FINDING HOME AGAIN: ANGELA’S JOURNEY

Angela wakes up early every morning and hopes to find work that day. She sets out from Tumbwe village in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and journeys across the hills, walking for an hour to arrive at farms where she might be allocated a small plot of land to work, and receive a bit of money, or vegetables and cassava flour, for her work.

In Tumbwe, she is far from home. Angela's journey here has been perilous — she fled her Bantu village when communal violence broke out with a neighbouring community in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Tanganyika province. A sympathetic local chief welcomed Angela and her community to Tumbwe village, allocating them a plot of land where they might put up makeshift shelters. However, the transition to this new reality has been marred by immense challenges, including constant hunger and a lack of necessities, including clothing.

Since their arrival, the displaced families have been struggling to secure sustenance and safe shelter, with families huddled together in makeshift shelters that offer little respite from the elements, including the risk of fire and rain. The women of the community endure grueling hours of labour in neighbouring fields, earning small sums that barely suffice to feed their families. Many go days without a proper meal, subsisting on meagre rations of boiled cassava leaves or whatever scant provisions they can find.

With support from the Government of Canada through the Humanitarian Coalition, World Vision Canada is registering malnutrition cases that will be referred to the nearest health centres for treatment in collaboration with a nutrition partner working in this area. World Vision Canada has trained the community on infant and young-child feeding and selected a committee which has been trained and oversees the screening and registration of the cases.

Despite the immense challenges faced by Angela and her community in Tumbwe village, with the support from organizations like World Vision Canada and the Government of Canada, there are pathways to eliminating hunger.