Tag: helping others

More about Bienvenu Kamwendo, our Congalese host

by 8hummingbirdway

Looking back to Africa

I’ve found a short video of Bienve, our host in Democratic Republic of Congo, that I would like to share with you. This man is remarkable. He suffered from the lack of reliable adult presence and guidance early in life, and he managed to turn his challenges into blessings later on – blessings for others.

I recently spoke with Bienve about his personal story. Bienve never knew his father. His mother was not able to care for him for reasons I do not know. He lived with several families in childhood. When he was able, he worked selling fruit and taking photographs of tourists and selling them for pennies.

Bienve’s ancestors are from the Nande and Hera Tribes.

I don’t know all the details of his journey, but I know that he managed to go to school and become an attorney in adulthood. He shared with me the fact that he adopted 3 children well before he was married, children that needed guidance and support. One of them, Sarif, lives with his family still, and works for Remember Youth for Change, the non-profit organization he founded in Goma. As does his wife, Clarisse.

This man is a remarkable and outstanding human being. I stand in awe of him. His vision is all about helping others. Through his nonprofit and with the help of his staff, he provides pathways for young Congolese people to learn sewing, business, leadership, computer skills, and carpentry. He provides opportunities for them to engage in art and music. He provides activities and school shirts for children in multiple refugee camps. He rents fields for refugees to grow their own food.

All of these offerings are changing lives, healing wounds, and opening the future for others.

Something that touches my heart most deeply is that when hospitals in Goma find children with war injuries, they call Bienve. Knowing that these children received their injuries because of being child soldiers, and cannot return home to their villages, that they are societal outcasts, they call the man who can help them. Upon their release from the hospital, they are folded into Remember Youth for Change. They develop new selves with purpose. They find purpose in helping others, and training is available to them in carpentry, painting and agriculture.

Here Bienve tells about Remember Youth for Change in his own words.

Would you like to get blog posts sent directly to your email inbox? Subscribe below.

After the Meal

by 8hummingbirdway

The Africa Posts

After the meal at the Bulango Camp, we walked outside a bit. Initially there were trees here, but almost all of their slim trunks were used to shape the structures that serve as homes for each family.

Some of this time is a blur. Looking back, I realize how sleep deprived I was. I haven’t fully returned to balance as I write these words about 11 days after this meal I reported on yesterday. Right now it is early morning here, and it is 9 hours later in Democratic Republic of Congo – afternoon.

That afternoon, I had been in Africa for 7 days after a 23 hour segmented trip through the sky during which I slept 4 hours. Aside from my one day of hand washing clothes and visiting the Nile, I had full days every day, sometimes up before 4 am and/or up until midnight or later. I had fallen, injured my knee – which provided an extra night short of sleep due to monitoring my injury, changing my bandages and making sure I didn’t bleed on the linen. I got stitches the following day; my knee is still mildly inflamed. I somehow adjusted to the 8 or 9 hour time change (depending on the country) by force of our schedule. We had spent time in 2 areas of Uganda, slept in an airport due to cancelled flight, climbed a slippery hill in search of gorillas in Rwanda, crossed the border by land into DRC, and spent 2 very full days in Goma with Bienve.

I am quite aware, due to my condition since my return, of my age. Did I say I am 68? I am in good form for my age. I have eaten concsiously since my 20s, I lived on a fairly steep hill for most of the past 25 years, I did a lot of bicycling for 10 of the past 15 years, I stretch daily and walk often, though I am slowing down the past 2 winters. All of this allowed me to take this trip, and I know I will return to well-being soon.

For peace of mind, I will visit a specialist in tropical infections soon, although I expect a clean bill of health. Something passed through my body in the first few days home, but I am feeling stronger daily.

The impact of this journey on my soul is immeasurable. For all of it I am grateful. I carry much more within my soul than I did when I left. The impact of each soul I connected with, each child’s and woman’s face I looked into, smiles shared, hands touched, steps walked beside, meals taken with – has left its mark. And I also hold a part of the loss in my heart, the loss that came before that which now shows in the faces I looked into.

And I hold the knowledge of each helping person who saw the need and created solutions. I hold within me the knowledge and experience of those who wielded help and showed me these comparatively small areas of our planet with people in need, as a result of loss and trauma. They showed me how they took personal action to provide others’ healing and ability to walk forward into their uncertain future.

I stress “small areas of our planet” because I know that loss and pain and trauma exist in many other places as well. Places we hear about on the news. Places we are not aware of. Some are in our communities. Some are next door to us. I know that loving others are nearby to help. The loving others who help those in need is an important part of my story, though I have not written about it fully. I have only a miniscule knowledge of it. I know a small handful of their faces, shown to me on this journey – honored, appreciated and loved by me.

I hope to extend myself in ways that will unfold as I walk forward. My way is a smaller and more personal way than the way of these who create organizations and attract other helpers and step forward powerfully and bravely in love and support of their fellow humans. Their names are Beka (who I have yet to write about), Kuol, Bienve, and there are many others – those with vision, and those who spend their time and resources in support of the vision of these leaders.

Either way, it matters whether or not we choose to help fellow humans within our reach.

I have witnessed and touched a great deal. Were it not for the blessing of being able to share my journey through this writing, I would not be able to process it. But I am – day by day – in gratitude and love and grateful absorption, release and transformation. Thank you for reading my words. For caring, for being willing to hold this knowledge I share.

I meant for this post to be about the walk after the meal. But this day and this meal is a huge aspect of what I am carrying and holding now. And so it turns out that I have shared a bit more about this more personal aspect of what I saw and carry within “After the Meal.”

Would you like to know more about Goma’s nonprofit Remember Youth for Change? https://www.facebook.com/rememberyouthforchange