display photo set 80 - Microsoftbtckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/.../display_photo_set_80.pdf · laptop Mkoko Boseka , ... Kisopa here teaches a class on Quaker history and theology

www.quakercongo.org.uk 1 of 80

Visit

of

Manchester & Cambridge Friends

to

Congo Yearly Meeting

February/March 2008


CEEACO

Martin Gilbraith and Hazel Shellens visited CEEACO (Community of

Evangelical Churches of the Friends in the Congo) on behalf of Cambridge and Manchester Area Quaker Meetings, in

February/March 2008.


We flew to Burundi

We flew to Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, and then travelled around the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika to Uvira, just 25km from Bujumbura in

South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo


Hazel with Bridget Butt in Uvira

Hazel with Bridget Butt of Change Agents for Peace International (CAPI).

CAPI was established by Quaker Service Norway as an independent NGO in Kenya, to support CAP programmes throughout the region, including that of CEEACO in Uvira.


Uvira Friends' Peace Centre (FPC)

The Friends Peace Centre (FPC) in Uvira, largely financed by three

contributions by the Cambridge Area Meeting over recent years, but yet to be

finished


Uvira FPC vision & mission

The mission and vision of the FPC


Uvira FPC church building

The unfinished Church building adjacent to the FPC


Sewing workshop

A women's group at the FPC learn to use six sewing machines as an income

generation activity


Literacy classroom

Women also attend literacy classes at the FPC


CAP office

The office of the Uvira Change Agents for Peace programme, in rooms rented

from FPC at the centre


CAP office posters

Posters on the wall of the CAP office at FPC, including one from the Manchester Alternatives to Violence Project at

Mount Street Meeting House


Mkoko receives laptop

Mkoko Boseka, Legal Representative of CEEACO, accepts a laptop computer on behalf of the FPC donated by Manchester

Area meeting .

He also accepted a digital camera donated by Cambridge Area Meeting.


Uvira FPC first library books

Mkoko Boseka and Binwa Mkoko, FPC Programmes Co-ordinator, with the first two books of the FPC library, donated by Martin –ICA's Art of Focused Conversation (in French) and Seeking Peace in Africa (Stories of Africa Peacemakers), edited by Lon Fendall of George Fox University and including a brief chapter

from Mkoko himself.


The committee of Uvira FPC

The volunteer FPC committee, in the centre courtyard.

The centre also includes guestrooms, a prayer room, and other rooms.


Uvira main street

The main street of Uvira - the only surfaced road we travelled on within

Congo


Uvira downtown

Looking up across the main street away from the lake shore


Loading the car

Loading the CEECAO landcruiser with supplies for our party of a dozen or more for 5 days in

the village of Abeka, where CEEACO's headquarters are located, 45km south along

the lake shore


On the road to Abeka

The national highway south from Uvira to Abeka along the lake shore (seen

here travelling north)


Push starting the car

The battery of the CEEACO land cruiser was such that the car needed a push to start every time - which is fine if you have parked facing down a slope for

that purpose, but not so great when you stall while fording a small stream


The Abeka mission house

The CEEACO headquarters in Abeka - the former home of the first Quaker missionaries in the Congo, Calvin &

Twila Coday, who lived here from 1992-1993


Mission house lake view

The view of the lake from the porch of the mission house in Abeka


Abeka Cody memorial

A monument to the Codays, who left Abeka after being raided and beaten in

1993


Abeka outdoor kitchen

The outdoor kitchen area behind the mission house


The kitchen in rain

The outdoor kitchen after one of many rain storms


Lunch in Abeka

Apongo, head of our catering team, announces another hearty meal of rice, potatoes, green bananas, kidney beans and fish or chicken


Washing up in Abeka

And then the washing up


A field in Abeka

One of the many cultivated fields within the large parcel of land owned by

CEEACO in Abeka, site of the mission house, church, hospital and other

projects


Dawn over the lake in Abeka

Dawn over Lake Tanganyika from above the house - no electricity means

early to bed and early to rise


Makabola road sign

Makabola village, half way between Uvira and Abeka, was the site of a massacre of over 700 women and children during the war in 1998, which began in this area. This was just one of many atrocities during the war, but memorialised as a symbol to remember them by.


Makabola massacre memorial

The Massacre memorial above Makabola, and the site of the mass

graves


Makabla school listening room

The school at Makabola provides space for one of the "listening rooms" run by CEEACO to provide counselling for the traumatised survivors of such atrocities,

both adults and children


Makabola orphan girl reading her

poem

25 orphans of the massacre at Makabola have their school fees paid by CEEACO, and also

benefit from other support.

One of the orphans here reads a poem she has written of her experience


A Makabola massacre survivor tells her story

An adult survivor of the massacre tells the story of how she alone escaped after the Mai Mai rebels burned the

house in which she and others had been locked


The Makabola village chief

The chief of Makabola tells us of the additional support still needed by the

village


A Makabola orphan girl writes to

Manchester children

One of the orphan girls, badly burned in the massacre, writes a reply to the

messages Martin delivered from children at Manchester Local Meeting along with friendship bracelets they had made


A Makabola orphan boy writes to

Manchester children

An orphan boy also writing a reply


TCPG road sign in Abeka

The listening rooms and support for orphans at Makabola and elsewhere are active outreach

programmes of CEEACO's envisaged Trauma Clinic and Peace Garden (TCPG), to be built on the lake shore at Abeka. Although not yet built, there is

already a sign at the main road of Abeka.

Dr Etando Mkoko (right) is the TCPG's volunteer Director


Bricks in Abeka

Bricks for the TCPG have been made and fired here, between the main road

and the site


TCPG foundations in Abeka

The foundations for the TCPG were laid some years ago, with stones and sand gathered from the nearby area by

members of the local community, but as yet there has not been sufficient

funding to build further


TCPG brick laying in Abeka

Nonetheless, Hazel was invited to lay the first bricks on the foundations, as a symbol that construction has begun


TCPG mountain view in Abeka

Near to the TCPG site we visited a small hut housing a palm oil press


Harvesting palm oil nuts

First you harvest your palm oil nuts


Shelling palm nuts in Abeka

Then the nuts are shelled


Palm oil press

The nuts are pressed in this barrel to release the oil


Preparing fish in Abeka

Fish is caught in the lake by fishermen in wooden pirogues (canoes), at night

using lights to attract the fish


Collecting lake water in Abeka

The lake is also used for collecting water


Water tap in Abeka

Piped water is also available from a number of standpipes on the main road

of Abeka


Abeka main street

The main street of Abeka - the village is very widely spread throughout the

bush


Man with broken bicycle

By his house on the main street we met this man, who has been unable to get around on his specially adapted bicycle since it lost a wheel during the war and

he has been unable to replace it


Friends' guest house in Abeka

Also on the main street, another CEEACO plot of land has a guest house, nearly complete.

If funds can be secured to finish this, CEEACO will begin to use this to accommodate the TCPG until it's larger building can be

completed on the lake shore


Mkoko & Chantal's house in Abeka

Mkoko Boseka and his wife Chantal stand in front of the plot of land where Mkoko's Abeka

house once stood.

Mkoko moved to Bukavu during the war, when the village was occupied by rebel troops. His house was destroyed and the land has been

reclaimed by the bush.


Abeka Friends Church

The present Friends Church in Abeka, just down the hill from the mission

house


The new Abeka Friends' Church

Near to the present church, rocks have been collected ready to prepare the foundations for as new church to

accommodate 400


GLTC foundations

Adjacent to the site for the new Church, foundations have been already been laid for a Great Lakes Theological College, largely

financed by the American Great Lakes Initiative


Theology class

Until that building is ready, theology classes are held at the nearby Women's Forum building, built originally by the Codays and refurbished with funding from an American women's group after it was badly damaged during the war. Pastor Manasseh Kisopa here teaches a class on Quaker history and theology.


Theology library in Abeka

Pastor Mwenebuka Lusungu with the GLTC library, currently in a small room

of the Women's Forum building


Abeka hospital team

Also just down the hill from the mission station is the Abeka hospital run by

CEEACO.

The hospital staff team here is led by Dr Etando Mukoko (3rd from right) and M'sato Lubungula Dem's (2nd from

right)


Maternity patient

A new mother with her baby in the maternity ward


Maternity bed

This delivery table was donated by a methodist hospital , but is too big to

get through the door


Abeka hospital medicine store

Dr. Etando shows Hazel the hospital's meagre supplies of medicine, many of the bottles

almost empty.

He is seeking funding for a stock of medicine that can be sold to patients at a surplus to

generate some funds to pay the medical staff, rather than charging for treatment.


Abeka hospital lab

The hospital's laboratory can test for HIV among other things


Abeka hospital operating theatre

In the operating theatre, Dr. Etando leads an operation to remove an

ovarian cyst


Abeka feeding room

Opposite the hospital is a room built in the traditional round style, for feeding of malnourished children and orphans,

and mothers who are unable to breastfeed.

The room is also used for meetings


The children sing songs of peace

Each child is served a portion of special formula maize porridge - before eating,

they learn to sing songs of peace


A boy eating his porridge

The feeding programme is funded by occasional small donations from American Friends. When there are no funds there is no

feeding.

After they had finished eating the read a message to the children of Manchester

meeting


Abeka tree planting team

The CEEACO land in Abeka is also the site of a new reforestation programme led by FPC Programmes Co-ordinator Binwa Mkoko (front), with the help of

three local schoolboys


Abeka tree nursery

1200 tree seedlings have been grown, ready to plant after just 6 months.

The project was initiated by an individual donation of just 20 Euros, which paid for plastic sheeting used to hold the soil for each seedling. Other materials and labour were contributed

locally in-kind.


Martin planting a seedling

Martin helps to plant the first of the seedlings.

Many trees were destroyed during the war, and much of the high level of sexual violence in the area occurs when women are forced to search farther into the hills for

firewood. The new trees will provide firewood nearer to the village, as well as shade, food and other benefits


Mkoko presents the CEEACO structure

Mkoko Boseka, CEEACO Legal Representative, presents the

organisational structure at a meeting of the Yearly Meeting in Abeka.


Abeka YM committee

The CEEACO Yearly Meeting


The women sing

A Women's Yearly Meeting, and quarterly, monthly and local meetings, operate in tandem with the mainstream

meetings.

The women welcomed us with a song


Abeka Women's YM structure

President Yumima N'asende presents the organisational structure of the

Women's Yearly Meeting.


Quaker tapestry

Yumima accepts a Quaker Tapestry tea towel presented by Hazel


Women's Yearly Meeting committee

Hazel with members of the Women's Yearly meeting, in front of the Abeka field cultivated by widows as an income

generating activity


Abeka church choir concert

The choir of the Abeka Freinds' Church provided a concert outside the mission house on our last evening in Abeka, with their original songs in the local Kibembe language as well as Swahili and French, on themes of peace and war among others


Flat tyre

Pastor Mbakwa Malenga Jean-Marie, who also serves as CEEACO driver and mechanic, realises that he has a puncture to repair

before we can return to Uvira


Abeka car repair

The old CEEACO landcruiser had served us very well all week, but it turned out that the puncture wasn't all - another fault which could not be repaired meant that a hired minibus was sent for from Uvira to get us all back there.

Apart from the resulting wait to leave Abeka, the full and well-designed programme seemed

all to go very much according to plan.


Uvira Meeting for Worship

Pastor Mwenembuka Lusungu, CEEACO Vice Legal Representative,

delivers a sermon at Uvira Meeting for Worship on Sunday morning.

The meeting also includes much singing


Uvira meeting schoolhouse

Uvira local meeting is held in a classroom in this UNICEF-funded state school, but a collection at the meeting we attended raised another $120 on top of the $1200 already raised toward building a dedicated church building


Lunch with Basimise in Uvira

Martin with Basimise Otton of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Uvira, a friend of a friend or a friend who we

were able to have lunch with in order to learn about the work of his and other

NGOs in the area

Documents

display photo set 80 - Microsoftbtckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/.../display_photo_set_80.pdf · laptop Mkoko Boseka , ... Kisopa here teaches a class on Quaker history and theology