Corinna Bütikofer is a program manager at Connexio hope and develop. She visited the country in November 2024. In this interview, she talks about how the women build trust in each other and why peace remains fragile and vulnerable.
Well, that's just for show (laughs). A woman put a hoe in my hand and then they laughed and said: come on, we'll all hoe now! We had fun together, there was a connection from woman to woman, I was part of it. And: it's hard work, hard soil, not loose garden soil. And in the strong sun and heat.
This is one of four groups in the project. The women come from different population groups that are often hostile to each other. A year and a half ago, they were still strangers to each other and had inhibitions. Now they visit each other. They also help each other in the private fields, as this helps them to make faster progress. A group that was thrown together has become a real community. They have achieved something together and are proud of their group. They have been able to break down prejudices.
They grow sweet potatoes and eggplants, they decided that together. They harvest together. They keep some for themselves and sell some. And part goes into the project as a reserve. They also learn something about ecology. They pay in loans to the savings group and use them. What's more, the women learn from each other, they complement each other. They dare to talk. They have equal rights, but there is a group leader.
One reason is certainly the prospect of change and improvement. Many of the women cannot read or write. They are carefully selected and informed. They also have a trial day to see if it fits.
One woman said that if there are conflicts in Uvira, she now knows that she will find protection with the family of a woman of a different ethnicity. That gives her a sense of security. The constructed enmities are dissolved. Or a woman from an ethnic group that is not so highly regarded should lead the group. She was very quiet and hardly dared to say anything. Now she leads with confidence, she laughs and everyone thinks: keep on leading! It is impressive to see what women can achieve under very adverse circumstances. How they create change that is tangible for them and makes them proud. So far, there are no conflicts that cannot be resolved.
It was Bishop Unda's wish to promote a project for peaceful coexistence. This does not mean peace, joy and pancakes, but that people can live side by side. This project was convincing. It has been repeatedly adapted to the situation and has developed well.
At the international level, as long as states profit from the war in eastern Congo because it makes it easier for them to exploit resources, there can be no peace. In addition, there is structural global injustice. We cannot live so well in Switzerland without others being badly off. Locally, we need an awareness of the need to reach out to one another. And the elites, both nationally and regionally, must stop playing power games. Peace is very fragile and vulnerable. No matter how well you work on the project. In a short time, everything can be destroyed.
Yes, exactly.
I accompany the project, i.e. I try to understand it. If I don't understand something, I ask questions. Questions sometimes help to get to the heart of things or to see things that you don't yet know. And I translate what they do and how they do it and get involved into the language of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
That the peace plant is not overrun by a bulldozer. Changes in the balance of power worldwide can have a negative impact and destroy the project very quickly. Things are not looking rosy in the global North and South. I hope that the project can remain an island of hope for women.
The situation is deteriorating rapidly. Ongoing fighting and a severe humanitarian crisis are leading to displacement, torture and sexualized violence. Not only Goma, the most important center in North Kivu in eastern Congo, has been taken over by the rebel group M23. Also in Bukavu there is great need. The M23 is supported by Rwandan soldiers.
Blanchard Ayinza Boke, our country coordinator in Kinshasa, reported At the end of January 2025, people were protesting on the streets of Kinshasa. The anger is mainly directed at embassies and consulates whose governments support Rwanda, he says.
In Uvira, in South Kivu, where the peacebuilding project is located, things are quiet at the moment and people are hoping that the armed groups will not invade the South Kivu region. Blanchard Ayinza Boke is in contact with the project team and the people in Uvira and Goma. It is currently impossible to predict how the situation will develop.
The Peacebuilding project
In the east of the DR Congo, the population has been exposed to violence and terror from armed groups for decades. The causes of the conflicts have to do with colonialism, the genocide in Rwanda, refugee movements and the situation in neighboring countries (Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda). Limited access to resources also plays a role, as do policies that instrumentalize the population for the benefit of the respective power blocs.
In the Methodist Church's peacebuilding project in South Kivu, people from different groups are persistently campaigning for peaceful coexistence: With sketches, with radio messages against hatred, with seminars, or by cultivating fields together.
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