Assist a Blind Person in Ngweshe of the Walungu Territory in the Kivu Highlands

In July 2006 FONDAMU staff made a trip to Ngweshe, a remote northeast part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the Walungu Territory. We met with a 75-year old blind person, Mr. Ntabashwa of Lubona. The locality of Lubona was taken up over April 2003 by militiamen until the end of 2005. We asked Ntabashwa how he survived the occupation by these militiamen, who were shooting all over the countryside, and who had killed thousands of people there. With humour he just responded, that he did not flee, he stayed in the village. He heard that the militiamen were around, but as he didn’t see them, they couldn’t see him, either. We asked him if he did not worry about the stray bullets, he told us that these were lost for ever as they could not find him hidden in his roof thatched round hut, with mud stuffing the circular wall.

Poor children with a bleak future and a roof thatched hut of the blind Ntabashwa in Lubona, Ngweshe, in the Upland Kivu

Ntabashwa told us that the only service he wanted from us was to build him another hut, as his was already decaying and leaking from rains. The rainy season was due to start in September and will last into February. He asked us for US $50 that will cover his expenses to build a new hut. We failed him as we did not have the money, until June 2007. Now we have sent him the US $50 that we raised to build his hut with the hands of FONDAMU volunteers in Lubona. We are pushing to complete this project so that the forthcoming rainy season finds him with a sturdy dry hut.

Ntabashwa and many more blind people we met in Ngweshe are getting organised to become self reliant. Altogether there are 570 blind people, and they created in 2003 a not-for-profit association called CEFI, (Centre d’Education et de Formation Integrée). They are trying to raise funds to purchase white sticks to guide their walks to get around and fend for themselves, and they rent a home in Mwegerera, a village in the County of Burhale, where they teach each other the Braille scriptures and some crafts. They told us that they face four challenges: (a) food insecurity as they are nourished through begging; (b) lack of health care and insurance; (c) non mastering of a craft, which makes them dependent on other people; and (d) the society disrespects them as beggars. They told us that they do not want to be a burden to the society, they would like to become productive, but they need some piece of land and their own home. When we expressed these needs of the blind people in Ngweshe to Mr. Alphonse Nyamugali, one of the FONDAMU staunchest supporters, he generously gave us 4 hectares of land; that is about 10 acres, in Cizirhu village of the locality of Mulamba.

Now FONDAMU is teaming up with CEFI to build and help run a new social centre for the blind to be called FOSAC, Foyer Social pour Aveugles à Cizirhu. The blind people will use that piece of land and the center to learn a craft, to study Braille, to learn how to use a white cane, and to begin income generating activities like small animal breeding (guinea-pigs, rabbits, hens, ducks, goats, etc.) and gardening of vegetables (cabbages, carrots, celeries, potatoes, etc.); to raise fish in ponds; to do bee-keeping, and similar self-sufficient activities.

We are putting forward a grant proposal of US $25,000 to a Social Fund in DR Congo to build a 192m² home in Cizirhu, as a first step to establish at least 60 of the blind people on their own land and home and to start income-generating activities. However to run this we will need to match the US $25,000 grant.

Please help us match the needed grant of US $25,000, and let’s follow Mr. Alphonse Nyamugali’s example in supporting the blind people in Ngweshe.

During our visit in Ngweshe in 2006, we provided 300 sets of eyeglasses to people with poor eye sight, especially those older than 45 years. In this equatorial region there is a high incidence of cataracts as the luminosity is high. We also gave them instructions on how to take care of their eyes that need frequent washing with drops of distilled water. Many of them have become FONDAMU members.

Please Donate to FONDAMU to assist the Blind People of CEFI in Ngweshe, Upland Kivu of Eastern Congo:

Make a Monthly Donation	$ for months.
Give a one-time donation	$
Assist Building of FOSAC
Help Meet the FOSAC Running Costs
Support Craft Learning for the Blind
Support Income Generating Activities