World Vision distributions in conflict-affected DRC

January 18, 2008

World Vision is helping address the needs of war-affected people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this week distributing survival kits and clothing to thousands.

Despite the country’s war officially ending in 2003, fighting between the Congolese army and rebels over the past year has forced 400,000 residents from their homes in the province of North Kivu.

Over the past week World Vision distributed more than 6,000 survival kits to families, and clothing to more than 8,000 displaced children. The survival kits contain two blankets, water containers, soaps, and plastic sheeting.

“We thank World Vision, as this is the rainy season, and water has been flowing into my tent. My children now have jackets to shield them from the cold,” said Uwimana, a displaced mother of four, who has endured the worst of the conflict’s abuses.

“I was coming home from farming with my children, carrying my basket, when we met a group of armed men. Four of them raped me,” she told World Vision DRC staff.

Uwimana then arrived home to find her husband had been murdered. Fearing for the lives of her children, she was forced to flee the area to a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs).

Humanitarian assistance provided by a number of agencies to IDPs like Uwimana goes a long way but life in the camps is still incredibly difficult.

“We need peace above everything. Aid agencies are trying to do what they can, but we are in continuous need of help, and we do not know when we will be able to return home,” said Uwimana.

Talks are underway among government officials, local leaders and warring factions to seek solutions to the ongoing conflict.

World Vision is responding in eastern DRC with health and nutrition, food security, child protection, HIV and AIDS and advocacy projects, and will increase its relief response in the coming months.

Reporting by Horeb Bulambo and Christian Kilundu
World Vision DRC