A word from the President
The story of a crazy idea!
FOCHI
Priest and pastor, for whom?
I could not believe my ears when one day in 2000 Flory came to see me.. He had only one idea: to launch a risky action in an environment ravaged by all sorts of injustices. Kiliba parish had just been burned by unknown people, fear pervaded the whole community. A colleague priest of class had been assassinated. Any action challenging the rival forces in place in the area would be inappropriate. I was coming from the mountains of Minembwe where I was parish vicar and I just needed to rest … I was not ready to risk my life in such circumstances. But, Flory insisted by giving me a speech without contours:
“I am aware of what you do for orphans and your commitment to the marginalised people of our society … and it’s worthy of praise. But taking into account the brutalities in Kiliba today, it is time to do something. A deadly virus is in the process of biting deeply; human beings are dying in silence every day. And we continue to preach people happiness that we can not offer them right now. They need someone. With you, I think we can make a big difference. Let’s stand up and act, Father. It was a real “boom” in the face…! I knew well the benefits of such commitment.
Desolation everyday …
What was it? In our environment there still this ugly tradition which states that all matters relating to sexuality was taboo: No one is allowed to talk about. A rule strictly followed by everybody, particularly women. Also, with the wars experienced in the region, there was an unhealthy practice which transformed women into sexual slaves obliged to endure usual and successive rapes. Many have been victims, but were forced by the fate to keep strict silence by fear of marginalization and exclusion from the community.
Woe to those who fell pregnant. Mother and child were marked with an automatic dismissal. And cases were increasing day by day until some of them decided to confide in a friend, and the latter to a pastor or a priest. Flory and I were in possession of these confidences. We had already witnessed several other unacceptable practices. It was urgent to act. And we had the necessary potential. Him being a Protestant pastor, legal representative of REMAC Missionary Churches and me, as a Catholic priest, we did not lack means to come into contact with the world … Then, we decided to put aside our religious differences in order to focus on the human being whom we needed to promote and assist.
We must act …
We continued our discussions and nurtured the idea and in 2001 we decided on the strategy to allow us to fight against this scourge. As men, we were practically difficult to approach those victim women and share our strategies. But with the help of other women, the riddle would be settled. So we contacted women who could help us in this endeavor. But,what? We needed to combat crime in all its forms. We found out that educating the society was capital to our future actions. Our work was going to be centred to education. In Africa, the mother is the key person responsible for the education of the family: Our Society needed a mother. We decided then to work within an organization to be called “Chirezi”. The word “Chirezi” in Mashi - a tribe language of South Kivu - means “Mother.” Thus was born the “Foundation Chirezi” (FOCHI). It was like a dream!
Objectives…
Our major objective is to defend human rights in general and particularly those of women and children. To do this we must try to improve the living conditions of our rural populations, study the origin of the cyclical conflicts in our environment in order to to help eradicate it.
Our work will be divided into two main phases:
1. The dignity of women and children (our main beneficiaries)in various aspects: education, health, fight against poverty, protect them from armed groups and help them to be ”self-sufficient” by learning trades.
2. Rights: informing the population about their rights and responsibilities in creating community forums of peace (Baraza in Swahili). The goal is to provide effective and lasting solutions to conflicts of various kinds which have their roots in our families and extend to the national, regional or international levels.
Members:
From our contacts, we managed to meet many people who agreed to join hands to the Foundation and support it through various means: physical, intellectual, physical, technical and even moral… Local people and international volunteers accepted the challenge of improving orphans and poor children lives.
Kiliba: a place of action
In 2002, we purchased a piece of land of about 50m x 20m in Kiliba where we built 4 classrooms (in muddy bricks) to house the initiated orphan Primary School that we called “Farm of Hope”. Yes, hope was high and still growing. Teachers have agreed to donate their time to restore hope to those children whose hope was now based on the success of the school.
This building did not resist to stormy rains, it fell down few months later, condemning the children to follow their lessons under trees, sitting on large stones!
During the same period, Mr Henk, a friend of the association from the Netherlands, visited the school. He was deeply touched by the conditions in which children were condemned to be in during lessons. During rains, there was no classroom at all! Back to Netherlands, he did not hesitate to be the ambassador to the children. He contacted Focus on Education Foundation headed by a great Dutch couple Mary and Jacques den Ridder. It is from this couple that we will benefit from the construction of 6 modern classrooms and an administrative office. Our sincere of gratitude!
Today, we are proud of a modern Farm of Hope which is used for the education not only of the children but also all the community because those building are also used for community activities organised by FOCHI: Women meetings, women sewing activities, ex child soldiers carpentry training, community leaders planning meetings, Baraza of peace activities etc…
We need you…
It is true that we are the ones who initiated this project. But, we wouldn’t be where we are today without your involvement and we will never achieve anything in the future without your generous heart.
For more information, please check out our website: www.fochi.org
Write us at: fochi_fond@yahoo.fr
Father Dominique MULUME-ODERHWA
Chairman of the board
