About Our Project:

The Tumaini Letu project will be located in Ciruko, In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and will serve a population of around 5000 people.The outreach focuses on three main areas: Healthcare , Education and Literacy, and Food Security, with the goal of bringing a community-run health centre, classroom, and programs to this very marginalized village.  

Healthcare ; We are hoping to initiate a Community Health Centre that will provide lifesaving procedures , maternal and child health and prevention and treatment of communicable and non- communicable diseases, through extensive training of health care workers. 

Education and Literacy; We are hoping to provide education to children and support the youth to minimize human trafficking and the exposure to child soldier. We will also provide school supplies and nutrition for learning to foster a positive interest. We will also introduce adult literacy and life skill activities for women and girls to foster self-sustainability . 

Food security and Income Generating Activities will encourage healthy eating and prevent malnutrition in the community through modeling gardening and improving production through crop rotation and fertilising skills; providing food for the most vulnerable people in the community during the initiative phase. IGA would include life skill training like hair dressing , tailoring and small- scale panal solar retailing, and training for youth .

NEWS: Our team, in partnership with Kuishi Smart, based in Kigali, Rwanda, has returned from its exploratory mission to Ciruko… here is a summary of the report produced with the data gathered: watch for the complete report as a link soon. 

If there is one area that vividly sums up Africa’s development challenges, it is the field of health. Every year, lack of access to basic health care mostly caused by poor funding and inadequate health care infrastructures, contributes to millions of deaths and untold suffering on the continent. KUISHI SMART has conducted a needs assessment in Curiko village located in Walungu territory, Sout Kivu province of the Republic democratic of Congo from July 3^rd, 2023, to July 20^th, 2023. The primary purpose of the needs assessment was to enable Tumaini Letu with community evidence-based needs information in terms of health, nutrition, agriculture, and economic insights. The following are the needs assessment objectives:

• To better understanding the health-related issues and potential solutions to increase access to safe and affordable healthcare services for Curiko community; and 

• To inform community health improvement plans, partnerships and initiatives to address food security and socio-economic challenges that are driving negative social determinants of health among Curiko community.

Key findings

The community need assessment provided useful insights in terms of health issues, factors affecting well-being and determinants of health. We found that non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (hypertension) and other health conditions such malnutrition, chronic pain, arthritis, diabetes are of a great concern in community. In addition, endemic and emerging infectious diseases were also a concern in the area most revealed were skin infection, malaria, waterborne diseases (diarrhea, cholera), and sexual transmitted infections. Furthermore, other health indicators posing concern to the community were inadequate health services, insufficient/unskilled health care providers, long distance to reach the health care facility, poverty, food insecurity, poor eating habits to name a few. Therefore, the gaps in social protection and the challenges highlighted by this study are the result of the broader need for health and food system strengthening.

Recommendations:

1. Co-creation of a community health center that is self-funded through community cooperative initiatives including monthly contributions from users to promote self-sustainability financial operational model to deliver safe and affordable primary healthcare services.
2. Co-creation of micro-agricultural and financial where each targeted community members will have access to agricultural and or livestock credit (seeds, equipment, capacity building) and financial(start up micro-finance credit and financial literacy training) to promote socio-economic prosperity and food security within the community. 

Justin’s Story:

JUSTIN's STORY: I was born in Ciruko, a small village located in the Walungu district in the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The current population of Ciruko is about 5,000.  

The villages surrounding Ciruko have been the centre of armed conflict during the last quarter century, following the departure of the former president Mobutu in 1997, resulting in atrocities, with systematic looting, extortions, kidnappings, killings, rape and even women’s genital mutilation perpetrated by the rebels, with most of the victims being women and children, who have often been taken and either sold or used in human trafficking or forced to be child soldiers.  The majority of people remaining in these communities are widows and orphans.  

The only source of income for these communities comes from crops farming, but unfortunately the soil is unproductive due to lack of crop rotations and fertilizers, and with ongoing displacement, leading to general impoverishment, devastated the entire region.  

In these villages only an old primary school exists, usually located far away from the villages, requiring students to travel a long way from home, just to be educated. I, myself, am a living example of this. I attended the same school and my mom had to escort me every day around 5 o’clock in the morning to go to school. Sometimes during the rainy season many students are unable to make their way to school due to flooding.   

My mother's words to me as a child continue to resonate in my ears, “My son, be patient, brave, and resilient and never lose hope.”  

There still is no healthcare clinic in my village and the nearest government hospital is about 60 kilometers away. For most of the villagers, the only way to reach the hospital is on foot. In the case of emergencies, most patients are transported on traditional stretchers, and sometimes die on the way before reaching hospital. If they do make it to the hospital, to seen by a medical professional, regardless of their condition, patients must pay a fee up front. Those who do not have money readily available, or can't afford a visit at the time, are turned away, many times just to return home to die. Pregnant, indigent women often are forced to leave their families, to go to the hospital to await delivery over six weeks, to avoid risking a long trip to the hospital during labor. Women are put in this situation solely no health facilities exist closer to their villages, to even deal with minimal complications of pregnancy. As a nurse, I find this tragic and unconscionable. 

Water-borne diseases, malaria, cholera, respiratory tract infections and malnutrition are preventable, and should no longer be causes of death in this 21st century. However, such conditions still claim the lives of women and children in the DRC. Poor leadership and corrupt governments are primary contributors to the challenges and suffering of the people in the DRC, especially in rural communities, where there is poor infrastructure and a lack of support. Even in the areas with a hospital, a shortage of medical supplies, medication, medical equipment and trained medical staff to treat even the least complex illnesses still results in unnecessary suffering and death.  

When I was young, I used to pray to God to give my mom a long life so that she could see me grow into a responsible adult, and so that I could take care of her in the same way that she took care of me as a single mother. Unfortunately, mom too, passed away prematurely, due to an entirely preventable condition without access to the medical care that she needed. This is how my passion to become the ambassador of the voiceless started. This desire and passion increased recently when I traveled back to my district in the DRC 6 years ago and found that the same rural communities were suffering. Another trip a year later revealed things had deteriorated, worsened with government initiatives and support no longer available.  

Friends and family told me the same familiar story of lacking a healthcare clinic to provide basic life-saving procedures, and expressed that the development of a healthcare system, along with education and food security would be among their greatest priorities. Although the people who we spoke to at this time, expressed a variety of challenges, two ongoing struggles consistently centered around the impact of not having a healthcare clinic to access when they are sick as well as the absence of a high school for the students who are able to go to school. They also mentioned that starvation is a real challenge due to the poor production of the lands and the lack of fertilizers.  

Returning to Canada, I began sharing the reality about the gravity of poverty in the DRC with those around me and began to dream again about what we could do to help out there. My family and I have been praying for direction and we have a deep desire to help this most disadvantaged community in the DRC. We are still waiting for God’s plan to be accomplished for the wellbeing of his people in the Congo. I will continue to use my voice to share this story and I remain hopeful that this dream of making a difference in the lives of the people of the DRC one day will come true. This is my story.

I met Justin Zihindula last summer when he attended a weekend retreat that I was facilitating. 

The retreat focused on health issues specifically related to refugees and New Canadians; looking for creative and effective ways to address these important matters. 

Justin told me about his background growing up in an impoverished village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his dream of finding the resources to build a health clinic and classroom there as a way of giving back to that at-risk community now that he is established here in Canada. 

Hearing his compelling story made me want to help in any way I could to make his dream come true. I don’t have a background in the health field, but as an elected official here in Guelph and as an independent entrepreneur, I started to think of using my facilitation skills to try and put interested parties together that could make what is now called the TUMAINI LETU DRC Project a reality. I travelled to neighbouring Rwanda last month and held a meeting with a health practitioner there, also from the DRC, who has experience with developing this kind of project. 

This feels like a very important initiative, one that could save lives and build a future for Justin’s village of Ciruko. In Justin’s words- “we want to contribute to the change that will rekindle the flame of hope to our communities. We want to alleviate poverty and prevent malnutrition with education and programs focused on women and girls”. As you can read in Justin’s compelling story, this part of the DRC is in deep crisis and action is required immediately. 

With Patient Beya’s help after the initial meeting in Kigali, a plan is coming together that would begin with Justin, along with Patient’s team from his Kuishi Smart organization, travelling to the DRC to provide initial care and to assess what the immediate needs are with creating a lasting health presence in Ciruko. 

The TUMAINI LETU DRC Project is now an official non-profit organization. I am proud to serve on its board of directors. 

This is where you come in! This initial GoFundMe campaign is meant to raise the funds necessary to enable the first stage of the Tumaini Project. It has been carefully budgeted and planned out to make the most use of this initial visit. We think this could be done for 12,500 dollars. We’d love to get your help with this. Whatever you can offer would be greatly appreciated. 

You can make a real difference in this challenging district in the DRC. Please donate what you can, and you’ll receive updates on the project’s progress. Though there’s a long journey ahead, I am excited about the possibilities that will be created with your contribution. 

Let’s make this happen together! 

Sincerely, James Gordon Guelph Ontario. Here's James with Patient Beya in Kigala, Rwanda.