"A Humanitarian Catastrophe."--UN Secretary General

This is taking place right now, this morning.

Please call ARC Headquarters at 612.872.7060 and ask how you can help to provide emergency funding to meet the crisis.





GOMA, Congo — The exodus has begun.

Women with babies on their backs. Families crammed into cars with coolers and suitcases stuffed to the windows. United Nations trucks. Aid workers. Businessmen. Panicky government troops literally running for their lives.

On Wednesday afternoon, countless people of all kinds poured out of Goma, a strategic Congolese city on the border of Rwanda, fleeing the advancing rebel forces massing on the outskirts of town.

--Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times, October 29, 2008

A wave of humanity surged along under the hot sun - women with mattresses and pots on their backs, men shepherding cows and goats, children looking vulnerable, babies crying.

"We haven't eaten in two days," one family shouted out as our vehicle passed by on the road leading into the lakeside city of Goma.

For the last few nights, they had been camped about 15km (9 miles) north of Goma on either side of the main road.

They had fled fierce battles around Kibumba, 30km away (18 miles) - home to a huge camp for those displaced by the violence that has wreaked havoc in this region over the last year.

The trek took its toll on some - one woman had collapsed from exhaustion, people crowded round her trying to tend to her baby.

As darkness fell, it was not clear where the displaced people would sleep.

--Thomas Fessy, BBC News, October 29, 2008

Escalating violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is creating a humanitarian catastrophe and could have tragic consequences for the entire region, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.

In a statement read by U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe, Ban said "the intensification and expansion of the conflict is creating a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions and threatens dire consequences on a regional scale."

--Reuters, October 30, 2008

News from Kiziba Camp.

It seems as if most of the news lately has been from Nyabiheke Camp, so I'm pleased to pass news of some exciting developments in Kiziba Camp as well:

Our beautiful new IGP Center is nearing completion. When it is finished we will have a permanent office, storage room, training room and exhibition area for the craft goods that are made by many of our groups.

Next to the new IGP Center we have for the first time been allocated some space for our IGP groups to grow vegetables. We will be adding new groups in the next few weeks and looking for some who are particularly interested in this activity. We will also be training others in the camp community in intensive gardening techniques that they can use to grow vegetables in even a very limited amount of space.

Two dozen of our Voluntary Savings and Lending Associations are preparing for year end share out meetings, at which each member will receive a cash distribution based on the amount of money that they have saved during the past year as well as the interest earned on loans taken out by members of the group. Most of these groups will start up again after the first of the year to begin another cycle of saving and lending.

And our Solar Energy Project Coordinator is working in Kiziba with a group of young men trained in carpentry to construct our first ever solar oven, which will be used to bake bread.

Gimme Shelter.

"Oh, a storm is threatning
My very life today
If I dont get some shelter
Oh yeah, Im gonna fade away"
--from Gimme Shelter, by the Rolling Stones








Shelter construction is a joyful activity, done by teams of refugees on behalf of their neighbors.

The shelters start out as wooden pole and plastic sheeting structures, but within a short time people will have "mudded" the walls of the their own homes and the new quartiers will be transformed into something more closely resembling a village.

Temporary, yes, but shelter from the storm.

New Faces in Nyabiheke.

Yeseterday I visited Nyabiheke Camp, where refugee teams are busy constructing more than 300 new shelters to accommodate almost 2000 new arrivals from the transit centers.

The first convoys arrived last week and several more are due in the coming days.

As with the population in all of the camps, about two thirds of these new arrivals are children.

Here are some of their faces.

Back to work.

Greetings to everyone who has asked whether I will be updating my blog.

The answer is, "yes."

I am just searching for a way to do so that is interesting, meaningful and worthwhile.

In the meantime, though, here are a few quick bits of news.

I'm back in Rwanda, back to work with the ARC program here, continuing to support our Income Generation Program groups and Voluntary Savings and Lending Associations.

I had a wonderful summer in the US, highlighted by the wedding of my son, Steven Scroggins, to his bride, Lina Sestokas Scroggins, in Boston at the beginning of September. The wedding was beautiful, and as you can see, they make a lovely couple.



While I was in Boston I had a chance to get together with Dr. Ann Kao, whom I met several years ago when we worked together here in Rwanda and whom many of you know either personally or through my blog. Her happy news was that she, too, was getting married, on September 20, her birthday and also that of her husband, Sid. I don't have any photos of Ann's wedding but I did see a picture of the beautiful silk wedding dress that she brought back from Cambodia for the occasion and I'm sure she looked radiant.

I'm getting back in the routine here but still keeping a careful eye (and ear) on events in the United States--political and otherwise--that will have an impact on all of us even in this small country in Africa.

Thanks for reading, and visit often. I miss you all.

Tea and sympathy.

It is not unusual to see refugees who are waiting.

They wait in lines for their monthly food distributions.

They wait on benches to see the doctor at the health center.

They wait for sheeting to repair their shelters and for firewood to cook their meals.

And they wait for peace to return to their country so that they can go home.

But for the two women who were waiting in an ARC vehicle parked in the yard at our Kigali office yesterday, the wait must have seemed especially long.

Beside them in the back of the vehicle was a small box covered with a cloth.

Inside the box was the body of a baby who had died the day before.

The women were waiting to take the baby back to Nyabiheke Camp to be buried.

Their sadness and patience broke my heart.

We held hands, we spoke through an interpreter, we had tea.

And when they were finished waiting, they left.

Now the baby lies in the fragrant pine forest of Nyabiheke Camp.

For him, no more waiting, and a peaceful rest.

Citizens of the world.

Wita, far right, with her sister and another member of their doll making association.


Beatrice, on the left, during bag making training in 2006.

Last year I wrote about Dancille, my lovely friend in Kiziba Camp who was resettled with her family to Australia.

Last week, it happened again.

I arrived in Kiziba to find that Wita and Beatrice have also left, this time, thanks to the good hearts and open arms of the people of Finland.

I have a special fondness for these two women and also for the country that they will now call home.

Wita has been in our Income Generation Program since 2004, making charming dolls that portray the lives of refugees from a woman’s point of view. She went to Finland with her daughter and baby granddaughter, and is working to have her 18-year-old son join the rest of the family as soon as possible. In the meantime, her son has remained in the camp, joining a group of teenagers in another IGP association, carrying on his mother’s work by teaching the members of his group to make dolls.

Beatrice is the energetic, talented and tenacious leader of a group that learned to make nylon bags, and then baskets, and convinced us to rehabilitate a shelter for them to use as their workshop. I don’t know the details of her situation but I do know that she will make the most of the opportunity that she has found, just as she did here.

Amazingly, both of these women have already spoken by phone with family members who are still in the camp. They say that it is very cold in Finland, but that they are happy to be there, and the children have started school. Somehow having this connection with those who have left gives others hope that, as one of my friends said today, “God may open the door for me and my family, too.”

My fondness for Finland dates back to Steven’s junior year in high school, when he was an AFS exchange student in Espoo, near Helsinki. Finland was very good to him, and I know that it will be a good place for my Kiziba Camp friends as well.

Safe journey to all, and may we meet again.

Time Marches On.

And I simply cannot believe that not only has the month of March come and gone, but a good chunk of the month of April as well. I'm grateful to have been able to extend my volunteer agreement to allow me to be here another couple of months, as there always seems to be more work to do.

Sorry not to have been a better correspondent these past few weeks, but I promise to post some updates with photos in the next few days.

Today is a holiday, one that begins a period of national mourning in Rwanda to remember the victims of the 1994 genocide. On a normal day I would hear voices, music, singing and the sounds of daily life rising up the hill from the houses below, but today even the birds are quiet.

If you have not seen the movie "Shooting Dogs" (released in the United States as "Beyond the Gates"), I can recommend it as a realistic, disturbing and important film about the Rwandan genocide. The film, which stars John Hurt as a Catholic priest who decides that one person can make a difference in the in the face of such evil, was shot on location here in Kigali, and many genocide survivors appeared in the film or were involved in some way in the production. I've posted a link to the film's website and I hope you'll take a look and pause to reflect.

No matter how many times the world says "never again," these things not only can still happen, but are happening today, this afternoon, to people no different than us except for the place in the world where they happened to be born.

Madina.

Madina is one of the IGP Refugee Assistants in Nyabiheke Camp.

Her son, Cedric, was born December 21 in the Nyabiheke Camp Health Center.

He is sweet and lively and has a smile just like his mother's.

Best wishes to them both for a long, healthy and peaceful life.

More Savings Groups.

In the past month I have had the opportunity to attend Savings Group meetings in Kiziba and Nyabiheke Camps.

Here are some photos that tell the story better than I ever could:


Money Counters verify deposits in front of the whole association.



Each group member has a number card that she must bring to each meeting. The group always sits in numerical order. This woman's number 3 indicates that she is the Association Treasurer.



Note the lace tablecloth, carefully placed for the Association meeting.



This man has purchased the maximum number of shares for a single savings meeting. You can see that there are five stamps in his book.



Ernest is one of our Refugee Assistants in Kiziba Camp. In this photo he is observing a group meeting being facilitated by one of his colleagues. Later he will share his observations and feedback with his colleague.

"It can take time."

This is one of my favorite expressions here in Rwanda, and it was never truer than in the case of the startup of our new Voluntary Savings and Lending Group program.

On Monday I will have been in Rwanda for four months, and today I attended the initial share purchase meetings of two of our very first groups in Gihembe Camp.

The group that you see here consists of 16 people, a mix of men and women, and the Management Committee is also gender balanced, with women in the positions of President, Treasurer and Money Counter. They will meet twice per month, saving between two and ten dollars each per meeting. I think that they will be pleased and surprised at how quickly their savings accumulate.

Sometimes the work here takes a lot longer than you think that it should, and that is when it is good to let go of the concept of time.

Yes, we need to work according to our plans, in order to accomplish what we have set out to do in the big picture. But by giving ourselves the freedom to work according to the needs and capacities of our groups—instead of an arbitrary schedule—we can feel liberated, motivated and much less stressed out.

And we are able to appreciate what we have accomplished rather than feel frustrated by what we have not yet been able to do.

It can take time, but it is worth every minute.

Peace on Earth?

"A Congolese woman at a camp in North Kivu, eastern Congo, was one of thousands who have been displaced by recent fighting."

This photo (by Lynsey Addario for The New York Times) and caption appeared on the home page of the Times' website this morning.

I was struck by the look of this woman, but even more so by the setting.

The green hills of Congo look just like the green hills of Rwanda.

Sadly, the new year has not brought peace, only promises.

A fresh start.

The new year is beginning to make its way around the globe, from the International Dateline in the Pacific Ocean through Asia and over the Indian Ocean to the shores of Africa in just a few hours.

From there it will travel across this vast continent and on to America, where it is certain to be a momentous and fateful year of political decisions.

The elections in the United States are but one element in a disconcerting mix.

The headlines from everywhere seem to conspire to shake our confidence and undermine our hopes for a happy and peaceful 2008.

And yet the new year always brings with it the promise of a fresh start, a clean slate, resolutions and resolve.

May we all find the path to peace, humility and acceptance in service to others and our planet.

Happy New Year.

Grand Opening.

Last Friday I went to Nyabiheke Camp for the grand opening of the Nyabiheke Business Center, otherwise known as the market. This is quite a place--well constructed, centrally located, with room for 70 table stands, all of which are already assigned to vendors who participated in the construction of the building.

As the sign says, the market was built with the participation of the vendors, organized by a Market Committee. ARC provided the materials and labor to erect the basic structure of the building and the participating groups built the mud walls. This type of construction creates a comfortable and pleasant space in which to do business.

The Nyabiheke Camp market is becoming so large and popular that people from the local community are now coming up the long hill to the camp to buy and sell fruits, vegetables, oil, flour and other goods. This is a good thing for both the local population and the refugees as it expands commerce in all directions and helps everyone to become more prosperous.

We did it!

Last week we held our first Training of Trainers workshop for the new Voluntary Savings and Lending Group program.

We were joined by Terry Isert, ARC Microenterprise Development Senior Technical Advisor from Minneapolis, our three IGP Coordinators, and fifteen refugees who have been recruited as community animators and trainers for this program.

The training lasted five days and was a big success.

Implementation will take a little bit longer--about three months of intensive work and a year or so of follow up--and we are eager to get started.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who made this training possible.

Locally grown.

The agriculture terraces in Gihembe Camp—more than seven acres of them—have been a valuable resource for our Income Generation Program groups and for the people in the camp who benefit from a convenient supply of fresh vegetables.

This year we have been fortunate to have in our program a young refugee, Fidele, trained in agronomy, who along with our IGP Coordinator, Raymond, has done a terrific job of mobilizing the agriculture groups to rehabilitate the terraces and take steps to increase their productivity.

The groups have gotten the camp population involved in composting; set up a regular schedule of community work to keep the terraces weed free; and planted acres and acres of beautiful Irish potato plants that will be harvested in December.

After the harvest we will install a water catching system to stem erosion on the hillside and provide water for our vegetable gardens during the dry season.

Next on the menu, crop rotation.

Room for more.

Yesterday we welcomed an additional 350 refugees to Nyabiheke Camp where they will settle in to the new shelters that are being completed just ahead of their arrival.

They came in a convoy of buses, faces pressed against the windows, looking for friends and relatives among the crowd that ran down from the camp to greet them.

Their luggage followed in a big truck and was carefully arranged on the ground for them to retrieve. Mattresses, bags of potatoes, tables, beds, basins, jerry cans, and even an improvised wheelchair--the stuff of lives on the move.

When they went to bed last night they were safe, probably for the first time in many months, and they could sleep, knowing that they would not have to awaken in the middle of the night to move again.

Kiziba Celebration.

When I arrived at Kiziba Camp last Monday morning I noticed a lot of activity around the basketball court--but had no idea that it was a celebration in honor of the Income Generation Program, planned to coincide with my arrival in the camp.

There were speeches, skits, poems, and of course, music and dancing.

What a wonderful way to begin the week.

Paradise.

This may not look like paradise to you, but to the refugees arriving from the transit centers near the DRC border, Nyabiheke Camp may seem like such a place.

Here, they find shelter, water, health care and dignity. They can keep their children safe and their clothing clean. And some have already started activities that could be incorporated into our Income Generation Program.

While you are busy doing whatever you are doing in the next week, think about the 400 people who will arrive in Nyabiheke during that time, and about the ARC staff that even as I am writing this are busy building shelters and water points to receive them.

Here in Rwanda, the crisis in DRC is far from over.

Technical problems.

This is Africa and so technical problems are routine. But not when it comes to my blog! I've been trying to post photos of my trip yesterday to Nyabiheke Camp, but so far have been unsuccessful.

I will keep trying, so check back soon.