Kingscourt woman helps disabled in the Congo

"They came during the night and when we tried to escape, they started shooting and cutting people with machetes," says Claudine. "I was left for dead until the morning." Seriously wounded in a rebel attack on her village, Claudine had to have her leg amputated. "My husband abandoned me when they removed my leg," she says. "My brother-in-law took me in at first, then my cousin found me and took me in, but it was difficult for them to accept me because I could not contribute anything. They thought I was useless and I was neglected. So now I live with a friend, and I am concentrating on tailoring and making my independence." Today Claudine is learning tailoring skills under Synergie Simama, a collection of religious and community groups that came together to serve people with disabilities sustained in ethnic fighting around the city of Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). DRC should be a tropical paradise. It has more potential than any other African nation with resources like diamonds, gold, timber, minerals and rich agricultural land. Yet through internal corruption, ethnic violence and meddling from neighbouring countries, much of the land is lawless and the majority of the population lives in poverty. Ireland has had a historical connection with DRC since Roger Casement's damning report on behalf of Britain's foreign affairs office in 1904, which accused the Belgian authorities of committing atrocities that led to three million deaths. While in 1960, Irish troops were deployed there in the first UN peacekeeping mission in the chaotic aftermath of independence from Belgium. Ireland continues to assist DRC today through funding provided by Irish Aid. The Christian Blind Mission (CBM Ireland), based in Monaghan, uses government aid to fund grassroots projects in Eastern DRC that help people with disability to rebuild their lives after the affects of the conflict. Since last year security in DRC has stabilised when a government and UN combined offensive drove the rebel militias back into hiding. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun the process of closing displacement camps and the international charities that funded emergency relief are leaving the country. However, for charities working with people who have been disabled in the conflict, this is when their work truly begins. Yvonne Bura, a counsellor with Synergie Simama, says that the people physically injured in the conflict have also been psychologically traumatised. "The participants in our training centres sleep in class because they are too frightened to sleep at night. Many of the women are abandoned by their husbands and some of them are sent into town by the family to beg for money. What we do here is useless if they are not taken care of at home. "We need to change the family's attitude to accept them, and not to try and get something out of them, and the best solution is to integrate them into the community. Through this training they can contribute to the family, and the goal is for them to teach their new skill to at least one family member and, through this process, they learn to value themselves." Empowering people with disability to be self-reliant is as important as providing medical care says Kalongo Rwabikanga, the co-ordinator of Synergie Simama. As well as providing medical and rehabilitative care, they seek to contribute to poverty reduction by funding the socio-economical integration of people with disability through community income generating activities. "Disability goes with all other aspects in the local community," Kalongo says. "Poverty is one of the aspects that make people disabled, that's the reason why apart from just concentrating on issues regarding disability we take the opportunity to take on other aspects of life. It is useless for us, and a waste of resources, if we just focus on disability without seeing how we can prevent disability." Synergie Simama funds a training programme run by members of the community in the village of Bogoro outside Bunia. This was the site of an ethnic massacre in 2003 in which more than 200 people were killed, and two alleged militia leaders are currently under trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the atrocity. Meanwhile in a small training centre at the edge of Bogoro, local people, displaced people and people with disability from all the local ethnic groups are working side-by-side learning tailoring, welding, carpentry and small-scale farming. "We focus on how the community can rise up and improve their living standards," Kalongo says. "We want to help people to contribute and earn some income to support our activities because the need is too big to rely on international aid alone. We aim to mobilise people to work together to contribute and improve the living standards for not only people with disability, but also the entire community. Once we manage to empower the community to come up with income generating activities, then the people with disability will be helped by the community itself." Ngozi is 18 years old and lives at the Bogoro training centre with his sister. He was discovered in a nearby displacement camp by a community field team. He lost both his legs when he stepped on a landmine in 2007. His injuries were devastating and left him completely dependent on his friends and family. "I could not afford a wheelchair so I had to crawl with my hands," he says. "Everyone neglected me, apart from my mother, and they looked down on me because I could do nothing for myself." Last year a looting militia attacked Ngozi's village and he escaped with the help of friends who carried him away. On joining the project in Bogoro his independence was returned when he received a tricycle wheelchair. He is now training in welding and hopes to set up his own business. "Overall I am very grateful to God," he says. "Before I couldn't manage to survive on my own, I had no hope. Now through the help I am receiving here, I can finally be self-reliant." This article was supported with a grant from the Simon Cumbers Fund operated by Irish Aid.