An interview with AAH Head Mission, D.R.
Congo, Cathy Skoula, on life in the D.R.C, AAH's programs, & the recent
spate of human rights violations
November, 2003
What is your personal background in the humanitarian field?
I started in the humanitarian field as a Peace Corps Volunteer right out of college (I have a BS in Animal Husbandry). With the Peace Corps I spent four years in the Congo (known as Zaire at that point). I returned to the States for a number of years working in the medical sector. After obtaining an MBA and an MHA, I returned to overseas humanitarian work as a Head of Project for Action Against Hunger (AAH) in 1999. My primary job was to open the base and nutritional project in Lubumbashi, Congo. I also performed an exploratory mission to Malemba Nkulu (located to the north of Lubumbashi, in the governmental zone) resulting in the opening of a base there. I moved on to Uganda as Head of Mission for Action Against Hunger in Jan. 2001. I returned to the Congo as Head of Mission in April 2002.
Why did you first go to DRC?
I had a choice of teaching animal husbandry in Zaire to secondary school students or teaching dairy farming in Tunisia. I opted for Zaire feeling that it would be very difficult as a woman to teach dairy farming which is basically reproduction to Muslim men.
A better question might be why I went to Congo a second and third time? Expatriates tend to either love or hate the Congo. I fall in the love category. Congo has a habit of pulling you back. I think that this has to do with the people - generous, friendly, gregarious, intelligent, artistic, and beautiful. The country is also beautiful, full of variety - from a glacier located on the equator in the mountains, to savannah, to a rain forest so dense that whole airplanes have been lost in it. It is also home to some very rare animals - okapi, forest elephant, mountain gorilla, forest gorilla, bonobo - to name a few of the largest many of whom have seen their numbers devastated by the recent war.
People who hate the country tend to dwell on the corruption, the lack of infrastructure, Congolese time (versus NY time), and all the other problems found here. These problems exist and are exasperating to deal with but on the whole I think that the plus outweigh the minuses.
What is it like being an expatriate in DRC?
There are a variety of living conditions for expatriates working in the humanitarian field. In Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, we have water and electricity 90% of the time as well as access to European food and personal products. In Malemba Nkulu, baths are cold and out of a bucket, electricity is provided by a generator, food is restricted to what can be bought locally once the supply of food flown in every two weeks has run out, and the roads are horrible (it can take four hours to go 60 km). In Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur, baths are cold and out of a bucket, electricity is provided by a generator, and there are no roads outside of Mbandaka. To reach our other bases in Equateur we have to fly or travel on the river for up to three days to the furthest base. In Boende and Mondombe food is bought locally, water has to be carried to the base, and electricity is minimally provided by solar panels. Needless to say that the majority of the Congolese living outside the major cities have no running water, no electricity, no access to motorized transport, and little money to buy much outside the essentials (if they have enough to buy the essentials).
Why do you do what you do?
The photo (to the right) was taken by a French photographer who came to Kinshasa to do a story on AAH. With it and the following photo I think that I have finally found a way to tell people why I do what I do. This is a normal, healthy, child being screened for malnutrition whose main worry in life is how to get his hands on the MUAC (the device used to measure upper arm circumference, which is a good initial measure of acute malnutrition among children). The child in the following photo has moderate acute malnutrition and is being treated in one our centers.
I look at these children and I continually make comparisons with their counterparts in the US. Even the healthy child above will face a life full of problems as he attempts to grow up in a city whose population has increased from 1,000,000 to 8,000,000 in 20 years without proper planning, no infrastructure and an economy that is minimal. He will be lucky if he is goes to school one year out of two or three, if he receives the basic childhood vaccinations and does not die of measles or malaria or cholera, if he is not kicked out of his family at a young age to fend for himself because the family has not the way to provide his meals, and when he grows up he will be lucky if he manages to find a job. Most likely he will be forced to work as a day laboror on those days he is lucky to get a job.
The children living in the interior face the same problems but they are compounded by the war. Many areas saw the arrival and departure of governmental armies, rebel groups, foreign armies, and MayiMayi groups (MayiMayi are local militia groups initially established to provide protection for civilian populations living in areas not accessible by government troops.) Each force pillaged, raped, stole, and exacted money from the local populations. A 2003 IRC report found that 3.3 million excess deaths have occurred as a result of this war. Most died not as a result of gunshot or other battle injuries but of lack of access to medical care or from malnutrition. In my opinion, these children deserve the same future and the same childhood as my nieces living in the States.
In addition, their country needs children who be able to grow up and take charge of their country in a productive and effective way. Something that they cannot do now with little or no education, chronic malnutrition, little or no access to medical care, and, depending upon where they live, constant exposure to war and the immediate effects of war.
What is the security situation like in DRC?
Contrary to what you might believe, I would say that the primary dangers are road accidents and exhaustion leading to accidents or illnesses. We tend to work long hours and sometimes do not eat as well as we should. This leads to low immune function, etc. To remedy this we take breaks outside the country every three to four months.
AAH has never lost an expatriate (knock on wood and fingers and toes crossed) due to a security incident. Some have died as a result of car, motorcycle, and plane accidents or illnesses. The reason for this are our security rules and plans. Basically there are two rules: First, you are not only responsible for your own security, you are also responsible for the security of the other expatriates and nationals on your team. This means that everyone must be aware of the impact of each decision and each action on his/her and the other's security and that everyone must understand the context to make the proper decisions. A corollary to this is the information sources that we establish and the sensitisation efforts that we make with authorities and nationals to ensure that everyone understands whom we are and what we are trying to do.
Second, in AAH security works from the top down and the bottom up. Our headquarters in NY has the final say on security decisions and must be obeyed, the same for the teams in the field regarding the security decisions taken by the head of mission but in return NY (and the head of mission) must respect and work with the security concerns and analysis of every member of the team. This process ensures that those closest to the field and who understand the context the best have input into the decision making process but because field workers are sometimes too close to the context and therefore may not be able to make the necessary decisions for evacuation or program standby, these decisions are generally made by those more removed and more capable of being realistic in terms of evaluating risk.
In general I feel safer in Kinshasa or in one of our bases than I feel in NY. This is because of these rules and because of the security plan. The plan ensures that we have good communications in and between the bases, that we analyse the context continually, that we adjust the security rules to keep in line with the changing context, and that we know how we are going to react in given situations (including medical as well and security problems).
Please describe the AAH missions in DRC
AAH has two missions in the Congo, one based in Kinshasa covering the zone formerly controlled by government with bases in Equateur and Katanga (Lubumbashi and Malemba Nkulu); and the second based in Bukavu, South Kivu, covering the zone formerly controlled by the rebel group RCD-G with bases in South Kivu (Shabunda, Uvira, and Baraka) and northern Katanga (Moba). This division is due to the difficulties the united mission found in trying to cross the front lines (you basically had to go to Nairobi and change passports before you could go to the other zone). Also, the context in Kivu is very different from the context in the ex-governmental controlled zone.
Can you briefly describe the programs you are currently responsible for in DRC?
AAH recently completed a nutrition program in Kinshasa, turning over the program to local authorities. We are in the process of doing the same in Lubumbashi. The majority of our programs are concentrated in Equateur Province and in Malemba Nkulu. In Equateur, we have a large food security program that operates in five zones and is helping more than 15,000 families. In Malemba Nkulu, we have programs in each of the sectors that AAH works in: nutrition, health, water/sanitation, and food security. This concerted approach is enabling us to treat cases of malnutrition at the same time that we attack the root causes: lack of access to good health care, endemic cholera, poor food security, and poor economy.
"A better question might be why I went to Congo a second and third time? Expatriates tend to either love or hate the Congo. I fall in the love category. Congo has a habit of pulling you back. I think that this has to do with the people - generous, friendly, gregarious, intelligent, artistic, and beautiful."
- Kathy Skoula,
Head of AAH Mission, D.R. Congo