In November 2014 SHONA Congo launched a 2 week fundraising campaign on Indiegogo.
The goal was to raise $2995 to build 2 modest homes for the SHONA Congo women and renovate a third, so that Riziki, Solange and Mapendo could have permanent homes of their own. It was more money than we had ever tried to raise before and I had no idea if we would be able to do it.
But I thought we had to try. The 3 women and their children had been living in refugee camps in Burundi and upon returning to Congo, they had found themselves starting over from scratch again. All of the possessions they had left behind had disappeared, and the homes they had lived in, had long ago been rented out to other families.
And so we began to wonder whether it might be possible to give these 3 women something they had long dreamed of. Homes of their own.
That is where you came in. Our campaign received an overwhelming response. In 3 days we had raised our goal. We were even able to raise extra money to add more secure doors and windows and cement floors to the homes.
By December 20th the homes were finished and Mapendo, Solange and Riziki had each moved into their new home. They are overjoyed. They say this is what they had been dreaming of for so long. All three homes have been built on land that was bought years ago by the women themselves, through money they had saved from their sewing.
This is Riziki in front of her new home. Can you see the pride and joy in her stance? Just behind the house, you can see the roof of a second house, that is Solange's house, just next door. Both homes were built in the same style.
In a nearby neighborhood is the SHONA workshop which was built several years ago but was put out of use by the war, and has been renovated into a home for Mapendo.
And we left an empty plot of land next to Mapendo's house, waiting for the 4th SHONA Congo woman, Argentine, to return home. At this time Argentine has chosen to remain in the refugee camp in Burundi with her daughter because of special security challenges which she faces personally. She hopes to be able to return to Congo soon, and when she does, she looks forward to building a home next to Mapendo's home, on the land they own together.
The gift of a home is an enormous thing. And the gift of a home in Eastern Congo, where stability is so hard to come by, means even more. For women who have had to start over again and again, who have carried their children and their sewing machines with them, and created lives in refugee camps far from home, this gift is beyond words.
Thank you with all our hearts.
Riziki, Mapendo and Solange with their children in their new home