Tshiaberimu

Category: Communities, Gorillas, Rangers, Research, Tourism, Tshiaberimu, Virunga National Park | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: tshiaberimu

 Hi,This is Tuver

On behalf of Mount Tshiaberimu guards ,ICCN staff in this sector of Virunga national Park and Gorilla Organization Staff,i thank’s all off you for all donations we gate via wildlifedirect.

We are happy to continue our work and protecting this gorilla habitat whith your support.

Thank’s and we still need your help and more support.

Tuver Wundi

The Gorilla Organization Communications Manager

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Category: Communities, Gorillas, Tshiaberimu, Virunga National Park | Date: Sep 16 2009 | By: tshiaberimu

Hi,This is Vhosi

Tsangyamuyi is a farmer from Burusi village close to Mount

Tshiaberimu in eastern Congo DR. She has benefited for over three years from the Gorilla Organization-funded programme which shows locals how to grow their own vegetables and trains them in sustainable and pig farming.

As a widow and a mother of five, courageous Tsangyamuyi has benefited from the Gorilla Organization’s livestock distribution scheme. She was given a pig which gave birth to eleven healthy piglets. Villagers now recognise her as a dedicated and experienced farmer within the Burusi village.

Not only does Tsangyamuyi have plans to buy iron roofing sheets to improve her home, but she can now pay for school education for all her five children, where as before she only could pay for two. Some of the pigs will be sold to buy seeds to grow more vegetables and she will use the remaining pigs’ manure to fertilize the crops, a farming technique she was taught as part of the programme.

Tsangyamuyi’s success is a clear testament to the large amount of work the Gorilla Organization has undertaken and the success they have achieved in maintaining the protection of the gorillas from human encroachment and to alleviate poverty in the local communities.

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Category: Communities, Research, Tshiaberimu | Date: Sep 03 2009 | By: tshiaberimu

Hi,this is Vhosi

The war in DR Congo may be over, but the impact will be felt for generations. Years of turmoil have stretched things beyond their limits.

I have recently been spending time in Ngitse, a village close to Mount Tshiabirimu, where there is a high rate of widows and young unmarried women who have many children.

Many of the young women were raped or sexually abused by soldiers or militiamen, then they got pregnant and had children from unknown fathers. We have found out that, around Mount Tshiabirmu, over 500 young women were raped or were sexually abused as a result of the war. As a result, more than 1500 children were born. This information is from only three out of the eleven villages surrounding Mount Tshiabirimu, so the real figure is likely to be much higher. 96% of these young women are illiterate, while 82% of their children are not going to school. According to the local health centre the rate of those that tested HIV positive is five per cent (figures are from 2006).

In our research, 95% of the sexually abused young women are in charge of their mothers who are widows. I met one widow in Ngitse village called Irena who is caring for nine children, among them five orphans.

In this small area, little squares of farmland cover the steep slopes of the hills which provide living to thousands of local farmers. 30% of local people are landless and almost 80% of them are in land conflicts. Such situations may create conflicts between local people and the gorillas’ habitat forcing people to do things that will help them to survive for the present, even though they know they are creating problems for the future.

The impact of the war in DRC is still being felt here. The important thing is to remind the world of what happened, and to never let it occur again.

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