DRC's Displaced Persons Come to Don Bosco

Displaced Persons of DRC Come to Don Bosco

Victims of a misery that doesn’t say its name

(ANS – Shasha, DRC – August 11, 2023) – Shasha is a small part of the village of Kituva, in the territory of Masisi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This portion of the village is located on the shores of Lake Kivu on national road 2, which connects the city of Goma to the city of Bukavu. In this village since February 10, a mass of population has come to seek asylum on the soccer field of the Don Bosco Shasha primary school.

The astonished and upset students were demoralized and did not know how to study well. This prompted the Salesians to give the students leave while the war-displaced occupied the classrooms. In total they numbered 79 households. Each household consisted of about 6 people. As the situation persisted, the number of displaced people increased, and as the Salesians could not leave the students unemployed for an indefinite period, they consulted the village chief to convey to him their concern to resume classes. So the village chief asked them to put the displaced people in a camp on Don Bosco Shasha’s land. A new life was beginning for them.

Like the people of Israel who camped in the desert, the displaced people came to Don Bosco Shasha. “Since February 18, 2023, our superiors have authorized us to welcome the displaced persons of the M23 war who came from everywhere and to allow them to build the camp to give everyone a place to sleep. This was the beginning of displaced persons’ occupying the soccer field of the Don Bosco Shasha primary school. They try to live, but without the hope of surviving,” says Fr. Kizito Tembo, Salesian superior in Shasha.

“Before this misery, who could close his eyes? In the camp, life seems to have stopped. The pupils who studied in their schools of origin, the parents who had their fields, the young people who managed here and there can no longer do so…. The war has paralyzed everything,” he adds.

The refugees wake up in the morning not knowing what they are going to eat or how the day will end. It’s worse still when it raine. Families have to huddle around a fire to keep warm. Disease has carried some of them away. In a foreign land, with no way out or hope for tomorrow, misfortune never comes alone. In this chaos that does not say its name, the most vulnerable classes are pregnant women, the elderly, the sick, and children.

After a long road of exile, those who caught some disease along the way began to succumb. The mourning has begun. Children have become victims of cholera, measles, and malnourishment. Pregnant women have miscarriages, and others have stillbirths. Misery upon misery. Breastfeeding women do not have enough breast milk; a disaster for babies.

“Faced with such a situation, silence would be complicity. Worse still is the silence of the humanitarian organizations. They are aware of this situation, because they came to visit, identify, send their agents to see what it was all about. But they do nothing to help these people who are suffering terribly,” Fr. Tembo comments with bitterness.

What are the scourges that threaten them? For many the problem is housing; their huts do not have a tarp. And when it rains, the rainwater gets into the huts, and the people get really wet. Many people fall ill; not only do they not have proper care, but they take the medicine without eating. But medicine without food is poison. Numerous children are malnourished due to lack of food. They were starting to die overnight.

The Salesians organized themselves to celebrate Mass for them every Sunday with the Christians of Kirotshe. In the same line they are available to listen to them and give them the sacraments of the Church. In addition, with the support of some friends and brothers, they’ve started giving porridge to malnourished children, and one meal a day so that they can save the few cases from each category.

So much that the suffering is over, the porridge is not only for the children, but also the grown-ups and elderly come forward to receive their portions.

The Salesians intend to give all the children the chance to go back to school with the other students at the beginning of next academic year, in September 2023 at the Don Bosco Shasha primary school, and teach one or more occupation to anyone who wants it through a vocational training center.

“In front of these crowds of miserable people, our action is like a drop in the ocean,” Fr. Tembo shares. So, he concludes with an appeal: “We invite you all, all over the world, to come to the aid of all these populations who are suffering terribly from a misery that does not say its name and whose end is known only to God.”