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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
International Women’s Day celebrate Mountain Gorillas & Fuel Briquettes
Last Sunday the 8th of March was International Women’s Day, and in Rumangabo (the HQ of Virunga National Park) it was a big day for celebration. It is a time when women need to stand together in the east of DR Congo, where the incidence of violence against women is arguably the highest in the world.
Women from the local villages gathered in the streets to parade and make their voices heard loud. Park Rangers’ wives carried a picture of a Silverback as a statement that they care and protect these beautiful animals the same way their husbands do.
Later the wives performed a theatre piece, dressed as Park Rangers and pretending they had caught a poacher. They brought him to the center of the stage, and educated the ‘bad guy’ with a good lesson about deforestation and how fuel briquettes can save the forests of Virunga.
The women dressed as Park Rangers marching together behind the fuel briquettes
The wife and daughter of Ranger Mwendo Ndege
This is the story of Elizabeth Kirosha, a Congolese woman born in Rumangabo 36 years ago, mother of 6, and married to Charles, one of our 11 fuel briquette trainers. They both work in our pilot fuel briquette program, and Elizabeth leads the group based in Rumangabo. Her group is getting stronger, and this week they have pressed 7 sacks of fuel briquettes.
Elizabeth and Balemba exchanging stories
Because it is now the season to cultivate the field, she is using the monies earned with the briquettes to pay the people working her land. But that only happens 3 months per year. And they are looking forward to increasing their fuel briquette production, to get more cash in hand.
Elizabeth and Charles in a sweet hug with the Nyragongo volcano in the background
This is a couple that have turned into the ‘green example’ of local people who now care and protect the environment. Charles used to work as a ‘coupe de grume’ a profession known as the one who cuts trees in the park to make charcoal. Now Charles and Elizabeth are both working together in making fuel briquettes and stopping deforestation!
Elizabeth sitting in front of the press machine, doing a demonstration for the New York Times journalists
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News from Congo- Congo Boat Accident Possibly Claimed 140 Lives - Seer Press
- Vodacom Held 'Promising' Talks With Congo's Kabila Over Venture - BusinessWeek
- Nearly 90000 People Uprooted By Clashes In Eastern DR Congo - Bernama
- Why recent US 'conflict minerals' legislation may not help in eastern Congo - Christian Science Monitor
- Motorola spent $880000 lobbying in second quarter - The Associated Press
- Uphill task to solve Congo's conflict minerals - Reuters Africa
- Nokia spent $150000 on lobbying in second quarter - The Associated Press
- Mvelaphanda Holdings's Willcox Advising Zuma's Nephew on Congo Oil Blocks - Bloomberg
- Democratic Republic of Congo: Militia Leader Ordered Back to Jail - New York Times
- DiManno: Too easy to blame Africa's the white usurpers - Toronto Star
This website was funded by the European Union and the Prince Bernard Nature Fund.
12 Responses to “International Women’s Day celebrate Mountain Gorillas & Fuel Briquettes”
What a wonderful post! Education and conservation and fun all in one. I am humbled by those who have so little yet are so giving of themselves. These are a people to be admired. We can all learn so many lessons from them.
Awesome. I’m so glad to see women empowered through this program, Virginia. Rock on.
s.
WAY TO GO, RUMANGABO LADIES!
Fantastic progress and post.
Best wishes to all, great to see there is such inspiration for the briquette project.
Can only add our name to all the above comments. Definitely ‘rock on’ and what an inspiration to all.
I tried to find a place to leave technical comments, but could not find any, so I have to intrude the blog entry.
I am following the great posts so often that I really appreciate the RSS feed. However, the feed hasn’t gotten updated for some time now. It isn’t completely broken, it does show titles, but it has kept showing the exact same titles since 2 Mar 2009, as the latest title it shows to me is “Gorilla Orphans Growing, Getting Stronger & Tiring Out Their Caretakers”. So since that day, I have had to reload the page every time when I want to check if there is something new. I do not have any similar problems with any other RSS feeds, so I believe the problem is with your site, not my browser settings.
Can you make sense of this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/13/charcoal-carbon?
We have been burning oil and coal for energy for centuries, and now we are told to solve the problem of extra carbon dioxide by using some part of our energy sources (fossilized or nuclear power? — isn’t mentioned in the article) to turn some very slow-growing wood in to charcoal, which we then should bury into soil in order to trap the carbon dioxide within?! I have great trouble understanding just how that equation could be made to produce any positive results. Am I just stupid and ignorant?
Virginia,
what a wonderful article! thank you for the pics and congratulations for your job with congolese women.
Warm regards
Susana Pataro (Argentina)
Dear All, thank you for the comments, I always look forward t reading them. Timi, I am sorry about the RSS feed problems, I am passing your message over to our IT team. Hope we can sort that out very soon. See you all next week with another post on briquettes from the field!
Amazing! I am truly speechless. These women are undoubtedly the strongest in the world! They are fighting back and their voices will be heard. I have never been so proud to call myself a woman. : )
Hey virginia. NICE day. i see briquettes every day better and better. god help you and all peoples in congo.. i sure YES- kisses to all my loved GORILLAS. BETTY FROM VENEZUELA.
thanks for being there…!!!!!!!!!