Monday 31 March 2014

Less than a week to go!

I took a little break from Mission Congo this weekend to celebrate my cousin's wedding with the rest of my family. After 28 days of living on £1 per day I was able to sip champagne and nibble canapes with the rest of the guests which felt wonderful and awful in equal measure. Living on £1 per day has really made me aware of just how little the people of DRC have to live on and just how much we have, which probably explains why I had a little freak out and cried in Waitrose when I went to do my food shop but it was all just a bit overwhelming to suddenly be surrounded by so much food that I felt really guilty!

So it's less than a week until I leave for DRC and plans are finally falling into place and more packages are arriving every day. I spent over a hundred pounds the other day buying lots of cheap little toys, colouring books and footballs for the children at the orphanages so I have gifts to give them when I arrive. I'm also still receiving children's clothes, ties for the men and jewellery for the women which is great. All that's left to arrive are the medical items and the school exercise books.

Donations are still coming in and our total now stands at £3,250 which is so amazing. I've also been gathering photos of all the people that kindly gave money for the water filters and to send orphans to school so I can show them photos of who is sponsoring them.

In addition to all this I've been reading lots of articles and watching lots of videos so I'm up to speed on the current situation out in DRC. I'd like to take this opportunity to share a couple of videos that I've seen recently that are particularly effective in explaining what is actually an incredibly complicated situation and getting the message across in a way that should really hit home for all of us - by talking about our laptops, ipads, ipods, iphones, in fact all mobile phones which we wouldn't have if it wasn't for the minerals being mined in the Congo.

Conflict Minerals 101
This video is just 4 minutes long and is definitely worth a watch to get the most basic understanding of how conflict minerals are funding a war in the Congo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF-sJgcoY20

Conflict minerals rebels and child soldiers in congo
This video is 30 minutes long so make a cuppa, sit down and watch it to fully grasp just how incredibly complicated the situation is in the Congo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYqrflGpTRE

Thanks!

1 comment:

  1. it is so interesting, you just come to DRC i will bring to a place of OVC and child soldier in my area of intervention in south Kivu and that can go beyond four million of OVC and War affected children

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