What is happening in Goma? Where you are born really makes a difference.

 Hello dear friends,

We have been very delinquent in not sharing any updates since last year. We left Goma at the end of June 2024, as our contract with Medair came to an end and we decided that it was time to be closer to family, including our new grandchild Hans Karl, born on June 1, 2024. We are now living in our home in Minneapolis and after a few months of rest and recovery have been back at work. I have been supporting the Medair team in Congo since the end of October, so I am in close contact. The 4 days, when there was an internet blackout and we couldn't get any news from our friends and colleagues, were quite stressful (this was during the time Goma was overrun by the rebel group M23). Thankfully we received news that all staff were ok, but what happened in Goma was incredibly traumatic. And you may have read about it on the news. 

These are recent posts on linkedin that describe the situation - the reality is that the situation is dire - our teams are scrambling to respond to treat and prevent the spread of cholera and mpox, in the midst of having health posts and cholera treatment centers totally destroyed. 

With the funding halt, that we have all heard about, the situation is even worse. I would like to appeal to you, as the broader international community, to consider contributing to Medair's work. Medair is not a large organization, like some of the other humanitarian aid organizations you may know, but we have seen and can attest to the fact that it uses its resources well - doing everything possible to reach those who most need it. If you are working, please consider asking your company if they do matching grants for donations. You can go to medair.org or us.medair.org to give online.

Please also continue to pray for peace in the DR Congo, a country which has known such unending conflict. As a Liberian proverb says so well 'when the elephants fight, the grass is trampled.' We have seen first hand what that trampling means for so many people. What I continue to reflect on is that it all comes down to where one happens to be born. We don't choose where we are born - that is something we have no control over. But those who are born into countries of ongoing conflict or poverty or natural disasters or repressive regimes didn't have a choice. And each one of them has as much right to safety, a home, basic freedoms, food and water, and access to health care, as we do. We are incredibly blessed - so much so that we forget that many people actually don't have access to these things, as is the case for so many in Eastern Congo right now. And through no fault of their own - they just happened to be born in a place 'where elephants are fighting.'