Human Rights Symposium at Doane College

Tuesday (11/27/2012) four college students gave a presentation on the Democratic Republic of Congo. They began with a brief skit on the atrocities of rape and child soldiers. In moments of silence, broken by a few but powerful words, the students shed light on a single country that faces nearly 50 rapes per hour and has one of the world’s largest recruitments of child soldiers. The students’ actions resembled a uniquely African style of disseminating important information. Across the continent, particularly in the DRC where remote villages define a large percentage of the total population, basic education and literacy can sometimes be scarce.

One of the most effective ways of reaching at-risk populations on anything from proper nutrition to the effects of HIV/AIDS is through skits: when utilizing local languages and dramatic actions, word spreads like wildfire.

The students continued to present on the various international, national and local aspects of the DRC—discussing the influence of Rwanda and abundance of natural resources. I was invited to give a brief presentation on my experiences and introduce BOMOI BAGS (though once I start talking about Congo it is never quite that brief J).  

Doane was great!!
 

***Looking forward to BOMOI BAGS next event on Saturday, December 1^st at the Cooper YMCA Bazaar & Craft Fair from 9am – 1pm in Lincoln***

A Tricky Business

Shipping to Congo can be a tricky business. There is no post office where I lived in the Ituri District. The Canossian Sisters/VOICA keep a P.O. Box in Arua, Uganda, which is about one hour away. However with the unpredictability of border control, it can take up to three hours to get into Uganda. Depending on the customs officer you pay either $5 or $50 for the day’s visit. Corruption never seems as terrible when it is in your favor…

 

The dilemma, however, was not shipping to Congo but rather shipping from Congo to the U.S. Margaret was quoted at nearly $400 to have the box of handbags mailed out of the country—this was not promising. The mission is to give the women profits from BOMOI BAGS; not spend it all on shipping. I decided to wait until the end of August when short-term volunteers from Italy make a trip to Aru, Congo. It was better to take the project slowly and save money than to rush the process and spend too much. As the summer months went by, I continued to be in touch with the women via VOICA volunteers with Facebook, Gmail, Skype, etc… Margaret arranged for Elena, an Italian volunteer from Brescia, Italy to pack all the BOMOI BAGS in her suitcase, return home and send the package to my home in the U.S. I spoke often with Elena and she also shared her enthusiasm for this project!

 

 

I had my doubts – after almost a year of having the project idea, to its actual reality was almost unbearable. Thankfully, I acquired a great deal of patience when I was in Africa; knowing that eventually everything (God willing—if it is meant to be) will fall into place.

And so it did.

The Doctor from Kraków

BOMOI BAGS has many faces to its success.

 

I confided in Lydia when the project first began, trying to decide if it would be successful or not. Lydia is from Vancouver and served as a VOICA volunteer for one year. Our service overlapped by a month when I first arrived in October 2010. Lydia returned in December 2011 for a visit and it was during this time that I communicated with her and she spoke in-depth with Mama Aroyo to determine the level of commitment by the local women.  

 

 

 

I met Valentina in Rome as she was preparing to volunteer in Congo. A requirement to being a VOICA volunteer is spending two months of training at the headquarters in Rome, Italy. You are also encouraged to spend a week or two after serving to share your experiences with the next group of volunteers. When Valentina arrived to Congo, she energized the women and continued corresponding with me via emails regarding the logistics and time frame of the project. When Valentina left, Margaret stepped in.

BOMOI BAGS would not be possible without Małgorzata Topolińska. Margaret and I have never met, but I feel as though we are best friends. When I returned to the U.S. in November 2011, she was preparing for her upcoming year as a VOICA volunteer in Congo. We emailed and skyped, and I was excited to give a prelude to the people she would meet and the current VOICA projects she would be a part of, but most of all I expressed to her that when it’s finished, after the all the joyful moments and tearful ones, she would never be the same.
 

Margaret is a doctor from Krakow, Poland. For the past year, she worked at the clinic in Aru and Ariwara. She was also BOMOI BAGS project leader. I communicated everything about BOMOI BAGS through her. Margaret distributed the information packets and model handbags that I sent to the women and organized a market outing to purchase all the material that would be used to fabricate BOMOI BAGS. She monitored the product by ensuring its quality and correctness. She frequented Western Union when I needed to transfer money and also recruited an Italian summer volunteer to bring the BOMOI BAGS back to Brescia, Italy and have them shipped to my home in Nebraska (the international shipping dilemma requires a blog of its own to follow). 

 

THANK YOU & MERCI MINGI – Lydia, Valentina & Margaret!!

African Markets

Shopping at markets in Africa can be overwhelming; a little pushing, some shoving and of course, haggling over the price. In the beginning, it all made me feel quite uncomfortable. I hated to bargain over prices: why can’t people trade honestly? Taking advantage of someone’s ignorance and/or kindness seems wrong. Not to mention being a “Mondélé” (white person) in small Congolese villages draws even more attention, as you will be routinely told an item is 300% higher than the actual market price. Everyone is of course starring at you and children may be taunting “Mondélé, Mondélé, Mondélé….” As time continued, I finally had it with paying more for an item than it was actually worth. I found the courage to bargain (nicely) and I loved it: couch cushions, tomato sauce, soda, eggs or fabric. I can proudly say that when I returned to Rome and faced the city’s infamous street vendors, I successfully took a man selling sunglasses from 40 euros to 10.

Next Step…

Buying Fabric for BOMOI BAGS

Red Ribbons

Receiving red ribbons at the 4-H County Fair are my last memories of sewing. Red is not the ribbon color that you want. It comes after blue, which follows purple. My outfit was a green flower-patterned top and a pair of black shorts, which are today tightly packed between other 4-H projects including a glittered Christmas-themed sweatshirt and a Pringle can that I artistically crafted into a bunny using felt, fabric and glue all to be found in a Native American-themed collage box.  

 


Last winter it was back to the Kenmore sewing machine for me. I wanted the handbags to reflect current styles and trends in the U.S. and I also felt that to truly understand and appreciate the work I was asking the women in Congo to do, I should experience it myself. Though I will take this opportunity to admit to using electricity, taking coffee breaks and messing up on material then buying more and starting over. (Luxuries)

 

Thankfully my grandma helped and it was not as painful. We worked diligently to keep the seams and stiches straight and stressed reinforced handles and emphasized the double-lining. It was important to have strong models that the women would feel confident to replicate. In the end, I sewed three (purchased one in Uganda) and asked for them to make twenty handbags of each model. In addition, I asked for them to design twenty of their own creation!