In the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ange Mulanga and a team of fellow volunteers from the North Kivu Red Cross Branch deliver a rapid emergency response to a range of ongoing crises on a near daily basis.
No matter what the emergency, they are there. They come to provide first-aid, water and shelter services, like they did for people displaced by a volcanic eruption as happened in 2021. Or to help stop the spread of Mpox, Covid-19 or other infectious diseases, as they did multiple times in recent years.
These days, Ange and her team are most often bringing critical support to some of the nearly 1.7 million people in her region that have been displaced by the ongoing, internal conflict.
“After going out in the communities to make an assessment, we work rapidly to bring a first, life-saving response,” says Mulanga, a volunteer for the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (RCDRC) North Kivu Branch.
“Generally, it’s a question of essential items. Household goods and bedding and medicine for the health centers, which are in the midst of receiving the displaced people.”
But doing this job is rarely easy.
In the area where Ange works, there is on-going fighting between government and armed groups, and tensions along ethnic and tribal lines. The places where people are most in need are often the very places where violence between these groups erupts. Humanitarian workers and other civilians are often caught in the crossfire.
To bring humanitarian services to people living in these areas, Red Cross teams liaise with both government authorities and armed groups to ensure safe passage, and they communicate with local leaders so that everyone understands the Red Cross mission is purely humanitarian, independent and neutral.
“It becomes a bit complicated,” says Ange.
“Not only because one must prepare the response very quickly with the authorizations [of the government and armed groups], but one must also keep a positive relationship with community leaders and groups that can either facilitate or hinder relief efforts.
“Sometimes it feels like we are going from one country to another,” she adds, referring to the work of gaining authorizations to pass roadblocks and enter areas controlled by different groups.
One of many
Ange is not alone. She is just one of many dedicated volunteers in the DRC – and around the world – who take on critical jobs of helping people in very difficult situations. As the humanitarian world marks International Volunteer Day on Dec 5, the IFRC pays tribute to volunteers such as Ange who employ incredible professionalism, persistence and compassion as they bring humanity to people in exteremely vulnerable situations.
In the case of North Kivu, the region has long been impacted by humanitarian crises, including violence, in neighboring Rwanda and nearby Burundi.
In February 2024, the IFRC launched an emergency appeal following an increasing number of attacks in eastern DRC that led to a new round of large scale displacement. The appeal seeks 50 million Swiss Francs to support the DRC Red Cross in its provision of food assistance, health services, water, sanitation and hygiene and protection services to 500,000 displaced people and their host communities in North and South Kivu.
Fighting in this area has severely hindered people's ability to access and cultivate crop lands, get supplies and deliver goods. Inflation has been further aggravated by the depreciation of the Congolese franc, leading to substantial price increases for food.
Overcrowded camps for the people who have been displaced have left people in extremely desparate conditions. Women represent some 60 per cent of the total displaced population, and children under 5 account about 18 per cent.
Sadly, volunteers such as Ange don’t always get the full support they need to carry out their work. The emergency appeal remains significantly underfunded, putting much of the planned emergency response in jeopardy, while various factors continue to get in the way of the volunteers’ work.
Thanks to the reputation of the Red Cross, the power of the Red Cross brand and the dedications of the people like Ange, the branch volunteers do manage to make their response.
“But it’s not always easy because unfortunately, on the ground, there are people who don’t understand that we are there just to help the displaced people,” Ange notes. In a situation in which nearly everyone is on one side or another, it is hard for many to believe that there are some people who remain independent, impartial and neutral.
“Sometimes they ask us, ‘Are you really neutral?’ ” Ange continues.
Volunteers from the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo measure the upper arm of a small child as part of a nutritional screening being conducted in North Kivu, an area heavily impacted by food insecurity due to ongoing fighting.
Photo: Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
‘We couldn't touch the children’
In addition to negotiating their way past roadblocks, doing the hard work of delivering relief supplies, setting up water stations or delivering health messages, they must also work constantly to battle the constant flow of misinformation.
A case in point was the Covid-19 pandemic. “In my part of the world, people thought COVID-19 came because of Western people,” Ange noted. “So when we went to the villages to talk about COVID-19, and how to avoid it, and people saw our cars, they thought we were bringing them COVID.”
This perception is somewhat understandable. Each time there is an outbreak, health and humanitarian workers arrive, often in rugged, white utility vehicles emblazoned with logos (including the Red Cross, to deliver vaccines, hygiene services and other interventions.
Ange recalls when Red Cross teams went to one community to address malnutrition, some parents were wary of the Red Cross workers.
“We couldn't touch the children,” Ange recalled. “Even the children started crying. We understood that to them, us touching the children was meaning us bringing COVID and other diseases including Ebola. Because even when Ebola struck, we were among the organizations that were very active in responding to that epidemic.”
A volunteer for the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo shares a smile and friendly word with a pregnant woman while offering hygiene information during an emergency rapid response in North Kivu province.
Photo: Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Addressing this challenge is not easy. A good portion of Red Cross and IFRC actions in situations like this one falls under something called Community Engagement and Accountability, or CEA, in which volunteers listen to community concerns and develop regular feedback mechanisms to show people their concerns are being heard and addressed.
The volunteers also take the time necessary to explain to people, through door-to-door visits, community gatherings and radio programmes, what the Red Cross is all about.
“Communications is key,” Ange says. “But because there are no cell phone connections, no internet in many parts of North Kivu, getting the message out is difficult.”
With these and other challenges that face volunteers every day, it is critical that they get the support, respect and protection they need and deserve.
To learn more about volunteering within the IFRC network and our efforts to ensure respect for impartial, neutral humanitarian work please visit the following links:
InMemoriam: A list of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers killed in the line of duty.
