Indestructible Contentment
Fighting between various heavily armed militias and the army in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been going on for decades. In the first half of this year, the situation came to a head once again. The offensive by the M23 militia in the provinces of North and South Kivu brought death, looting, and sexual violence to the region. The result: a new humanitarian crisis.
Around 70,000 Congolese have fled to Burundi alone. Around 20,000 have ended up in the UNHCR refugee camp in Giharo. They join the 30,000 Congolese who fled here earlier. Burundi, one of the world's poorest countries, has numerous challenges of its own to overcome. This makes it all the more remarkable that the impetus for the work among the refugees initially came from our team in Burundi.
There is a shortage of everything
There are two distinct areas in the camp: the older part consists of small stone houses that have been there for many years. The people living there have settled in reasonably well, even though life is still difficult. The situation is very different in the new part of the camp, where the new arrivals live in crowded tents with no privacy and only the bare necessities for survival.
A pastor who fled the Congo shows us his “home”: two tiny rooms, cobbled together from tent tarpaulins, barely larger than a garden shed. He lives here with his wife and two children, one of whom is just a few weeks old. The question arises: “How can you live like this without losing hope?”
This is where ACP's diverse support comes in. Our team provides practical and spiritual support to the residents of the refugee camp. This includes food, hygiene items for women, mending clothes, sewing lessons, haircuts, children's programs, communal prayer, and church services.
Simple but efficient
ACP has built a hall right next to the camp. From the outside, it looks simple: steel skeleton, sheet metal cladding, simple construction, as simple as possible. But when you step inside, everything changes. Singing, laughter, joie de vivre. There is music, people dancing and jumping in the air. They sing “Hakuna Mungu kama wewe” (No God is like you). This phrase sticks in your mind because it expresses so much. Despite poverty, flight and uncertainty – God is greater!
Celebrating God with music
The hall is more than just a building. It is a sewing room, a hair salon, a community base, and a church. It is a place of refuge, a piece of normality in the midst of chaos. People come in their best clothes to escape the harsh realities of everyday life for a few hours. On Sundays, up to 600 people gather there for morning worship, with another 300 joining in the afternoon. Nine pastors and two evangelists share the work. During the week, there are devotions twice a day with passionate Congolese worship music.
ACP provided the generator for the microphones and instruments, but they pay for the fuel themselves. Everyone tries to contribute something so that they can make music, dance, and celebrate together. It is impressive how much initiative the refugees show.
The joy of giving
Many of the Congolese speak Swahili, one of the major languages of East Africa. Ciza, regional manager of ACP Burundi, learned this language very quickly. After just a few weeks, he is already speaking to the local community as if he had never done anything else. Ciza has temporarily moved to the edge of the camp and only sees his family every few weeks. The refugees have fired bricks for him so that he can build a better home and bring his family over.
The team is managing to make a small contribution to preserving human dignity – especially for those who often had nothing but the clothes on their backs when they had to flee. “Thank you for giving us this place,” says the Congolese pastor, who showed us his apartment, about the church. “Here we can be human again and forget our hardships for a moment.” This statement sums up the meaning of ACP-Burundi's work among the Congolese: we not only provide for them, but also give them back their hope.
