Seb & Sophie: Photos from my DRCongo trip

Friday, 1 May 2009

Photos from my DRCongo trip

Once a mum always a mum - what's the first photo I take? The lego display at Schipol airport.

Some shots of eastern DRC -
I flew in and out of Goma, the biggest city in the east and squashed in tight between an active volcano and Lake Kivu.

- that them hills are Rwanda.

The incredible lushness of Mr Anderson's colonial era farm in Lubero, North Kivu. It is self-sufficient with a dairy making cheese, bees making honey, a vegetable garden with fresh lettuce and more; fruit trees; cows and pigs for sausage, etc. The land is so very very fertile and yet because of the war, pockets of people are starving and thousands of children going malnourished.

A typical town road - in this case, Lubero.

Children at the various camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) that I visited. The majority of IDPs live woven into the host communities.

Here are children's regular task of collecting water, as well as the lucky few who are involved in organised soccer (played on volcanic rock...).

Family Separation is ever present; the agency I was with has registered over 800 cases in the past 6 months. Here are 4 young children who were separated from their parents during the first hour of a disturbance at one of the IDP camps. Fortunately, in that situation everyone knows to come to the children's hut and ask for help to find them.

Here are some older children (who know their places of birth) being driven back to their families after 1-3 months of separation.

After 10 long days on the road, it was time for a celebration! This was a school group that put on a great show for me.

Back in Goma and coming full circle, I found the Goma branch of Seb & Sophie's much beloved Jane-Jane (the Jane Goodall Institute) and the city's baby doll hawker.