Searching for peace in Kasai, DRC
Thérèse, 13, is sat in a shady corner of her busy schoolyard, watching as World Vision staff distribute back to school kits to excited first graders. Somewhere in the crowd is her little sister Marie, 5, and she watches carefully to see her get her bag.
Thérèse lost her father in the crisis that just six months ago was wreaking havoc on the population of the Kasais.
“The military came to our house. They were shooting.” she told us. “The morning that we saw them we went and sought refuge in the bush. It was a Friday.”
“We were on our way here with our mother, when our aunt called to say Papa was dead. My father had sent us ahead, to flee to the forest, and he was to follow. But he was killed.”
Like many of the families in Thérèse’s community, Thérèse and her six siblings spent weeks living in the forest, surviving off the leaves and animals they could find, and sheltering under palm fronds when it rained. They came home again at the end of April, but her mum took her five brothers and returned to her ancestral home, leaving Thérèse and her little sister Marie with an Aunt who has her own children to care for.
“We don’t eat well,” Thérèse said softly. “When they prepare food, if they’re punishing us, we don’t eat. They say we don’t contribute, we just eat.”
Thérèse’s family only eats once or twice a day, and are just five of the 3.2 million people in the Kasais who are currently food insecure. World Vision is working with the World Food Programme to reach the most vulnerable, and other NGOs are also on the ground distributing food and cash vouchers. But many families are malnourished after months of displacement and hiding in the bush.
Thérèse works hard at school and tries to help her Aunt by fetching water at the source. But she feels trapped.
“Maman has been to visit us once here. But she has nothing.” Thérèse says helplessly. “What else can we do? All we can do is stay with our Aunt.”
Thérèse wants to become a nun when she finishes school. She takes solace in the Catholic church nearby, walking an hour and a half each way on Sundays to go to services.
And although she’s sad, it’s clear that there’s a bright light burning at Thérèse’s heart. She knows that God is with her, and just speaking to her you can see a certain peace in her soul.
Life is a struggle right now, for everyone in the Kasais. World Vision is working to support Marie, Thérèse and the other 1.5 million children affected by the crisis with education, child protection, and nutrition projects.