Testimonies from North Kivu

Transcription

Testimonies from North Kivu
Assistance for victims of mines and explosive remnants of war
in the Democratic Republic of Congo
© M. Bacigalupo / Vu
Federal Information – Personal stories from North Kivu, mine victim assistance/ERW in DRC – August 2012
Foreword
Below you will find a brief introduction to the situation in North Kivu and a summary of our projects. This information is
designed to make it easier for you to use the testimonies of Handicap International’s beneficiaries in the region.
These testimonies, gathered in June 2012 in the sectors of Goma and Masisi during a mission conducted by Federal Information,
are included in the second part of this document. They are accompanied by a series of photos taken by Martina Bacigalupo, an
Italian photographer based in Burundi.
Background: North Kivu, an explosive region
North Kivu is a Congolese province in
the east of the Democratic Republic
of Congo, close to the border with
Rwanda and Uganda. This province
has suffered from years of armed
conflict. Over the last few months,
we have observed a sharp rise in
insecurity over a large area of North
Kivu.
The first half of 2012 was marked by
mass defections from the regular
army of ex-rebels belonging to the
CNDP (National congress for the
defence of the people), led by Bosco
Ntaganda, currently wanted for war
crimes by the International Criminal
Court. These defections have
severely disrupted the chain of
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command within the FARDC (the
Congolese army) and given rise to a
number of problems.
The military defectors have set up the March 23 Movement (M23), which controls practically an entire territory. It has set up its
own government and its violent rebellion has destabilized the whole region. The M23 has fostered the emergence of small
armed groups. Clashes have erupted between local Maï-Maï militia and armed groups like the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (DFLR), an armed movement which grew out of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
These groups are profiting from the military vacuum to attack villages and camps of displaced people, destroy homes and kill
people belonging to ethnic groups they consider to be hostile to them. From April to 15 July 2012, humanitarian organisations
recorded more than 7,000 incidents in the territories of Masisi, Walikale, Rutshuru and Beni (Source: UNHCR, 27/07/2012). They
include the summary execution of civilians, rape and other forms of sexual abuse, torture, arbitrary arrest, the destruction of
property, forced labour and military enrolment, including of children, as well as ethnic violence. The number of victims is
estimated to be even higher since many people are unable to talk or are too afraid or ashamed to express themselves,
particularly in the case of rape.
Due to this instability, large numbers of people have been displaced within the province or neighbouring countries. At the end of
July 2012, the UNHCR stated that since April 2012, over 470,000 Congolese nationals have been displaced in the east of the
DRC.
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FARDC, Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Wendy Huyghe – [email protected]
Years of armed conflict and a recent resurgence in fighting have created a climate of permanent insecurity that makes it difficult
to travel around North Kivu where explosive remnants of war (including grenades, bombs and mines) have caused and continue
to cause accidents. On Wednesday 22 August 2012, six girls aged between nine and twelve were killed in Rutshuru after a bomb
exploded in their parents’ field. Between 1964 and 2011, UNMACC (UN Mine Action Coordination Center) recorded 2,445 ERW
accidents in the DRC (Source: Landmine Monitor, 2012); due to problems gathering data, these figures are unlikely to reflect the
true extent of the problem on the ground.
Handicap International in North Kivu
Handicap International first intervened in the Congo in 1995, following a polio epidemic. The organisation is currently working in
Kinshasa where it focuses on mother and child health, physical rehabilitation and the education of children with disabilities. In
North Kivu, Handicap International provides support to vulnerable people caught up in the conflict in the region, and victims of
explosive remnants of war, such as mines.
1. Rehabilitation and medical referral
Rehabilitation
The large number of people with disabilities or likely to develop a disability (children and adults) affected and isolated by the
conflict in the east of the DR Congo need specific case-management to reduce the risk of disabling sequelae. To meet this need,
in 2007, Handicap International introduced physiotherapy into several hospitals in the North Kivu region; the organisation set up
physiotherapy services, trained physiotherapists and supplied hospitals with equipment. Handicap International also organised
chest physiotherapy for malnourished children in therapeutic feeding centres around Goma. We are currently training
physiotherapy students and strengthening the technical skills of existing physiotherapists. The end goal is to include the
prevention of disabling sequelae in both physiotherapy training courses and day-to-day practice.
© M. Bacigalupo /
Vu referral
Medical
“Referral” means the case-management of a person with disabilities identified during a social assessment carried out by
Handicap International in partnership with a local operator (such as a local organisation) or service able to meet the specific
needs of that person. Handicap International is working with specialist health centres in Goma and with the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to ensure the orthopaedic-fitting of victims of the conflict in the DRC. Handicap International
also helps identify beneficiaries, including the most isolated people, who would not normally have been able to access services.
They face multiple obstacles: they either live in extremely isolated areas, without adapted facilities, such as a small village in the
mountains, or they are afraid of travelling due to the threat from armed groups in the region, or they do not have the money to
travel. Some of them may also be unaware that specific services exist to case-manage their disability.
When Handicap International’s workers identify these people during field visits, the organisation provides them with full casemanagement. This involves transporting them to Goma (the capital of the province of North Kivu, where the hospitals and
rehabilitation centres are located), or to other towns in North Kivu, covering their medical expenses (such as operations and
rehabilitation sessions), and providing them with mobility aids (crutches, wheelchairs and orthoses), as well as medical-social
support.
2. Assisting victims of mines and explosive remnants of war
In North Kivu, many people have disabilities caused by shot wounds or explosive remnants of war (ERW).
Building on its expertise and knowledge of the situation in the field, Handicap International has set up a victim assistance project
centred on individual victims, their needs and capacities. “We provide guidance to vulnerable people who don’t have enough
money to set up a project adapted to their capacities and environment, so that they can meet their daily needs (food, hygiene,
school, etc.),” explains Roberta Sarzano, the project manager. This involves providing people made vulnerable or marginalised
by their disability with the materials and training they need to start up a business, sometimes very small, but which allows them
to become self-reliant and to play a full role in society. The organisation also distributes walking aids (crutches, tricycles and
wheelchairs), accessibility aids (adapting toilets in homes and installing ramps) and more specific aids (school kits, payment of
school expenses, and household kits to meet the most urgent needs). The entire process is managed by Handicap International’s
social and paramedical workers.
Sasha – Geneviève has been given a tricycle that will help her move
around. (© M. Bacigalupo / Vu)
Masisi – One of Handicap International’s workers teaches a beneficiary how
to choose a pig. (© M.Bacigalupo / Vu)
3. Rapid Response to Population Movements (RRPM)
The recurring conflicts and insecurity in the east of the DRC have given rise to large and constant population movements over
the last few years. Many of these displaced people are extremely vulnerable, including people with disabilities. “Very often, this
section of the population finds it hardest to keep up with population movements. They find it difficult to travel and they are
unable to carry essential equipment and food with them. Because they have limited mobility, they also find it difficult to access
aid and basic services. Someone who’s paralysed, for example, will find it impossible to visit a distribution area or a vaccination
service. As a direct consequence, people with disabilities become isolated from the rest of their community. This can lead to a
heightened risk from malnutrition, sanitary diseases, aggression and sexual violence,” explains Hélène Robin, manager of
Handicap International’s emergency programmes.
Since 2007, Handicap International has encouraged other humanitarian organisations to make it easier for people with
disabilities to access aid. “Handicap International trains other NGOs to identify vulnerable people and their specific or basic
needs, because these people are often “forgotten” during relief efforts due to their lack of visibility. Handicap International’s
workers (physiotherapists and construction technicians) help these humanitarian operators take people with disabilities into
account in their operations.”
This involves building adapted latrines and water pumps, schools and school latrines, and making the distribution of NFI (nonfood items) more accessible.
According to data from reports compiled by RRPM missions performed by Handicap International in conjunction with its
partners, this category of people with disabilities or reduced mobility represents between 10% and 15% of vulnerable displaced
or returned beneficiaries.
4. Mine Action
Handicap International took action against mines in the DRC between 2001 and 2011. The organisation performed demining
operations and carried out surveys to determine the presence of mines in the Eastern province. In October 2012, Handicap
International returned to the DRC to support the government’s efforts to implement its national strategy for 2012-2016, the
goal of which is to permanently eliminate the threat posed by anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions by the end of 2016.
“We are going to identify areas contaminated by mines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war (ERW) by conducting
general surveys of the regions in which fighting is known to have taken place and where there were troop movements,
particularly in the North Kivu and Eastern provinces,” explains Elsa Jamboisfrom the mine action division. “Using a standardised
marking system, the association will mark all of the mined areas as well as isolated cluster munitions and ERW discovered in
accessible villages. People living in communities affected by these explosive ordnance will also be invited to take part in
prevention sessions to raise awareness of the dangers they face and to encourage them to adopt responsible practices (identify
ordnance, do not touch it, raise the alert, etc.). Our aim is to reduce the number of victims. We are also in contact with demining
operators charged with destroying this ordnance.”
5. Logistics services platform
Handicap International is running a logistics services platform project in North Kivu for NGOs , to help them provide relief to the
population. This involves promoting provisional emergency operations and/or helping new humanitarian operators set up
operations in Walikale territory by offering them storage and transport facilities and accommodation and work spaces in areas
less well covered by the humanitarian community.
Masisi displaced persons camps – © M. Bacigalupo / Vu
4. Mine Action
Handicap International took action against mines in the DRC between 2001 and 2011. The organisation performed demining
operations and carried out surveys to determine the presence of mines in the country’s Eastern province. In October 2012,
Handicap International launched a new mission in support of the government’s efforts to implement its national strategy for
2012-2016, the goal of which is to permanently eliminate the threat posed by anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions by the
end of 2016.
“We are going to identify areas contaminated by mines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war (ERW) by conducting
general surveys of the regions in which fighting is known to have taken place and where there were troop movements,
particularly in the North Kivu and Eastern provinces,” explains Elsa Jambois from the Mine Action Department. “Using a
standardised marking system, the association will mark all of the mined areas as well as isolated cluster munitions and ERW
discovered in accessible villages. People living in communities affected by these explosive ordnance will also be invited to take
part in prevention sessions to raise their awareness of the dangers they face and to encourage them to adopt responsible
practices (identify ordnance, avoid touching it, raise the alert, etc.). Our aim is to reduce the number of victims. We are also in
contact with demining operators charged with destroying this ordnance.”
5. Logistics services platform
Handicap International is running a logistics services platform project in North Kivu to make it easier for NGOs to supply relief to
the population. This involves promoting the launch of provisional emergency operations and/or helping new humanitarian
operators set up operations in Walikale territory by offering them storage and transport facilities and accommodation and work
spaces in areas less well covered by the humanitarian community.
North Kivu. Logistics platform © Handicap International
Testimonies
Testimonies 1-17 provide examples of Handicap International’s work in the fields of rehabilitation, medical referral and social
support
Kahinja is beaming from ear to ear. He looks more like an eighteen year old boy
without a care in the world rather than a young man with seven young mouths to feed.
He’s visiting the Shirika la Umoja Centre for Disabled People, where he is trying on his
prosthesis for the first time.
Since he was injured in a grenade explosion five years ago, Kahinja has moved around on
crutches. But recently, one of Handicap International’s teams discovered him in his
native village of Rugari and took him to Goma, the capital of North Kivu, where he was
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provided with physiotherapy care and a prosthesis. .
He wants to learn to walk again as quickly as possible and to return to his village. With
his mother, he still has seven mouths to feed. Kahinja now works as a shoemaker to
make ends meet, but life is far from easy. That’s why Handicap International decided to
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give him a household kit and an adapted toilet, tools (jack, air pump, hammer, compressor, etc.), which will enable him to run a
second business repairing tyres. “And now that I’m going to be able to walk again, I can work more,” he says, full of hope.
As he describes his accident, he suddenly takes on an adult air again. He thinks about it every day. In 2007, he was coming home
from the fields with his two brothers when they noticed a group of armed men looting Rugari in the distance. They started to
run away but one of them stepped on a grenade. “I blacked out. The villagers took me to hospital. When I came round again, a
doctor told me that they had had to amputate the whole of my left leg. And that one of my brothers hadn’t made it.”
Kahinja and his family have never returned to the scene of the accident. They can’t imagine going back. “When they told my
father the news, he was so shocked, so overwhelmed, that he lost his mind. He still speaks, but he’s totally incoherent. If we
didn’t feed him, he wouldn’t eat anything. When he sees that I can walk again, maybe he’ll start to get better.”
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Handicap International covered his medical care, physiotherapy and accommodation expenses in Goma. The ICRC (International
Committee of the Red Cross) and Handicap International jointly supplied him with a prosthesis.
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The household kit contains a mattress, can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan
2. Francine Katungu (9)
Francine, who was shot in the knee, has never been able to walk properly. She went to
school for the first time in September 2012. She knows exactly what she wants to be when
she grows up: “A fashion designer!”
In March 2007, Francine, who was four at the time, and her two older sisters were alone at home when armed men entered her
village, Buramba. Dozens of people were killed in what was later called the “massacre of Buramba”. Francine’s sisters were
killed with one bullet.
“We, the rest of the family, didn’t dare return to the village,” explains her father, who is staying with her at the Shirika la Umoja
Centre for Disabled People in Goma. “We thought that no one had survived the attack. But the Red Cross had taken Francine to
hospital, where we found her after two long weeks of searching. I can’t describe how happy we were.”
A short while ago, Handicap International took Francine to the centre because she was having problems walking. During the
attack, she was shot in the knee and her leg developed badly. Handicap International was able to correct this impairment using
a plaster cast and by giving her physiotherapy care. She was also given an orthosis to permanently correct her leg and allow her
to walk normally again.
When we asked Francine if she was happy to finally be able to play with the other children, she shrugged her shoulders. What
really made her happy was to finally go to school. She had never been to school because her family had never been able to pay
the fees. Handicap International has paid her fees for the new school year and provided Francine with everything she will need
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to attend lessons . Her family was also given a hygiene kit . The organisation is also helping her father set up his own business
selling second-hand clothes. This is what seems to have provided Francine with her inspiration: “When I’m older, I want to be a
fashion design, so I can make pretty dresses for myself.”
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Uniform, shoes, exercise books, back pack, pen and board, because she has never been to school.
mattress, can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan.
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3. Fiston Negetshu (12)
When he grows up, Fiston wants to work for an NGO that helps people with disabilities so
that everyone who needs one can be fitted with a free prosthesis. This 12-year old boy has
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spina bifida . He also lost a leg in the fighting. He was able to go to school for the first time in
September 2012.
Fiston was not, as the saying goes, “born for happiness”. He came into the world twelve years
ago with a strange hump on his back. It looked like small tortoise shell. Fiston had dorsal
lumbar spina bifida and he was extremely lucky to survive his birth. He lives with the constant
risk of paralysis. A simple blow to his back or a fall could interrupt the flow of neurological
substances in his body and lead to paralysis.
Fiston’s father only learned what his son was suffering from twelve years after his birth, when Handicap International sent him
for a consultation in Goma. “After his birth, we went to see the doctor with Fiston, but he said that he didn’t have a problem.”
Handicap International arranged for Fiston to stay at the Goma rehabilitation centre so that he could be fitted with a
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prosthesis. He didn’t need a prosthesis because of his illness. In 2007, he found himself in the middle of a gun battle when he
and his family were fleeing the violence that had erupted in their village of Karuba. A grenade exploded close to him and ripped
off his leg.
After this incident, life became even harder for Fiston. He lived with his sister and two brothers, fairly high up in the mountains.
To climb down the slopes, he used a crutch that his father had found and a basic stick. Even so, embarrassed by his condition, he
rarely left home. “He felt strange and shut himself away,” explains his father.
Fiston’s courage has returned to him in the last year. He walks down the slopes again now, even when it rains and there’s a risk
of slipping in the mud. His prosthesis makes him happy because he knows that he will be able to do without his crutches. And he
was able to go to school for the first time in September. Handicap International has supplied him with everything he needs to
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attend lessons and has paid his school fees. Very recently, his family’s finances have also improved because the organisation
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has given them a hygiene kit and two goats, which will enable Fiston’s father to start up a goat-breeding business.
“The stay at the rehabilitation centre is doing Fiston the world of good,” says his father. “He’s really thriving here. Obviously,
he’s really happy that he won’t have to use crutches anymore and that he’ll be able to walk with a prosthesis. But it’s also
important for him to see all of the other disabled people. And that those people are able to do things.”
At the centre, Fiston has already formed his plans for the future: he wants to work for an NGO that helps people with
disabilities. And then he’ll make sure that all people with disabilities receive a prosthesis.
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Spina-bifida is condition in which part of the spinal cord and surrounding nerves push through the open bones in the spine.
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Handicap International covered his medical, physiotherapy and accommodation expenses. The ICRC (International Committee of
the Red Cross) and Handicap International teamed up to supply him with his prosthesis.
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uniform, shoes, exercise books, back pack, pen and board.
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can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan.
4. Lumoo Mazuri (17)
There are some days Lumoo will remember for the rest of his life: this seventeen year old
man recently became the father of a little girl named Espoir. He also received a visit from
Handicap International’s team, which is going to help him, nine years after his mine
accident.
Lumoo lives with his mother, five brothers, wife and three-day old baby in a small house in Buabo, in Masisi territory, on the
border with Walikale territory. He called his little girl “Espoir” (Hope) because that’s what he has needed throughout his young
life.
In 2003, when Lumoo was eight years old, he went to play cards with a friend in the long grass. His friend chose the wrong spot
to sit down - on top of an explosive device. Lumoo doesn’t know if it was a mine or a grenade. Neither did he know weapons like
that could be found in his village. Lumoo lost a hand. His friend did not survive the accident.
Handicap International found Lumoo in the small village of Buabo. The organisation’s team studied his needs, his background
and his family situation (Lumoo is very young and found it hard to care for his wife and baby). And because Lumoo is capable of
being self-reliant, he was trained to set up his own business. Lumoo and his wife now run their own small business from which
his young family can live without outside support.
5 Riziki Shobuto (19)
The emotional scars she bears from her bullet wounds will probably never disappear. But
two years after her attack, Riziki (19) is feeling hopeful about the future again: “I’m going
to finish school and become a seamstress.”
2010. Riziki was returning home from school when she was stopped by an armed man. She knew instantly that he wanted to
abuse her. Riziki defended herself, escaped and ran off. Frustrated, the soldier fired at her several times and left her for dead.
Riziki came round in hospital in Masisi. She suffered serious bullet wounds to the neck, buttocks and several parts of her leg. She
did not lodge a complaint with the police. “That would have been pointless. And I wouldn’t have recognised the man who did
this anyway.”
After being treated for seven months, Riziki was able to leave hospital. Her family left Kabua and moved to Masisi because they
felt safer there. And also because she no longer wanted to return to where she had been attacked. She thinks about what
happened to her every day. She tries to talk about it with her mother, but it’s not easy. “I’m really angry because of the damage
he did,” she says quietly.
Riziki attends a new school where she has just finished the third form. The other children walk there by foot in fifteen minutes,
but she takes half an hour. Since her attack, she still can’t bend her leg, and she finds walking on uneven ground very difficult.
During the rainy season, she needs to use crutches. She is still highly motivated and wants to finish her school studies.
Afterwards, she wants to learn how to sew and have four children. To help Riziki go to school (her family is very poor), Handicap
International pays her school fees.
Her family lives in a small house. There are seven of them. Her father is dead. Her elder brother, who worked as a policeman
and provided the family with its income, was killed a few months ago. Her mother tries to earn a living by selling fritters. Riziki
plays her part by selling mobile phone cards after school. Handicap International provided her with her first cards as the initial
stock for her small business. When she has sold all of her cards, she will be able to buy more and use the profit to help support
her family. Riziki likes working. “The extra money will mean my brothers can go to school. And it helps me meet people without
having to move around because I sell everything in front of my door. My customers come to me.”
One of Handicap International’s teams also made a table for her and gave her a chair and sunshade. She now has her own stand
and her toilet has been adapted to her needs. These small alterations make her life a lot easier.
6. Lukoo Mawashi (20)
Handicap International gave Lukoo two pigs and now he runs his own butcher’s
business. It’s a job his body scarred by grenade shrapnel is perfectly suited for.
Lukoo was five when he fled from fighting near his home with a group of villagers from Masisi. As he was fleeing a bomb
exploded next to him. Six people were injured, including Lukoo. His body was riddled with shrapnel and left him badly burned.
He is now heavily scarred. He cannot lift heavy objects and can’t wear anything on his head. Nor can he work in the fields.
A short while ago, Lukoo came into contact with Handicap International. The teams from our “victim assistance” project decided
to help him. Lukoo was given equipment for his home (a mattress, flask, blanket, bucket, cup, plate, soap and a saucepan). The
organisation also helped Lukoo set up his own small business. He was given two pigs so that he could become a butcher. This job
is suited to his state of health.
He carefully cuts the meat and sells it at the market. He bought two more pigs with the profit and sold more meat. “A short
while ago, my family had nothing. But if things carry on like this, I will be able to send my two children to school,” says a relieved
Lukoo.
7. Balume Mushasha (27)
When Balume was amputated after he was shot in the leg, he felt condemned to a life of
misery. With Handicap International’s help, he hopes to start a new life as a shoemaker.
“It happened in Walikale, in 2007. I was with my wife, coming back from the fields, when some armed men arrested us. They
asked us where we had come from. We told them that we had come from the fields, but apparently that wasn’t what they
wanted to hear. So they just started to shoot at us. My wife was able to escape, but I was hit in the leg.”
Balume is a father of four children aged two months to seven years. He is twenty-seven. After being attacked by the rebels, the
villagers took him to hospital in Masisi. There, the doctors decided to amputate his leg.
After his amputation, he couldn’t work in the fields any more. He tried to become a butcher, but his business quickly failed:
Walikale was no longer a safe place to be. That’s why he moved his family to Masisi. His family has lived there for two years,
close to the refugee camp, in the centre.
Last year, with help from Handicap International, Balume was referred to the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross)
who provided him with rehabilitation care and fitted him with an orthopaedic device.
Despite this help, he still feels angry and outraged by what has happened to him. “Without my accident, I wouldn’t be so poor
and I’d be more able to take care of my children,” he says.
This is why Handicap International is also providing Balume with socio-economic support through the “Assistance for victims of
mines and ERW” project. He has been given equipment to start up his own small business so that he can be financially more
[1]
secure and play a significant role in his community. Balume has also been given equipment to perform his job as a shoemaker.
[1]
*dynamo, generator, worn tyres, strong thread, awl, fuel and engine oil
8. Nyirarukundo Dokoreremana (31)
After her accident, Nyirarukundo was abandoned by her husband and she went to live in a
camp. Handicap International is arranging for her to have an operation to prevent her from
going blind.
It was ten at night. Nyirarukundo, the wife of a Maï-Maï rebel, was alone at home. She was doing the housework when she
heard someone enter the house. Before she could turn round, she was hit in the eye with a bullet which passed through her
head. Nyirarukondo was left for dead. The next morning, someone found her and took her to hospital. She only regained
consciousness two weeks later.
Her husband did not come to get her from the hospital. She never saw him again. She is totally alone. She is unable to give birth
because each time her pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Her brother lives too far from her. That’s why Nyirarukondo went to
live in the displaced persons camp in Masisi. Since then, she has met a new friend. They help each other in the camp.
Two years ago, Médecins sans Frontières operated on her eye and closed it to prevent it from getting infected. But the wound
reopened. Handicap International drove her to Goma, where the organisation will pay for her treatment, arrange for her new
operation and ensure she gets the post-operative care she needs. Nyirarukondo has also been given a hygiene kit and
everything she needs to set up a small palm oil company.
9. Mishona Mussumbuko (32)
With help from Handicap International, Mishona is rearing goats again, just like he used to.
He can now meet his children’s needs. His wife left him after they were caught up in fighting
in 2008. He now looks after his family alone.
2008. 6 o’clock in the evening. Shooting and fighting breaks out in Nyabiondo, a small village in
the north of Masisi. Mishona flees into the bush with the other villagers. He is shot in the leg as
he runs and spends the night lying flat against the ground in the woods, alone and injured. He
hears gunfire all night without knowing where his family is. The villagers finally find him the
next morning, when the silence returns. They tell him that his three and a half year old son died
that night. The villagers take a day and a half to transport him by foot to hospital where the doctors decide to amputate his leg.
“My wife left me immediately,” he said. “She didn’t think I was useful anymore.”
Mishona found himself caring for his children alone, the goats that he had reared were all dead and he didn’t have enough
money to buy new ones. With help from his friends, he grew vegetables on a small plot of land. They shared the crop and
helped each other, but it wasn’t enough. In the meantime, his stump became infected. Mishona tried to bandage it himself but
he quickly realised that he needed a longer-term solution.
Hope returned when Handicap International’s team visited his village. He was transported to the Shirika la Umoj Centre for
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Disabled People where his stump was cared for and he was fitted with a prosthesis . To help him live a decent life, Handicap
International gave him three goats so that he could start up his goat-breeding business again.
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Handicap International covered his medical, physiotherapy and accommodation expenses. The ICRC (International Committee
of the Red Cross) and Handicap International jointly provided him with a prosthesis.
10. Mbetsa Mingera (35).
Mbetsa has painted the toes of her artificial leg red. From a distance, it is hard to tell the
different between her artificial leg and her real leg. Mbetsa is a proud woman, despite the
many painful events she has experienced in her life.
Mbetsa puts on her prettiest red dress to go to her sewing training course. At dawn, she leaves
her house in the neighbourhood of Bukaku (in the centre of Masisi) where she lives with her
three teenagers. Stick in hand, she holds her shoulders straight and chin high, despite the fact
that Mbetsa’s life has been a painful one and her optimism severely tested.
Eleven years ago, she gave birth to twins which died in childbirth. “When I arrived home, I had a
fit of hysteria. As I fell, I knocked a pot of boiling water over my leg. I was totally burned. I spent
a whole year in different hospitals before I could go home.”
“Three years later, there were violent clashes in my village. Everyone fled to the forest. I fled too, but because my burn injuries
had opened up again, I found it hard to run and I couldn’t keep up with the others. I heard guns firing all around me. A bullet hit
my leg. The people who lived nearby found me and told my husband. The doctors in the hospital amputated my leg.”
In 2011, Mbetsa came into contact with one of Handicap International’s teams who took her to the rehabilitation centre in
11
Goma. She was given medical care before being fitted with a prosthesis. In 2012, Mbetsa joined Handicap International’s
“victim assistance” project. She now takes lessons in cutting and sewing, and will be given her own equipment, including an
adapted sewing machine to start her own business. In the long run, she would like to open her own sewing workshop to earn
her living.
“Everything’s difficult to start with,” says the young woman. “It’s not always easy for me to focus fully on my training. My first
priority is to survive and look after my children.” She has a tiny patch of land in front of her small house where she grows beans
and manioc. She eats some of her crop and sells the rest at the market.
She looks after her three children alone. “When I lost my leg, my husband left me for another woman. I was a butcher, but I
couldn’t do that anymore. I couldn’t carry wood anymore either, or do physical tasks, so I was no longer useful. I’d also lost a lot
of weight. He said he didn’t want to live with a skeleton. He thought I was going to die.”
Since she was fitted with an orthopaedic device and recovered her health, her ex-husband comes to see her from time to time.
“I don’t mind,” she says with a wink. “It doesn’t matter. Since my miscarriage, I can’t get pregnant anymore.”
Her ex-husband doesn’t help her, but Mbetsa is convinced that she will soon be self-reliant. “For the time being I make and
repair my children’s clothes by myself, but I’m just starting out. When I’ve finished my training, I’m going to set up my own
business. I’m hoping that I can finally put my money worries behind me.
11
Handicap International covered her medical, physiotherapy and accommodation expenses. The ICRC (International Committee
of the Red Cross) and Handicap International jointly provided her with a prosthesis.
11. Ngiko Nsebibanza (35)
Ngiko is sure that the pain will go away if the bullet that is lodged in his chest is
removed. Because the operation is impossible, Ngiko must learn to live with the bullet,
with help from Handicap International.
Like everyone else, Ngiko tried to hide in his house when, in 2007, a group of rebels
attacked his village and bombed it. The attack was brief but violent. Ngiko was injured. A
bullet hit him near his lungs and his body was riddled with grenade shrapnel.
Five years on, the bullet is still there. For him, it’s a permanent threat because he thinks
that all of his pains would disappear if the bullet were removed. But the operation is a
risky one and the doctors refuse to perform it. Ngiko still feels pain in one hand and he can
hardly move his fingers. Handicap International took him to the rehabilitation centre in Goma where he was given
physiotherapy.
Before the attack, he was a farmer. Now, he finds it difficult to work and his family of six children aged 6 to 12 are supported by
12
his wife. To help him, Handicap International gave his family a kit to equip their home and everything they need to set up a
13
business. He is now full of hope.
His children are still frightened that the violence will return. When they see their father in pain, they talk about the day their
village was attacked. They hope that the war will never return. But just as Ngiko began his stay in hospital (summer 2012),
fighting broke out again in the region of Rutshuru.
12
mattress, can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan.
13
slippers, soap, a lamp, sachets, ointment, biscuits, oil, etc.
12. Sipora Katembo (39)
Handicap International gave Sipora several bags of charcoal to boost her small business. Sipora
manages alone in her store, despite her many problems. She was severely injured twenty years
ago when her little boy set off a grenade.
1994. Sipora was walking to the mill where she worked with her little boy and youngest sister. She
was pregnant with her fourth child. Her little boy found a strange object and picked it up. It was a grenade. And it exploded. Her
child and sister were killed instantly. Sipora lost the baby she was carrying, her leg and both of her forearms. But not her
courage.
Sipora had to stay in hospital for a year. Her husband didn’t leave her. She knows how unusual this is. “He cared for the children
while I was in hospital. And he helps me financially.” Since then, they have had five more children and eight in total.
In 1995, one year after the accident, Sipora was given a prosthesis for her leg. She taught herself to be self-reliant so that she
would never have to depend on anyone else. She worked out how to write with her arm stumps. She manages to change her
children and carry them. She knows how to adjust her artificial leg herself. And she dresses herself. “I don’t like asking for help,”
she says, “but sometimes I don’t have any alternative.”
There’s a certain sadness in Sipora’s eyes. “My heart is tired,” she says. She finds it hard to consider herself a whole person. She
suffers even more from the way other people see her, their curiosity and their pity.
But what she finds hardest to bear is being laughed at: “Here in Goma, it happens a lot. People with disabilities are often the
butt of jokes. And what breaks my heart is that my children start to cry when people make fun of me.”
Fortunately, Sipora has a lot of energy, and this helps her rise above her problems. When her family is short of money, she
gathers everyone together in a sort of family council to get all of their problems out into the open and to fire everyone’s
courage. With help from Handicap International, her energy keeps on growing. The organisation provided her with a kit to equip
14
her home and helped her to set up her own business by giving her fourteen bags of charcoal. This will help her achieve selfreliance and earn more money.
14
Sipora was given a household kit (mattress, can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan) and a commode
chair to adapt the toilet to her physical needs.
13. Muhindo Binyuke (44)
Muhindo describes himself as “the happiest man in the world”. Thanks to his prosthesis and
his plans to breed goats, he hopes to find a wife and to remarry.
In 2006, Muhindo was walking to work in the fields with his best friend, like he did every day. They didn’t know that the field
they were farming was mined. It was Muhindo who stepped on a mine. It tore off his leg. His friend did not survive the
explosion.
During the course of the month Muhindo spent in hospital, his two children used the food from his small business to feed
themselves. They had no alternative: their mother had died giving birth to her third child and they were completely alone.
Muhindo took each day as it came. From time to time, his neighbours helped him, which enabled him to survive with his twelveyear old daughter and one year old son. Although his neighbours were able to pay for his daughter to go to school, he had
almost no possessions, not even a mattress.
His greatest fear was not to be able to remarry because he didn’t have enough money. To get married, you need to be able to
give fourteen goats or six hundred dollars, which he didn’t have. And then, a little while ago, Handicap International gave
15
Muhindo a mattress and a kit to equip his home . And now, at the rehabilitation centre in Goma, his face is beaming with
16
optimism. Handicap International brought him to the centre so that he could be fitted with an orthopaedic device *. The day
he was given his prosthesis, he exclaimed: “I can walk! I can walk!” He thought of how the villagers would react. “People who
didn’t show any interest in me before won’t believe their eyes when they see me walking without crutches.”
17
Muhindo was also given everything he needed to breed goats . Soon he will be able to start earning money and become selfreliant again. He wants to build a house, but most important of all: “I’m going to find a wife and get married again.”
15
Mattress, can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan.
16
17
HI’s donation consists of two goats and a billy goat, a table, rope and veterinary products
14. Helene Furaha (45)
Even though her leg has just been amputated, Hélène is relieved: “I was in really bad
pain for three months.” She can finally give a new direction to her life, which has
changed radically since she got caught up in fighting in 2009.
In 2009, Hélène was travelling in a van with sixteen other people when they were attacked
near Bunangana. The firing was coming from the undergrowth. Fifteen people died in the
hail of bullets that followed. Hélène and a boy escaped into the woods where they spent
the night together, scared out of their wits. “We made bandages with our clothes and
applied them to our wounds. I thought I was going to die, but the following morning I was found by a friend.”
The boy had to have both of his legs amputated immediately. The doctors tried to save Hélène’s leg, but she was in a lot of pain.
“When my husband heard about my accident three years ago, he left straight away. He sold our house and remarried.” When
Hélène left the hospital, she didn’t have anywhere to live and had to take care of her five children. Her brother offered her a
cabin on a plot of land. “It was small and crooked but at least we had a roof over our heads.”
In 2011, she was case-managed by Handicap International and treated for a tibia bone infection. When her condition didn’t
improve and she began to suffer extreme pain, after a year, Handicap International offered to amputate her leg at Cebeka
Virunga hospital in Goma. Hélène is being case-managed by Handicap International, and she is now relieved that the pain has
disappeared. Hélène is very optimistic: as soon as her stump has healed, she can be fitted with an orthopaedic device.
Until 2011, Hélène and her five children lived from what they grew on a small plot of land in front of their home. Their situation
improved when Handicap International provided her with crutches and a tricycle. She can now transport and sell her goods.
Ever since then, it has been a lot easier for her to earn a living. “And as soon as I get my prosthesis, it will be even easier for me
to get around. I hope to be able to earn more from my little business.”
15. Kamulaji Bihemu (47)
“For the first time in twenty years I’m independent again. I’m a proud man.” Until
just a little while ago, Kamulaji was still the “village amputee.” He’s now the best
tailor in the region.
Training and a sewing machine. This is all Kamulaji Bihemu (47) needed to get started.
“Thanks to Handicap International’s support in 2011, I’m a tailor now. It has
transformed my life: I’ve repaid all my debts, my children go to school and I’ve
invested in new equipment for my workshop. Business is good. I’ve even got
customers outside the village. For the first time in twenty years I’m independent again. And that has had an impact on how I’m
seen in the village. Before I was just “the amputee”. People treated me with suspicion and didn’t think I was normal. Now I’m
“the tailor” and everyone says hello.”
Because Kamulaji is extremely sociable, Handicap International encouraged him to think about other disabled people in Sasha.
And he was delighted to help. Every week, he goes to the market and listens to their needs. He then passes the information on
to Handicap International.
Kamulaji is someone special. You understand as much when he tells you his life story. Exactly twenty years ago, a mine exploded
while he was working in a field in Mitumbala. Seven people who were standing close to him were killed instantly. Kamulaji lost a
leg in the explosion. He could no longer work as a farmer.
Despite his disability and the financial problems that followed, he did not break up with his wife Anna. And yet his marriage is
something unusual in the region: she is Banyarwanda (Rwandan Tutsi) and he is Bahunde (Congolese Hundu), two rival clans.
The rivalry is so strong that, at the end of the 1990s, the rebels told him to leave his wife. He defended Anna each time and told
them he’d rather die than separate from his wife. In 2002, he moved his family to Sasha, in Masisi territory, which was much
more peaceful. Kamulaji still lives there with his nine children. He has built a new life for himself.
16. Genevieve Lubawa (50)
“When I cross the village on my tricycle, the children shout: “Let our disabled person
through”. Before being given her tricycle, Geneviève, who fell victim to an antipersonnel mine thirteen years ago, could only move around on her knees and was
constantly derided. She is now considered to be the “grandmother”’ of the village.
Thirteen years ago, Geneviève was fleeing the fighting with a dozen other people who
were trying to reach Goma. To satisfy a pressing need, Geneviève broke away from the
group. As she was walking through the undergrowth, she stepped on a mine. There was a
violent explosion which tore off one leg and seriously injured the other. Even today she finds it very hard to move one of her
hands.
Although she has never been to see a physiotherapist, since the accident, Geneviève places her hand in hot water every day and
conscientiously massages the muscles. “If I don’t do that, my hand turns to stone and the pain is terrible. I’m always happy to
see the full moon because the pain is always less strong at that time.”
When she left hospital, Geneviève’s husband abandoned her and she hasn’t seen him since. She went to live in Sasha, in the
Masisi sector, where her daughter-in-law looked after her. “I know that I’m not the only one. That’s how it is in the Congo: when
a woman has a problem, her husband leaves her.”
Other people looked down on her when she moved through the village on her knees. The region is covered with hills and she
couldn’t cross long distances, especially in the dry season. Her knees would have been burned by the heat. She was almost
ashamed of her condition: “I moved around like a baby!”
18
Her situation rapidly improved when Handicap International offered to assist her. She was given a kit to equip her home and a
19
mattress. Her toilet was adapted to her needs and she was offered equipment for her small business . The organisation also
looked into the possibility of fitting Genevière with an orthopaedic device. But her other leg was too fragile for this to be a viable
solution. She was given a bicycle with a manual pedal to move around and to prevent her from having to walk on her knees.
Even though she has very little strength in her hands, she still manages to get where she needs to go.
“Before, the children in the village looked at me with suspicion. Now they can’t wait to help me move forward. They push me to
see my family and friends. And when someone is standing in the way, they say: “Move out the way! Let our disabled person
through! Sometimes they even called me “Our grandmother”.
18
can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap and saucepan.
19
rice, petrol can, bag of charcoal, cooking salt.
17. Xavier Bushu (50)
The speed with which Xavier, wearing his new prosthesis, rushes down the hill where the refugee camp is built is really
impressive. He’s very keen to keep his new business going.
In early 2012, Xavier, his wife and their six children (aged two to fifteen) fled the growing
violence in Walikale. His wife and children had to walk for four days before they reached
the displaced persons camps in Masisi. Xavier was transported by motorcycle because he
was no longer able to walk following his accident in 2009.
He was fleeing from the violence that was tearing his region apart. Unfortunately, he
crossed a mine field with three friends. When the soldiers from MONUSCO (United Nations
Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) arrived two
days later to search for bodies, they noticed that Xavier was still alive. They transported
him to hospital where he had to have his leg amputated.
Today, the family lives in a camp for displaced persons in Masisi because Xavier does not
want to risk returning to his native region, even though he’d like to. So he has tried to make a life for himself in the camp. He
lives in a tiny hut made from banana branches. The family of eight sleeps there on just three mattresses.
Although Xavier didn’t choose to live in the camp, he still benefits from help from Handicap International. Transported to Goma
20
by one of the organisation’s teams, he was given medical care and fitted with an orthopaedic device .
“It’s changed my life,” he says with a broad smile. “The camp is located on a hill. It’s not easy to walk down it to get to the
market where I try to earn a little money as a tailor. When it rained and the hill turned into a river of mud, I had to stay at home.
Since I got my prosthesis, I go to work every day.”
21
22
As well as a kit to equip his home, Xavier was given everything he needs to open a small store. Alongside his work as a tailor,
he can now start up a second business.
20
21
can, blanket, plastic bucket, cup, plastic dish, soap, saucepan and a commode chair.
22
tooth brush, glycerine, soap, matches, padlock, tin of tomatoes, bowls, glasses and pencils.
Testimonies
Testimonies 1-17 provide examples of the rehabilitation, medical referral and personalised social support of victims of mines
and ERW. Testimonies 18-21 explore the lives of disabled people living in camps. For these people, Handicap International
has set up the Rapid Response to Population Movements (RRPM) project
18. Musa Tubali (10)
Musa likes taking time out of the refugee camp. At the hospital in Goma, where he was
taken by Handicap International, who identified him as a highly vulnerable person,
things are much quieter. And if everything goes smoothly, he will be fitted with a
prosthesis.
Musa Tubali, 10, his sister, 13, his brother, 16, and his parent have lived in a camp for
displaced persons in the east of the Congo for three months. His mother, father and
sister have left to work in the fields. Neema, Musa’s older brother, looks after him.
They fled from Kaloba (a village in the district of MuvanyiKibala). They walked for a day.
Neema carried Musa on his back the whole way because he has difficulties walking.
When Musa was four months old, he was sleeping peacefully in his home. His mother
had gone out for a little while to collect some water. That was when the rebels entered
the village and found Musa. They cut off his toes and one hand with a machete. The
rebels probably threw Musa against a wall, or hit him with a hard object, because his leg was broken.
Two and a half years ago he was fitted with a prosthesis. He has grown since then and his prosthesis is now too small for him. He
can hardly walk and he is constantly in pain. This didn’t make it easy for him to flee when his village was hit by fighting.
Kaloba, Musa’s village, was the scene of fighting between several armed groups. “A lot of people died,” says Neema. “Our uncle
didn’t survive the fighting. We fled into the bush with the whole family. We stayed hidden for a whole week, hoping that the
soldiers would go away. We lived on fruit (colcasses). We hardly dared make a fire in case they saw the smoke and attacked us.”
A week later, the family realised that both their home and village had been destroyed. Everything had been burned and razed to
the ground. That’s why the mother, father, daughter, Neema and Musa fled, like almost everyone in the village. Musa’s family
managed to reach Kihuna camp. They now work in the fields during the day. They are paid in kind with a few items and some
food, which they eat themselves or sell.
Musa is now in the fourth form at school. His favourite subject is French. Later, he wants to be the head teacher of a secondary
school. His brother is in the third form at secondary school. He has decided to become a car mechanic. But the brothers need to
wait a while before they can realise their dreams because they still can’t return to their village, where the fighting is still raging.
And his family doesn’t have enough money to pay the school fees.
Thanks to help from Handicap International’s teams, Musa is currently staying in hospital in Goma. His small foot with his
severed toes needs intensive care. Due to poor hygiene, it is very swollen: it’s the beginning of elephantiasis. His leg needs to be
amputated a second time because his stump has not healed well. After the operation, he will be given a new prosthesis and
should then be able to receive intensive physiotherapy care.
19. N’Degeya Birushabagabo (8)
N’Degeya has already forgotten what life was like before the refugee camp. Half blind, she
and her family are struggling to survive. That’s why their little guinea pigs come in handy.
When she was one year old, N'Degeya caught a disease and lost the sight in one eye. This little
girl has five brothers and sisters. With their parents, they have been living in the camp for
displaced persons in Kalinga for five years, in a small cabin with two rooms. At the back are the
family’s mattresses, and towards the front there is a small bench. While the mother and the
other children work in the fields, N’Degeya and her father watch over the house. If they don’t,
what little they have risks being stolen, including their most prize possessions: a large family of guinea pigs that shares their
cabin. They breed them for food so the children don’t suffer from malnutrition.
N’Degeya has always lived in this camp. She only has a few vague memories of her previous life, in their village, Buguri, where
violent rebels held sway. During the fighting, her father lost his ex-wife and the three children he had had with her. The region is
still insecure. This family of eight people will be forced to live on the hill in this camp for a while longer, where they are
monitored by Handicap International’s teams.
20. Makuu Kwabo Miracle (13)
When Makuu grows up she wants to be a lawmaker so that people with disabilities
can enjoy the same rights as other people. And she’ll do just that, very elegantly, with
her feet.
Makuu, 13, comes from the village of Ngoyi, in the Masisi sector. Six months ago, all of
the inhabitants fled the village to escape the fighting. For the last six months, Makuu
has been living in a camp for displaced persons, where she is helped by Handicap International’s teams. She lives there with her
father and older brother. Her mother died three years ago after an illness.
Makuu was born without arms. But she still manages to do everyday tasks. At the age of six, she taught herself to write. She
draws the words on paper with her feet. She only needs help to wash herself.
Makuu is in the third form of secondary school. She attends a class with children without disabilities and has no problems
keeping up. “They’re used to seeing me in the village. But when I go to other places, I’m often ridiculed,” says Makuu. She has
decided to do something to remedy the situation. “When I’m older I want to work in an office with a computer and write. I want
to make laws so that people with disabilities can enjoy the same rights as other people.”
21. Arivera Nyiranziza (68)
Following an attack on her native village, Arivera managed to escape and lived alone in
the street for ten years. She now lives in a camp for displaced persons. Here, she receives
help from a number of organisations, including Handicap International.
It happened more than ten years ago, but Arivera remembers it as if it was yesterday. The
rebels attacked her native region of Ufamando. Her three children and husband were killed
without mercy, like half the population of her village. She was attacked with a machete
and received blows above the eyebrow and on her legs. Since then, she has been paralysed
along the right side of her body.
Arivera was taken to hospital and then moved to Masisi where life was safer. She lived alone. And without accommodation. “I
tried to eke out a living selling potatoes but I never earned enough money to rent a house. So I stayed with people who offered
me a roof over my head, or I slept in the street.”
Ten years later, she decided to enter a camp for displaced people so that she didn’t have to be alone in the street anymore.
There, the NGOs gave her food, although she also had to beg at times. The camp, which is home to 3000 people, is located on
the slope of a fairly steep hill. Because she is half paralysed, she finds it extremely difficult to climb to the top of the camp. The
23
day she was given her crutches by Handicap International, she smiled more than she had in a very long time.
23
As well as crutches, Arivera was also given a kit to meet her basic needs.

Testimonies from North Kivu

Transcription

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