Author: paulevansbutoke

A difficult year for the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The DRC has had a difficult year and that has affected Butoke’s ability to help those who rely upon it. The national political situation is difficult. The BBC News website has interesting coverage of recent events.

Secondly, and of more immediate significance to Butoke, a huge humanitarian crisis has developed in the Kasai province, which is where Butoke operates. Again, the BBC News website is covering the crisis, which has grown out of clashes between a local militia and the security services. The UN food agency says that more than three million people are now at risk of starvation. At least 1.5 million people have fled their homes and an unknown number have already been killed or died.

Butoke has tried to help people who have been emerging from the forests where they had been hiding from militias for months at a time. The new arrivals often have literally nothing, not even clothes, when they arrive malnourished at Butoke’s door. Butoke has been trying to provide clothes, some food, medical treatment and blankets, but the
situation remains desperate.

BBC report Fergal Keane

UNICEF is warning that at least 400,000 children in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and could die within a year without emergency support. It also estimates that nearly one and half million people have been displaced from their homes. The crisis is centred on the country’s central Kasai region where fighting erupted last year. The UN says the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now as severe as those affecting Yemen and Syria.

One of our trustees, Paul, ran the Yorkshire marathon in 2017 and raised an amazing £2,400 for The Friends of Butoke Charity. Thank you to those of you who donated.

The fighting in Kasai has severely disrupted Butoke’s activities. However they are trying to get things back on track and we recently received this report:

The orphanage: Butoke continues to care for more than 40 orphans. New orphans arrived as a result of the violence in 2017. The orphans had to be evacuated from Tshikaji (usually the main base for Butoke’s operations) to Kananga (the nearest city) for a number of months as a result of the violence, but they have all survived. The situation was far from ideal with up to 20 children and adults having to stay together in a modest sized flat.

Agriculture: villagers who fled because of the fighting have begun to return to their villages. Most farmers were unable to plant in the last two planting seasons (beginning August last year and earlier this year). Butoke hopes to help farmers prepare for the next planting season (beginning August this year). It is seeking to forge partnerships with an agricultural institute and a seed multiplication centre to further its efforts in this regards.

Nutrition: two million people have been displaced in Kasai and so the need for food is considerable. Butoke has been doing what it can to feed the malnourished and dispossessed refugees, along with other small-scale NGOs.

Education: Butoke’s secondary school was closed from December 2016 until May this year. However by the end of June student attendance was back at 86% with students working hard to catch up on the part of the academic year they had missed.

The clinic: Butoke’s clinic has operated over the last year as a public kitchen and shelter as well as medical centre. More recently, it has been able to focus again on being a clinic. Equipment and drugs were stolen and damaged during the unrest. These cost around $1500 to replace.

The sewing machine project: Many girls miss out on an education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Butoke’s school is trying to help young women who were unable to go to school as children, by providing them with a vocational education. The project provides sewing machines and material and aims to provide students with skills which will enable them to make a living by making and repairing clothes.

 

The Democratic Republic of Congo is in crisis. The crisis has gone more or less completely unreported in the western media but the UN estimates that 1 million people have fled their homes and that 731,000 people, the majority of whom are women and children, need humanitarian assistance. The number of people affected generally appears to be over 4 million.

How the crisis has affected Butoke 

The crisis has affected Butoke directly:

• Kananga, the city to which Butoke evacuated its orphans following fighting close to Tshikaji where it is normally based, has now also seen widespread violence. Civilians have been killed.
• Of the thirteen final year students whom Butoke was sponsoring, one was killed in the fighting, five fled their homes, and only seven took their final exams.
• Twenty seven members of the extended family of Butoke’s chief nurse were murdered in a massacre committed by a militia group.
• Butoke has had to close its school in Tshikaji for the time being due to the insecurity all around it.

How is Butoke responding to the crisis? 

Butoke continues to care for its orphans in Kananga. It has got them into a school there but is struggling to pay the fees.

It is providing food to displaced people.

The school, which was closed for several months as a result of the violence and instability, is now open.