Lumumba Mukong speaks softly, but what he says has power. The audience attending his talk at the Basel Mission House on May 5 listens to him in tense silence. Lumumba Mukong has been coordinating Mission 21 projects in Cameroon since 2016. Since he took up his post, a long-simmering conflict between separatists and the central government has gone from bad to worse. The civilian population is caught between the fronts and often becomes victims of the clashes. (For more information on the conflict, see here)
Lumumba Mukong at the information evening on Cameroon in Basel
Broken by violence
Lumumba Mukong clearly describes what this means for the local people. He says: "People are physically broken by wounds from guns and machetes. They are emotionally broken by forced detention, kidnappings, the loss of loved ones, the loss of their homes. They live with the fear of being displaced. They are people who are economically broken because their livelihoods have been destroyed. Stores have been burned down, local markets no longer function."
With the Program for emergency relief and reconstruction in Cameroon, Mission 21 is catching these people as far as it can. "We deliberately don't focus on the drivers of the conflict, its causes or solutions," says Lumumba Mukong. "What matters to us are the people who are affected by it and need help."
Behind the numbers are individual fates
Lumumba Mukong tells about some of these people at the information evening in the mission house. For example, of a pregnant woman who, after the death of her husband, lived alone with two children in the city of Bamenda, in the middle of a neighborhood where violence was particularly present. After fleeing to the French-speaking part of the country, she was completely on her own. She had no food for herself or the children, not to mention preventive checkups during pregnancy. Contact with project staff revealed that she was severely traumatized. "This is a mother we can help: We can support her with food and provide medical care. It turned out that she is pregnant with quadruplets," Mukong said.
This fate is one of very many. Behind each of the more than 500,000 displaced people in this conflict is an individual story. Lumumba Mukong shows a photo of a school class and says, "Each of these children is traumatized. Some have lost parents, others have witnessed violence, still others haven't been fed for days."
Psychosocial support is central
It is difficult to deal with all this. However, Mukong says that his own experience helps: "We, too, are displaced people," he says. The office had to move from Bamenda to another city because of the conflict.
"The most important lesson we've learned over the years is that psychosocial support is absolutely critical," Mukong says. That means food, clothing, education and reconstruction are important. But if people are severely traumatized by their experiences, more extensive help has little effect at first. Someone who is completely broken can hardly build something new, even if money is available. First, this person must be stabilized.
Trauma healing centers as points of contact
To that end, Mission 21 and its local partners run several trauma healing centers - drop-in centers for traumatized displaced people. "Without these centers, we would have gone crazy," says Mukong. But time and again, he says, they succeed in empowering people. Like the woman standing in front of a small store in one of Lumumba Mukong's photos. "She, too, had nothing left. But with a starting capital of around 300 francs, she managed to open a store. Today, she no longer needs our help when her child has to go to the hospital," Mukong reports.
These stories motivate him to continue with his work. Moreover, every sign of support is a ray of hope. "We are driven by contributions from many church congregations, from donors in Switzerland and Germany," says Mukong. "They give us concrete opportunities for action, and they always give us hope."
More about the project Emergency Relief and Reconstruction in Cameroon
