Thousands head home voluntarily from Zambia to DR Congo  

© UNHCR/Will Swanson

Refugee women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo walk towards the market in Mantapala Settlement, Zambia.

Nearly 5,000 refugees who fled violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) four years ago are opting to head home voluntarily from Zambia over the coming months, with the first 100 people set out on Tuesday. 

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that security had improved sufficiently in DR Congo’s Pweto territory, Haut-Katanga province, for them to go home “in safety and dignity”.

Inter-ethnic clashes as well as fighting between Congolese security forces and militia groups in parts of southeastern DRC in 2017, have uprooted communities.

Through intention surveys carried out in October by UNHCR, some 4,774 refugees expressed their aim to voluntarily return to DRC.

International agreement

The voluntary repatriation, which will continue into 2022, is part of the ongoing 2006 tripartite agreement between UNHCR and the Governments of Zambia and DR Congo.

Partners are supporting the returning refugees by providing voluntary repatriation documents, expedited immigration clearance, health screening, and school certificates to allow children to resume their education in the DRC.

“As security has improved in some areas of Haut-Katanga, an estimated 20,000 refugees have spontaneously left Zambia since 2018 to return to their areas of origin – mainly to Pweto territory”, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told journalists in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency is working with authorities and development partners – such as the Catholic aid confederation CARITAS – in DRC to advance reintegration projects, including education, health, and agriculture, and to ensure conditions for safe and dignified returns.

Currently, some 18,000 Congolese refugees farm at Mantapala settlement – established in early 2018 to accommodate displaced people – alongside 5,000 Zambians, across 11 integrated villages.

As Zambia continues to host 103,000 refugees, asylum seekers, and former refugees, including more than 63,000 from DR Congo, over the past three years around 20,000 Congolese have left to return home.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP) are assisting in repatriation efforts.

Agency support

The two agencies have provided buses and trucks to help transport refugees, their belongings, and food for the journey, Families will receive a cash grant to help them pick up their lives again in the DRC.

“UNHCR will disinfect the buses, provide face masks, and hand sanitizers and, together with the authorities, ensure that COVID-19 prevention measures are observed, including loading of buses to half the capacity”, Mr. Baloch said.

UNICEF has improved water and sanitation facilities at the reception center in Chiengi district, where returning refugees are being housed for the night to process immigration documents, before embarking on the final leg of their journey home.

And Zambian authorities are providing rapid COVID-19 tests for the returning refugees, at the Mantapala Rural Health Centre.

 Mama Hekima’ project empowering women in DR Congo

Sr. Virginie Bitshanda describes the work done over the past 10 years through the ‘Mama Hekima’ project, which sees the Daughters of Wisdom helping women in the Democratic Republic of Congo break out of the "unseemly conditions that society imposes" and gain their dignity.

By Charles de Pechpeyrou

They come from a variety of social backgrounds and religious traditions, yet they face the same daily struggles: the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo face problems related to financial hardship, family illness, and lack of knowledge and information about their rights.

The best way to escape from this situation and gain the dignity that society often denies them is to join forces and support each other in a concrete way.

This is why Sister Virginie Bitshanda, of the Congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom, decided 10 years ago to set up an association of mothers, “Hekima Mamas” (“Wisdom Mothers/Mothers of Wisdom” in Swahili) in the city of Kisangani.

The aim of the Association is to bring together Kisangani women of “modest background”, in spite of ethnic and religious differences, to help them become financially independent.

Overcoming division and violence

Among these women were Catholics, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants, and Revival Church Christians, Sr Virginie explained to Vatican Media. “Disagreeing with this situation, the groups asked to be subdivided according to religious denomination. It seemed impossible to these women with so many different faiths to work together.”

“That did not surprise us, for when listening to the preaching broadcasted on television, we could hear how these negative messages incite division, hostility, and violence.”

Listening and learning

But Sister Virginie is not one to give up in the face of difficulties: to create team spirit, she drew on the three-year program she had previously followed in Canada.

Aware of the cultural realities in place and taking into account the local mentalities, she drew on previous experiences with support groups and used the tools she had received at the Institute of Integral Human Formation in Montreal (IFHIM) to accompany these groups of women.

“We have seen the appalling conditions that society imposes on these women. By attending more closely, we could witness and confirm that the strengths of these women (capacities, skills, courage, qualities, love...) were impressive and full of hope.”

The mothers gradually created harmony among themselves, deciding to look at each other beyond their differences. They began to cooperate, overcome ethnic and religious differences, and build peace when relational difficulties arose.

The women have shown great creativity and initiative. “On her own, a woman can’t do it,” says the nun. “Instead, united with others, a solution can always be found”.

Working together

With the help of the Association promoted by Sister Virginie, the Mama Hekima of Kisangani quickly learned to work together.

Depending on her interests, each woman works in a small group of up to 20 women. Formation focuses on topics such as civic education, women’s rights, family planning and managing the family budget and income.

Economic difficulties are in fact one of the biggest challenges these women face, so they work on developing tools to increase their economic autonomy.

The first source of income is the production and/or sale of agricultural products, starting with cassava, which is cultivated for its edible tuberous roots, which form an important part of the daily food base of many African populations.

“At the start,” Sister Virginie recalls, “some small groups would buy it to make flour or ‘chikwangue’, a sort of pasta roll made out of fermented manioca, a traditional dish in the Congo River basin.”

When manioca became more scarce, the women’s spirit of solidarity, acquired during the first phase of getting to know each other, intervened.

“Another small group took on the task of cultivating it to supply it to chikwangue producers”. Today, each group — there are about ten, each made up of some 20 women — is guided by its own management committee, which oversees the product sales process.

The mothers have also diversified their economic activities with the production of wood stoves. Increasingly more women ask to join the association, to be equally placed and accompanied. The children also enjoy this initiative’s success.

“Many suffered from malnutrition or illnesses and were cured,” Sr Virginie happily shares, adding that “many mothers are able to send their children to school and even university.”

In working beyond these difficulties, the example of Mama Hekima drives the desire for autonomy and financial independence among their friends and everyone around them.

Taking control of their own lives

Looking back, Sr Virginie is proud of the results, thanks above all, to the support of the Congregation of the Sisters of Wisdom, but also of their external partners.

“I would say that the first goal we set for ourselves — well-nourished families, children in school — was largely met,” she comments, “but our mothers did more: they learned to take control of their own life, raise their head and not let themselves be exploited by all of our country’s unjust systems.”

“What a joy, how encouraging, for these women who do not stop thanking the sisters and the Congregation for having cared for them,” concludes the sister. For us, meanwhile, what a joy it is to see them reap the benefits of this accompaniment, which little by little, helps them not only in their financial support but also to find once more their dignity as ‘Mamas’.”