Mama Makeka House of Hope

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The Paradox of Our Age
We have bigger houses but smaller families;
More conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
More knowledge, bus less judgment;
More experts, but more problems;
More medicines, but less healthiness;
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communications;
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods, but slow digestion;
Tall man, but short character;
Steep profits, but shallow relationships.
It is time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

~ H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama

January 2008 DR Congo Trip Report

By: Pakisa K. Tshimika
MMH Hope Executive Director

View the Report

GOAL OF THE TRIP

The goal of this January 2008 trip to DR Congo was:
  1. To continue to monitor the political, economic and social environment and their impacts on our involvement in the country.

  2. To sign partnership agreements with PAREC Sud Kivu for projects related to Eastern Congo and with the Center for Peacebuilding, Leadership and Good Governance for projects related to peacebuilding in Congo.

  3. To launch several activities we have been working on during this past year. These activities are related to the commitment we made to collaborate with the Walungu Health Zone to provide physical and emotional healing and empowerment opportunities for women who have experienced sexual violence. Specifically, we had offered to provide peer counseling and training in trauma healing; management training and seed funding for micro-credit programs; sewing machines, supplies, and training for income-generation programs; supplies and training for doctors in OB/GYN surgeries at Walungu Hospital.

  4. To initiate partnership activities that promote security in the Walungu region by building relationships with grassroots peace and reconciliation groups in South Kivu.  Specifically, we had agreed to participate in programs geared toward collecting and exchanging weapons for bicycles or tin roofing. It was hoped that weapons collected would then be destroyed, melted, and transformed into agricultural tools to be redistributed in the local communities.

  5. To initiate the documentary project that focused on women of the Walungu region who have been victims of sexual violence. By doing so, we hoped to provide them an opportunity to reclaim their voice and to help us all address the question, “What can be done?”

  6. To meet with MCC and SANRU regarding the possibility of supporting the Kajiji Health Zone that provides services to more than 150,000 people and yet without any financial support by national or international institutions.  

  7. To finalize the plan for the development of the International Center for Professional Resourcing in Kinshasa.

  8. To participate in co-mediation of a conflict in one of the Congo Mennonite Conferences.

  9. To nurture current relationships and develop new ones with the political, civil society, church, and professional communities.


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