Economic Recovery for the survivors of Kalehe-DRC

The survivors of Kalehe floods are still in a Limbo waiting for us to put pressure on the Government in the Democratic Republic of Congo and at the same support their efforts towards resilience.

Our work towards the survivors of the flooding in Kalehe and in other places in the Democratic Republic of Congo is driven by this deep theory of charge in which this story. “ A young man travelled for a journey, when reached in a certain village, where he stayed for some few days, the wind blew and devastated the whole village, the rivers and lakes which served as opportunities for livelihood of people were affected, fishes and others aquatic animals were all on the dry land and started dying one by one. Then this man found an old man picking fishes one by one and taking them back into the waters. The young said to the old man, don’t you see that you are wasting all your time for nothing, you will not put all these fishes back into the waters, even right now many have died, so just leave it and people will come up with other ways of living. The old man replied. Young man I do not intend to put back all these fishes into the waters because that it is impossible now, but I want to put the few I can manage and then they will multiply and after years they will become again a livelihood opportunity for the next generation, we who are left in this village will not benefit from these fishes anymore, but children we leave behind us will benefit from what I’m doing now”.

Survivors of Kahele flooding

These were the same thinking in April when water flooded Bushushu and Nyamukubi in Kalehe which affected over 10,000 people who are living in IDP Camps while over 6,000 people died. As usual in Africa generally when there is a problem, people do not ask “why” but rather they focus on “who” and in this way of thinking they want to know who to blame, for this time it was either “Satan” for some while others it was “ the will of God”.

Is it possible to work on the recovery of all these people affected? If the answer is yes, can it be done at ago? And if the answer is no, is there what can be done? With these few question the story above makes sense, maybe we shall not save all people but we can save some few and we need to start somewhere from a small number.  

With the Psychologic trauma people believe nothing much can be done, especially that this same area was again affected by the flooding in 2014 and again killed so many people. Some people believe they should now only wait and die one by one because they do not have other solutions, even recently the wind blew their camp and all the plastic tents were destroyed. On top of that some are dying of hunger and the lack of adequate medical treatment, where they were put in the camps are also places at high risks and any time, they can also be victims of flooding or land sliding. In order to eat they have to wait for relief aid but again unfortunately the aid is no longer available.

So there is no hope and in actual sense people are right to think in this way, but that is not enough. In case we cannot save all the people, let us at least save some few like in the story of the young man and the old man above.

What we have done so far

Resilient people who are involved in small income generating activities have now been fully identified and are now put in a group of 20 people, currently we have put in place three groups. Our business model has been also introduced to them and so far this has helped them to come together, work together and know each other, share information and opportunities and help each other when there is a problem. Those who are in the groups are now thinking differently and have hope for a better life, they believe now they can overcome their challenges and restore a new life.  

What can we do together?

The traditional livelihood was affected and will not exist anymore for some especially those who lived on agriculture and fishing, however there is still hope, we can capitalize of the existing opportunities through skill development, and other economic activities. We can also capitalize on the opportunities in the area, but this will require us to observe the linkage between poverty and vulnerability which are a challenge to resilience. Once we defeat poverty among some, then they will find better ways to live in safe places and that is possible.

The money already raised responds to this belief

With the little money raised through the fundraising will support some small resilient income generating activities in which community members are involved, especially for the most vulnerable women and young girls who involved in small businesses and trading in different places. As per now we shall only add some money on their capital at least between 50$ and 100$ per person, then strengthen their groups which exist already. These women will be encouraged to agree on how much money they can save per week in their group. The money saved each week will be divided into two (2) parts, the first part will be used in order to solve social problems of the members of the group, like a member is sick, a member wants some little money to build a house, a member wants to pay for the school fees of their children, a member has lost someone, a member has a wedding….then the second part will be used to increase the businesses capital of the members in terms of borrowing through small loans.  The group will define how this money will be paid and if they want small interest, this will ensure the long-term of the businesses members are involved in as per now.

Advocacy

In long-term we should also get involved in advocacy at two different levels, to advocate for the relocation of all these people to better places and at the same time advocate for the policy of prevention. More work will be done in order to change the attitudes of people, heal those already traumatized and empower others into leadership in order to influence decision making at community, provincial and national levels.

Thanks