebrating a second demonstration farm. Located next to the newly built Mumosho Women's Center, the farm is a place for the women to gather, to learn agricultural lessons, to grow good food for their families to fight malnutrition, and veggies to sell at the Peace Market.Your partnership makes this possible, and we can't do it without you.  If you want to grow a little good from giving, consider a monthly donation to Action Kivu.  Every dollar makes a difference in the lives of the women in eastern Congo.

Cabbage harvest - February 2014

"Women are the backbone of agriculture and food production in Africa, working its arable land and feeding its population by producing 80% of its food. But African women farmers’ perspectives are excluded from conversations that determine agricultural policies and priorities, while discriminatory laws and practices deprive them of their land, their rights, and their livelihoods." - Global Fund for WomenOn the ground in Congo:Planting Seeds in Congo: Hope Seen Through a Photographer's LensCelebrating Fall Harvest - Women Hold Up Far More Than Half of Agriculture in AfricaSowing Seeds of Presence & Partnership: Shared Farm

Happy New Year from the Kids in Congo to You!

The Christmas Eve celebration started with a song led by Arsene Mudasa, who at 9 dreams of becoming a priest to implore peace in the Congo.  Arsene is from a family of four and is the only one able to be in school because he is in the ABFEK — Action Kivu — Jewish World Watch Education Sponsorship program. Arsene told Amani, ''I had no hope of what to wear tomorrow ! Christmas is a big day, now I will go to church  and after that I will come back home and spend time with my brothers.''On Christmas Eve, 2013, thanks to your support, ABFEK, our partner in eastern Congo, gathered together all the kids we support to celebrate Christmas and the new year.With the wonderful support and grant from Jewish World Watch, these kids are now attending school regularly, without fear of being kicked out for lack of school fees. And with the money donated to this Christmas event from Action Kivu partners, ABFEK bought shoes, clothes, and snacks for the kids who have been orphaned or lost a parent. Each and every single child received a pair of shoes, a blouse and skirt for girls and a shirt or T-shirt and a pair of shorts for the boys, as well as a sandwich and a bag of nuts.Amani's example inspires not only those of us who support his work, but the kids he works with and for: Rehema Ludunge is 12 and from a family of eight children and wants at all cost to become like Amani. ''When I graduate from School I will work for ABFEK. Christmas and the New year should mean Peace in the Congo."Safariu Byamungu is 10 years old, from a family of three children, and told Amani, "I want to become a medical doctor. This  Christmas gives me hope! I did not know where I could get clothes and shoes from. I am so happy and I am sure 2014 should bring Peace."Irene Bashimbe, 16 years old, should already be in secondary school but, unable to afford the school fees, has missed years of school until the time ABFEK enrolled her in the program. A very courageous girl from a family of 12 children, she is the only one in school. ''I want to become a teacher and educate other children. I am so happy and proud of ABFEK giving us new Hope for this new upcoming year."Happy New Year, from Congo to you!

Sewing Together the World, Spinning Meaningful Stories

"I sometimes imagine my whole life that way, as though each step was a stitch, as though I was a needle leaving a trail of thread that sewed together the world as I went by, crisscrossing others' paths, quilting it all together in some way that matters even though it can hardly be traced. A meandering line sutures together the world in some new way, as though walking was sewing and sewing was telling a story and that story was your life."The verb to spin first meant just this act of making, then evolved to mean anything turning rapidly, and then it came to mean telling a tale....the wonder is that every spinner takes the amorphous mass before her and makes a thread appear, from which comes the stuff that contains the world, from a fishing net to a nightgown. She makes form out of formlessness, continuity out of fragments, narrative and meaning out of scattered incidents, for the storyteller is also a spinner or weaver and a story is a thread that meanders through out lives to connect us each to each and to the purpose and meaning that appear like roads we must travel."~ Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway NearbyThe women in Action Kivu's sewing workshops have stories that, beyond their control, have been shattered by others. Today, they are weaving them together, making meaning from the seams and threads of their lives.  As we approach a new year, we look forward with optimism to the present day, where women are learning a trade, earning income to support their families and send their children to school. And we have hope for the future, to grow the trainings and move into other villages where the need is great. We ask you to consider partnering with these women in the stories they're creating in Congo!

Holiday Giving: Clothes and Shoes for Kids in Congo

For Christmas this year, we'd like to give clothes and shoes to the kids we work with in Congo, that they will wear for the whole year. It's the only Christmas gift they are likely to receive, and it takes just $850 to make 250 kids' lives a little brighter. Can you give toward that this week? Visit: http://actionkivu.org/donate.htmlYou can donate via PayPal or send a check to the address on the link, and note ("to seller" on PayPal) "Christmas Clothes."Every dollar makes a difference!  Can you give $5, $10, $15, or more to help us reach our $850 goal?

We'll post photos and stories from the day the kids receive their shirts, shoes, and pants.  Thankful for your generosity this holiday season, that we can provide these things!  100% of your donation will go directly to Congo, minus nominal banking fees.