An Open Letter to Mary Robinson

Dear Excellence, Mary Robinson:

I just want to thank you for your significant contribution as United Nations Special Envoy to DRC and the Great Lakes Region. The time of your service as Special Envoy was a time of real hope for the women in our Region, and especially the women of East Congo. The fact that you engaged us and included us in your efforts toward implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region, enlivened, encouraged, and inspired us with hope for a new future for ourselves, our families, and our countries.

Your appointment as UN Special Envoy to DRC (and the Great Lakes Region) came just one month after the opening of our own Maman Shujaa Center in East Congo. As founder of the Maman Shujaa, I can tell you that your term as Special Envoy resuscitated life in the hearts of women throughout East Congo. Over 700 women joined themselves to the Maman Shujaa, feeling acknowledged, respected, even heard.

To include women in the process changes the whole paradigm in the region because it changes the paradigm in the home; because it changes the paradigm for women. To include women is to lift the downtrodden, the overlooked, the under-valued, but more importantly – the underestimated! The Maman Shujaa have been quoted, published, and written about in numerous international publications and news forums. We posted an online petition that got over 100,000 signatures, which got us an appointment at the White House, which eventuated in the appointment of U.S. Special Envoy Russ Feingold to work with you in DRC and the Great Lakes Region. That is the impact of inspiring simple, ordinary women with hope in “the worst place in the world to be a woman”.

And now you have taken on a new assignment – UN Special Envoy for Climate Change. As DRC hosts the second largest rainforest in the world, the women of East Congo, and especially the indigenous women are elated with this news. We have partnered with Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network International (WECAN) to collaborate with women and their communities who live in and around the forest about the concepts of environmental conservation/protection, and climate change. For as you know, women bear the brunt of the weight of these issues, being responsible for hauling water, firewood, and cooking in unhealthy environments. As WECAN Congo, we are expanding our initiatives to include tree planting projects and introducing solar cookers and clean cookstoves as healthy, environmentally sound, and entrepreneurial alternatives.

Your Excellence, the women of East Congo look forward to continue partnering with you in this global issue. Our forests are the lungs of the planet. And just as our women are suffering because of their conditions, as if they have been heavy smokers all their lives, with lung diseases and even cancer, so the lungs of our planet are suffering. We support you in your charge my sister, and are proud that you are our Special Envoy for Climate Change.

In love and Solidarity,

Neema