eugene cho

Quest Global Presence and Q Cafe invite you to join us for a special film screening of LUMO on Thursday, October 25.  LUMO is an award winning documentary about a young Congolese woman named LUMO that aired on PBS just last month.  Doors open at 6.30pm and film begins at 7pm.  Conversation and discussion will take place after the film.  Donations will also be received and ALL proceeds will go directly to the work at Heal Africa – the hospital and community development ministry where Lumo received medical treatment.  Last year, I wrote a post on the Cooper Anderson’s heart wrenching report about what he witnessed in Congo and the work at Heal Africa.  Couple of our church friends, Dick and Judy, are deeply invested with Heal Africa. Here’s the latest from their blog:

Goma, DR Congo….estimated to be at the center of the most violent war since WWII. The local population and the international community are at a loss to explain the brutal nature of this war….especially toward women! During the 6 weeks I was there (July -September) the UNFPA reported that the numbers of rape in North Kivu were up 60% over the past 8 months….351 cases in Aug. Everyone acknowledges that this is only the tip of the iceberg. When I arrived the UN briefing paper stated that there were approx. 370,000 internally displaced people in the region this year (over 700,000 in total)….and during the time I was there, another 30,000 were estimated to have fled due to the war. Goma is one of the major safe sanctuaries (surrounded by the UN Peacekeeping force) but has also become the home of thousands of militias and armies. The UN now says that approximately 150,000 people have been cut off from food aid…

Back to the film…Who is Lumo?

“Lumo Sinai was just over 20 when marauding soldiers attacked her in the eastern Congo. A fistula, a medical condition common among victims of violent rape, rendered Lumo incontinent and threatens her ability to bear children. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, she awaits reconstructive surgery.”

Here’s the synopsis of the film:

Twenty-year-old Lumo Sinai was engaged to be married and going about her daily chores when she fell victim to an act of brutality of “Africa’s First World War” — rape as a tool of political terror. On the road to her village, Lumo and another woman were kidnapped and gang-raped by one of the groups of marauding soldiers vying for control of the eastern Congo in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Lumo suffered not only the trauma of rape, but was soon afflicted with a resulting fistula, a chronic condition that leaves women incontinent and typically unable to bear children. Her affliction led to rejection by her fiancé and most of her family and village. Violently robbed of her future, Lumo faced a future of shame, loneliness, ill health and poverty.

“Lumo” is an intimate look into a woman’s tragedy and healing process, and, by extension, into the scourge of rape that marks the war-torn politics of central Africa. “Lumo” is also the story of a remarkable African hospital that works tirelessly to restore the physical and mental health of women suffering in an epidemic of fistula caused by rape. The hospital’s self-called “Mamas,” African women who work tirelessly as healers, even flout traditional prejudice and government policy by leading a march in defense of women’s human rights. But “Lumo” remains most of all Lumo Sinai’s story as she struggles through four failed surgeries and searches for strength to face the future — whatever the outcome of one more surgery by the hospital’s dedicated doctors. [read full story]

I don’t just want to watch a film; I want to be so angry that I curse, “This is so FUCKED UP!” at the top of my lungs.  I want to be so hopeful that I see a glimpse of God’s Shalom.  I want to be so desperate that I pray and pray and pray.  But, I also want to do more…

Why? Because this story is still happening – per the article from NY Times couple weeks ago and from what you read above from Heal Africa’s blog.

Good news is that we have people that are doing some amazing things on the FIELD already.  How do we join in?  We need to join in.

I also want to thank Glorya - a crazy young Quest lady – freshly graduated from college who’s returned to Africa - again.  She spent a year in Ghana and with Future Island School [her pic is on the homepage] but is now in Bavaku, Congo serving with International Rescue Committee for at least six months.  Here’s a clip from her recent email:

The New York Times article above aptly describes the scenic beauty of South Kivu Province (displayed in the photo above) as deceptive. The violence and destruction in Eastern Congo – both natural and manmade – is unbelievable. But what is most difficult to grasp is the horror of the violence perpetrated by humans against fellow humans. I hope you had the opportunity to watch LUMO – the PBS documentary about a Congolese survivor of gender-based violence (GBV), who received fistula treatment from one of IRC’s GBV partners – DOCS HEAL. The trend in GBV in Eastern Congo (as described in the NY Times article) is at a level that is beyond disturbing – unnecessary mutilation of female victims as well as attacks against the young and old alike (e.g. Panzi Hospital based in Bukavu has treated sexual violence victims between the ages of 3 and 75!!)

.…I think that is one of the most difficult things for me to grasp about death here, that people die and their families and loved ones will never know the cause of death. For example, the 17-year-old daughter of an IRC colleague died about a month ago. Apparently she was perfectly healthy then got migraine-like headaches one day and died a few hours later. I asked if an autopsy would be conducted, which I guess was a silly question. The answer was, of course, no.

Death by natural disaster is also unbelievable. The rainy season has begun, and I actually find it quite pleasant. It’s sunshine and blue skies during the morning followed by a downpour in the afternoon that calms to a light sprinkle and lightning in the evening.  I probably like the Congolese rainy season because I’m usually indoors during the rain and get chauffeured around in 4×4 SUVs if I need to be outdoors during a downpour. This is a luxury that most Congolese do not have. About three weeks ago, when the rains really started to come down, two women aged 18 and 24 fell into drains – one woman in Bagira, which is about 15 min. by car from Bukavu, and the other near Nyawera market, which is only about 5 min. by car from the IRC office. The drains here – like in Ghana – are open and run adjacent to the roads. The heavy rains (which turn roads into something more like rivers or waterfalls given the hilly nature of Bukavu) swept the girls away. Their bodies weren’t found for days.

Filed under: justice, Q Cafe, Congo, Heal Africa, Lumo