This blog post is an excerpt from an interview between May Mak, our Senior Grants & Programmes Officer, and Irene Nyambura, the Programme Advisor in Aru, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
What are you most proud of in your job? Why?
Irene in Aru, Democratic Republic of Congo.
I am proud to be of service to both the community and coordination team. At the end of the day I feel I am providing a solution to the serious needs of the community, lack of access to inputs, healthcare and social stability in the communities.
When I get to hear about testimonies of effective delivery by the teams that we facilitate and the progress of the learners, I feel very happy about the mission we have with the communities in Aru. For instance, a widow who continued to pay school fees for her children after the death of her husband; women contributing to the incomes in their households; enhanced relationships achieved because of training on the rights and respect of the vulnerable members of the community. Now, in Aru, parents are allowing education for their daughters which previously was not the case and there are less gender-based violence cases reported.
We’re seeing increasing demand at grassroots level by new learners and Groups. Even after the phase out of the adult literacy classes [funded by Five Talents] there are still new classes running voluntarily in order to access the training programme for Savings Groups and business skills.
The project is actually a room for knowledge and experience sharing. Every day presents a new challenge to be resolved or tackled. A moment to learn and to share.
What were some of the challenges of the programme in 2021? How did you overcome them?
Mental health of the facilitators: During a recent training on trauma healing, it was discovered that the movers of the programme themselves, our facilitators, have been through traumatic experiences in the past and some who are still living in areas currently experiencing conflict could be living with the burden of such experiences.
We have addressed the challenge by including a series of training on topics like trauma healing, Bible study devotionals and sexual and gender-based violence awareness and prevention. The courses are aimed at helping the facilitators to cope and be able to assist those who are in similar circumstances.
Why should someone support the Aru programme?
It takes about 3 weeks for an ordinary person to travel from Aru using all available means combining both land and water travel to the country’s capital, Kinshasa. Aru, like the bigger Eastern region, receives very little government support due to the distance and lack of funds. In such a scenario, the vulnerable sections of the community suffer the hardest. Most of the learners in the programme are women, 83%, and if women suffer, their children are in an even worse state.
The men are also not able to provide for their families as they would want to due to lack of knowhow, support from their wives and even lack capital to undertake farming or small businesses. The situation creates a sense of hopelessness and helplessness and finds that people fail to appreciate their own God given resources. The programme helps bring hope to the members and once they regain hope and take charge of their lives, their enhanced self-esteem brings about a phenomenal change that spirals outside the programme.
The programme helps build peace in an otherwise conflict ridden region by facilitating social interactions and welfare. The members become accountable to one another in not only financial services, but during funerals, weddings, sickness, gender-based violence and information exchange.