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( Photo Gabriela Litre/MONUC) The pygmy children of the center "Baraza La Wamana Tupendane". |
miling dolls, colourful tissues and ceramic vessels.. In the humble wooden installations of the Baraza La Wamana Tupendane
Center, the creativeness of around 40 women, transforms the sadness of their lives into beautiful art crafts.
Some of these artists are Pygmies suffering from ethnic discrimination. Others have lost all their belongings following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano.
During their spare time, they also learn to write and read. All this takes place in the Mugunga neighbourhood, in the suburbs of Goma, provincial capital of the North Kivu. The Baraza La Wamana Tupendane Center is run by the Ndosho Parish and is financed by Italian missionaries from the Abruzzo Region of the Pescara Dioceses. It has been working for the last ten months with the steady support of a couple of Xaverian missionaries.
The first thing that one hears when arriving at the Baraza La Wamana Tupendane Center is children's laughter. Around 40 boys and girls, aged 0 to 5, attend kindergarten classes and adore their teacher, Ms Florence Mwira.
The Center is not only devoted to women seeking a new way in life: it also gives shelter and instruction to their little children. After a difficult trip among the lava stones left by the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano, a team from MONUC's Public Information Division (a Radio Okapi journalist and a Public Information Officer) from Goma arrived at the center, near the Green Lake. They interviewed Odette Muganza, a lady in charge of the literacy classes and distributed the latest issue of MONUC magazine, plus some new MONUC posters.
"Pygmy women can be very patient and they do not worry if their alphabetization process takes long. All they want is to find a better way of living for themselves and for their families.", explained Ms Riziki Aziza, who is 38 years old. But not only Pygmy women take profit of the alphabetization courses and the classes of craft making of the Baraza La Wamana Tupendane there are also women from other ethnic origins, such as the Hutus, who have lost their houses during the volcano eruption go to the center everyday.
Ms Giovanna Vettori, a missionary from the Xaverian order, is in charge not only of channeling the financial support but also of facilitating the cohabitation in the center between people from different ethnic backgrounds. Ms Vettori and her husband, who works in the Mental Health Center of Goma, have left family and a comfortable life in Italy to give their time to the Congolese people. Day after day, Giovanna sees these social or cultural conflicts disappear, while new friendships emerge.
The first thing that one hears when arriving at the Baraza La Wamana Tupendane Center is children's laughter. Around 40 boys and girls, aged 0 to 5, attend kindergarten classes and adore their teacher, Ms Florence Mwira. The Center has been working hard since its creation, last January. According to Ms Vettori, it has almost 100 members, a number that is seen as "too small" by humanitarian organizations to whom she has asked assistance. That is why that, apart from the Ndosho Parish's support, the members contribute with 100 Congolese Francs per month (the equivalent of one dollar every 4 months) for the maintenance of the school. They also sell the beautiful dolls, 3 dollars a piece, ceramic vessels and tissues, as colorful as their dreams.
(From MONUC)