Meet Nsimire and Chubaka
A quick thank you from the MCC representative in DR Congo:
When asked to describe how she and her family lived before the war, words come easily to Nsimire Mugoli. “Safe” and “comfortable” come to mind as she thinks back to their rural home and the farm where they grew their own food. Everything changed nine years ago when armed groups attacked her village, assaulted her neighbours and murdered villagers, including some of Nsimire’s brothers and sisters. She and her family narrowly escaped the same fate.
“The war affected me so much,” Nsimire said. “I left many important things to save the lives of my children.”
Nsimire and her husband Chubaka Birhonoka now live in Mubimbi Camp for displaced people, their family of eleven crowded into two rounded thatch huts. When they first arrived, they had very little. No food and no field to call their own. Thanks to you, that is no longer the case. With a small plot of land to grow vegetables and beans, plus food packages to last them between harvests, their family is no longer hungry. Chubaka says of harvesting from the field, “Now I can feel free.”
Thanks to your support, families like Nsimire and Chubaka's can grow their own food again. Thank you!
Madesu — Congolese beans
Ingredients
- 2-3 cups cooked beans such as red or pinto (2 cans)
- ½ small red onion, sliced thinly
- ¼ green pepper, sliced thinly
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- ⅓ nutmeg nut
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp garlic salt
Instructions
1. In a large sauté pan, fry onions in ¼ cup oil on medium high heat. When onions are translucent, add green pepper. After another minute, add tomato paste, stir for five minutes and watch the oil turn red.
2. Add enough water to make a sauce out of the oily paste in the pan. Add bay leaves. Cook for about five minutes.
3. Rub a nutmeg nut vigorously back and forth on a fine metal grater over the saucepan for 20 seconds. Add 1 tsp garlic salt. Add more water as necessary so the sauce is not watery, but not thick either.
4. When the vegetables have cooked long enough to disintegrate into the sauce, mix the sauce into the cooked beans. Cook the beans covered for about 15 minutes on medium low heat, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve with rice and hot sauce.
Serves 8
Used with permission. Recipe is from Immigrant Kitchens.
Learn More About the DR Congo
According to the United Nations, there are 5 million people displaced in DR Congo, the majority from the eastern section of the country. Most displaced people can tell personal stories with harrowing details, each rivaling the next to be the most horrific.
About 100 armed groups, including the DR Congo army and large rebel groups, have been fighting each other since the early 2000s, as they try to stake their claim to land, resources, power and money. In the process, they take over villages — killing and raping people, looting and burning property, stealing land and livestock and forcing civilians to run for their lives. Some people have been displaced so many times they have lost count.
Thanks to you, the needs of displaced people are being met through food, water and education projects run by MCC and local partners.
Prayer
May we pray for DR Congo.
Cases of COVID-19 keep increasing.
The end of the last year’s Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has not been declared yet, and yet there are new cases in western part of the country.
May we pray for protection of all Congolese, for internally displaced camps so that these diseases may not reach displaced people camps.
May we pray for access to relief assistance for millions of displaced people in the country.
AMEN
Prayer written by Mulanda Jimmy Juma, MCC representative in DR Congo.Take Action: Sign up for MCC's magazine
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