Aid to the Church in Need: Democratic Republic of Congo: Pastoral and practical help for families

Democratic Republic of Congo: Pastoral and practical help for families

Posted by Project of the Week on 17/8/2009, 9:53 am
Board Administrator

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Pastoral and practical help for families in the conflict regions of the east of the country

Again and again the eastern regions of the democratic Republic of Congo have been visited by bloody conflict. An especially favoured method of the rebels involved not merely physically destroying the people but trampling on them in their innermost souls, still more brutally even than with their machetes and machine guns. Women were raped in front of their husbands and children, young girls abducted by the rebels as sexual slaves, young boys taken into the bush as child soldiers; mothers were forced to watch their own children being brutally slaughtered. Repeatedly and systematically, mass rape was used as a weapon in order to destroy the deepest of African values – respect for the human person and the dignity of women and mothers – in the most brutal and unnatural manner. Where women, men and children have been victims of such unimaginable horrors, there is now immense need of healing, healing of the whole person.

Many organisations imagine they are helping these brutalised women by offering abortions and distributing the "morning after pill" and artificial contraceptives, but here in the east of the democratic Republic of Congo, where for decades their human dignity has been trampled underfoot, what matters is to help the people find healing for their souls and recover their sense of self-worth and inner dignity. Such ravaged and traumatised families need to be supported and helped so that together they can build a better, more loving and peaceful future.

The archdiocese of Bukavu has established a programme that truly does help families to live together in love. At the same time the archdiocese is improving the range of its medical care, above all for expectant mothers. But most important of all is the spiritual support that is given here to the women and to entire families.

The programme is part of the activities of the Fédération Africaine d’Action Familiale, an organisation in which doctors of various disciplines, theologians, priests, lay pastoral workers and religious sisters in many African countries are working to build healthy families and for the defence of human life. They strive to offer solutions that are life-affirming and family friendly, reflecting an African cultural outlook and avoiding foreign, Western models, which many Africans see rather as a "culture of death". Instead they seek to promote the "culture of life" that Pope John Paul II constantly called for. Their aim is to help people find healing for the whole person and be able to live their lives in the dignity of the children of God.

The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has promised over $18,000 to help this program so that the people in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo can recover their faith in life and look with hope once more to a happy future in the midst of their near and dear ones.

To help this cause please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

The family programme is meant for families like these.
(Code: 115-00-59)

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org