MY JOURNEY

I was born and grew up in Uvira, a small town in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika. When I was a teenager, three friends and I babysat a 2-year old baby from family relatives. His name was Guillaume. It is normal practice for teens to take care of infants and babies in this part of the world. The child became sick and as the day progressed, the situation became worse and worse. When Guillaume became irresponsive, we decided to take him to our closest health clinic so that he could get medicines. But the closest health clinic proved too far away and there was no infrastructure like an ambulance to get him there. We pushed him onto a bicycle. But it was in vain. Guillaume died in our arms while we were trying to get him to a clinic. Were there a clinic near where we lived and basic infrastructure to get there, the child would likely have lived. Looking back at that experience now, all we needed was probably Tylenol. This experience left a mark on me and sparked an interest in the medical field.

From that day on, I dreamed of going to nursing school and building health clinics in communities that did not have access to basic healthcare facilities. When I reached high school, I had to choose a major, as is customary in Congo. I chose biochemistry, with intent to pursue a career in the medical field. But when I was in 10th grade, a war broke out, and my family and I ended up in a refugee camp across the border in a neighboring Burundi. We spent two months there. During the third month, our refugee camp was attacked by militias. Guns were fired, grenades were thrown all over the place and the entire camp was set on fire. I lost everything dear to me. My younger sister Deborah was killed in our tent; my mother, sister and brother were shot and sustained injuries and still carry scars. Many cousins, childhood friends and the majority of people from my community lost their lives in a span of a few hours. A total of 166 people were killed that night in what became known as the “Gatumba Massacre”, another 116 people were injured. I escaped it alive but my life’s dreams were completely shattered.

I was hopeless and my dreams ceased to exist for a few years. Then some good people worked hard to resettle my family and I – along with other survivors of the Gatumba Massacre - to the U.S. Coming to America was unexpected but it changed everything for me and my family, and resurrected my dreams. I learnt English, re-started high school, graduated and went to Roberts Wesleyan College for my undergraduate in nursing. Even though I dreamed of practicing nursing from an early age, I never thought I would practice in one of the world’s most renowned facilities.

I currently work as a Registered Nurse at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell (NYP). I am here in the USA but my heart resides in DR Congo. I think about how to lift Congolese women out of oppression; hours and hours of field work like slaves, tackle maternal mortality in the most remote areas of our country and increase the agricultural productivity. For example, our main meal is fufu also known as ugali which make of either of cassava or corn. The process takes two weeks to produce that flour. This is job is only for women and it is physical. We cannot talk about women getting educated if this huddle isn’t overcome. Women needs milling machine to produce ugali quicker so they can concentrate education, children ..ect. Therefore, I am afraid to name one issue, because all the issues my community has, they are mostly women issues and they are many.

I would like to train midwifes and connect them to nearest health care. This will greatly reduce maternal. We are registering existing midwives across the villages to bring them together for training. They are following up with every pregnant women and children under five years old to make sure there aren’t imminent complications. However, these heroes have very little or no capacity to care for this population. I would like to train many more midwives, and equip them with supplies. Second, I want to purchase tricycles which can withstand the poor Infrastructure in this area. These Tricycles will allow women to have access to medical care as soon as necessary and midwives will be able to provide care in timely fashion which otherwise, would have been almost impossible to reach. I hope to alleviate fear and the unknown of child bearing experience for women.

I want to empower women to work alongside other women to make their prognosis better. Women are my number one supporter but men have shown the will to come together to connect village through community service to fix roads. I am interested in connecting with other women around the world through world pulse and see what is working in their community. Also, my work would greatly benefit from sees fund to get this project moving and connecting more women to care. I am already a registered nurse, I have a bunch of colleagues’ doctors and nurses who are willing to provide training to the midwives and the local hospitals. We are partnering with the referring hospital to facilitating this project.

I am a co-founder called Jimbere Fund, a non for profit organization which Works closely with communities and villages in remote areas of Democratic Republic of Congo to design and implement individualized high-impact social interventions. Communities identify their most pressing needs in agriculture, education, health, women’s empowerment, water and sanitation, and we work with them to find solutions. I would like the world to know that I am a child of Congo, no matter what it is said about my country, I have not given up hope. And it is for that reason; I am passionate about our work there. As a child, I thought that, when I grow up, all will be better; but it hasn’t. Now, I realized that even though I am still young, I am not waiting for anyone else to come save us. Congo needs me to do my part.