Resilience

For me, born in a remote mountainous region of eastern Congo, an area void of any development – no roads, no electricity, no toilets, no medicine, etc. – contracting polio at the age of two years, having to wait to start school until I was strong enough to vault myself along with the use of a stick, having many constraints on me because of my disability, not to mention the stigma that others were always trying to wrap around me, yet somehow never standing aside, standing back, but ever pushing forward into the destiny that awaited me, I was always characterized as the embodiment of resilience.

And I think Hero Women Rising has my DNA. Resilience is her character. And also a spirit of gratitude. This organization was founded to lift, enable and empower women in a place that had just been dubbed by the UN as the worst place in the world to be a woman. And since that founding, the many difficulties and challenges that have been happening around the world, seem to continue to be especially concentrated in eastern Congo, especially among the population we serve. We are so grateful to all the partners that have stood with us through these many challenging years of conflict, war, and even genocidal acts led by the government against its citizens, while endeavoring to live on this seemingly forsaken piece of soil. 

Through all that the populations we serve have suffered these many years, this DNA of resilience and gratitude has constituted them as well. Suffering through daily bombings from drones passing overhead, witnessing loved one massacred in an instant, not to mention having lost all their homes and belongings seven years ago and now living in the bush, whether rainy season as it is now, or the short dry season. They mourn their losses with dignity, yet each day, hope rises anew. Thankful hearts unite among their close-knit communities around living to see another day. The government cut off all cellular communication to the area sometime before Christmas last year. Isolation then became even more pronounced, but so did their strength of spirit. Our Mama Shujaa staff of around 30 team members live among these communities they serve. They are of these communities, and of this DNA of resilience and gratitude. 

This resilience seems to come from deep, from the DNA of the land we settled 416 years ago. Resilience is not something you can study. It is something that rises as challenges confront you. Hope continues to envelope each day, looking for tomorrow, tomorrow, and then gratitude when you meet tomorrow the next morning.

Again, thank you all for your resilience, continuing to stand with us and hold us in your hearts.

In Love,

Neema

This blog I write in honor of our longtime partner, the founder of GNWP, Maria Victoria Cabrera Balleza (Mavic), who passed away a couple weeks ago from illness. ❤️