The health centre was previously supported by a non-governmental organisation called ACF (Action Contre la Faim). Jean-Claude at the Drodro health centre, where they care for more women and children than their capacity allows. I cannot linger here, as I need to move on to the health centre. The crowd seems to believe that Jesus is bleeding. They tell me that Jesus’s right foot has broken off the statue, and point to crimson liquid oozing out. I ask someone about the reason for the impromptu gathering. Once again, I find myself near the tall crucifix and the still growing crowd that moves around it. ![]() The sky seems so vast here, yet feels extremely close to the earth, as if you can grab the cotton candy clouds merely by raising an outstretched arm. I explore the village, in awe of the beauty that surrounds me. She speaks of her grief and vast loneliness, telling me that she feels so helpless without her parents, and that she misses her mother every day. She wants to continue her education so she can care for her siblings and help the women in her community. ![]() She has vowed to herself to never get married. Giselle tells me that after her violent assault by three men, her first sexual encounter, she wants nothing to do with men. Unable to stand or walk properly for a while after her assault, Giselle still had to care for her young siblings. At the camp, an older woman saw Giselle’s state and, after hearing about the attack, urged her to go to the health centre to seek help. A man on a motorcycle saw how she struggled to walk and offered her a ride back to the camp. They raped her one by one, while the two others watched the road.īruised and in shock after the gang rape, Giselle somehow got back on her feet to walk the rest of the way. They held a gun to her head so she would not make a sound during the assault. That is when she was grabbed by three armed men, who forced her to undress. Two months ago, as she was fetching water along with five other women, Giselle fell behind because she was walking slowly with the heavy jugs. Giselle and her eight young siblings were among the few who survived, which meant that she would have to step up and care for them. Then, one night in 2018, rebels raided their village, killing almost everyone, including her father. ![]() Giselle says that her mother, after giving birth to her youngest child, lost her sanity and disappeared. She is wearing an off-white shirt, a long skirt, and a pair of plastic slippers with the letters “VIP” printed on them. The sunset is hauntingly beautiful when I meet Giselle, a tall 16-year-old girl with very short hair. In 1997, that regime was overthrown by opposition forces led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, in the wake of a military invasion by Rwandan forces that sparked the First Congo War and further conflicts. The dictatorship led by Lumumba’s successor, Mobutu Sese Seko, lasted for 30 years, with support from the governments of the United States and France. The assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961-the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo-took away the possibility of forming a national central government that could work in the interest of the Congolese people and perhaps could have prevented decades of conflict in the country. But that did not mark the end of conflict in the country, which has seen years of chaos, coups, and insurgencies. In 1960, following protests and an eventual uprising led by the Congolese people, the country gained its independence. It was considered the personal dominion of King Leopold II of Belgium, becoming a Belgian colony in 1908. The land that is today part of DRC was colonized for its natural resources by the Belgian monarchy and called the Congo Free State.
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