Page 355 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

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m̩ 'zuŋ u memories of NGO in Africa

walk softly, go quietly and you will see...

It's grown and grown. Parents talk of the 'gap year'. What was once the basis of real

challenges (think of 'Operation Raleigh') has all too often become a path that feeds the
commercial entities that service the volunteer sector.

And the greatest shame of all is that its unregulated and that it would be comparatively

easy and cost free for the UK government to regulate the activities of its own citizens.
But there is a complete lack of leadership from DfID/FCDO on this - and other significant

issues!

***** ***** *****
The NGO staff '4 star' experience in a crisis

It's the time of the M23 siege and the soon to be seizure of the city of Goma in the DRC.
Day after day, as I walk around the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, I am passed by streams of

refugees. Mostly women, women of all ages. Now and then is a young boy. There are rarely

any men. The women and children are carrying what essentials they can. Things to cook with.
A sponge rubber mattress for an older person or a mother with a young baby to lie on.

Occasionally, a plastic chair for the elderly grandmother to sit on because if she sits on the

ground, she won't be able to get up again.
There are no men because, no matter the danger, someone has to stay and protect the

possessions left behind.
The women and children have taken what they can. But it takes a lifetime to acquire even

m̩
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the bare minimum of household possessions. That's why when you 'zuŋ u berate the use of
plastics, poor Africans are grateful for it. It means they can expect those precious few
possessions to last that much longer.

So much has had to be left behind. And the men are there to try to protect them. The

personal risk can be outweighed by the potential loss of possessions that they might never be
able to replace.

The danger is not from M23. They are not so many. Their core is a 600 or so fully armed

fighting unit that broke away from the regular DRC army. Their ranks swelled by rag tag
recruits, including child soldiers, gathered along the way.