Runner: Hardest Part Was Seeing Congo’s Poverty

VILLAS – While running seven marathons in seven consecutive days in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is no easy feat, seeing the poverty across the shores of Lake Kivu in the eastern part of that African country was actually the hardest part for Brittany Cameron.
Cameron joined nine other women from across the U.S. who ran 185 miles to raise funds and awareness for gender equality in the DRC in late May. As part of On The Ground Global Organization, Project Congo helps train and equip women farmers across eastern DRC to gain financial independence and stability to support their families.
“We had long, eight-hour running days,” she said, “because we had to run at the pace of the slowest runner to stay as a team. I really didn’t have any trouble running because I had really trained for this.
“But the hardest part was seeing the poverty,” she continued. “When you hear about poverty in other countries, it’s easy to brush it off. Seeing it in person hit me on a totally different level.”
During her 10-day stay, Cameron stayed with Congolese families, often in remote areas where the team consisted of the first Caucasians seen by many of the inhabitants. “In Swahili, foreigners are called Mzungu (pronounced mgeni),” she noted, “and people called us that alot. Some of the kids even cried when they saw us because they were scared; they had never seen white people before.”
Acknowledging that she experienced “something new every moment,” she said, “It’s hard to explain to people what the trip was like. People ask me, ‘How was Africa?’ I tell them, ‘Fine, but I visited only one country, and a small part. It’s like nothing most people can imagine.”
Cameron was interested in running for Project Congo because she adopted her son two years ago from the DRC. At the time, her husband had gone to the DRC to get their child, however, he wasn’t allowed to leave the hotel grounds so he never got a chance to see the country.
“Because my son was born there, I wanted to help the communities,” she said. Flying from JFK Airport in New York, to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, she then flew to Kenya before boarding a bus to Rwanda and walking across the border into the DRC. It took nearly 24 hours to get there.
“I missed my family the most,” she said, “my husband and kids.”
As a member of the U.S. team, Cameron said they met with political leaders and other leaders in the communities they visited, listening to their struggles. Project Congo concentrates on gender equality and raising awareness about the key issues faced by coffee farming families in eastern DRC.
According to On the Ground Global’s website (http://onthegroundglobal.org), initiatives promote peace and gender equality aimed to “break the chains of poverty and conflict while supporting women empowerment groups in coffee communities.
“Women play a crucial agricultural role in Africa, providing the majority of the labor,” according to Project Congo, “but their contributions are often invisible since women are excluded from delivering and selling the crop. These realities are exacerbated by sex gender-based violence used to destabilize communities.”
When they met with the community leaders, “We didn’t want to say that women are stronger or better. We tried to talk about how men and women can work together and by working together, how they can make things easier and better for them in their communities,” Cameron said.
While the U.S. runners were all female because it was “women running for women,” some local Congolese men also ran parts of the marathons through the mountains and valleys. The temperature in the mountains was typically, “cooler, in the 70s,” while “day-time temps with the sun out were in the 90s. It was hot.”
The runners had to drink bottled water to stay hydrated, and intake salt to replace electrolytes lost by sweating thereby avoiding problems like cramping. They could eat fruit which had a skin on it, such as oranges and bananas, but not others that needed to be washed because of the fear of contaminated water. Food included the Congolese staples of rice, beans, fish, plantains and chicken, although Cameron said the “chicken was tough, not like what we are used to.
“I told my husband when I got home if I never had Congolese food again, that was OK,” she joked.
Fanta, a fruit-flavored carbonated beverage that is the second oldest brand of The Coca-Cola Company, is popular in the DCR, according to Cameron. “We were able to have it every night,” she said about the drink, which is Coke’s second most popular brand outside the U.S.
Showers were often taken with a bucket of water, and there was no Internet service. “It was amazing to me to see how quickly we all adapted to living without all the material stuff we are used to,” she noted.
Sleeping arrangements were also sometimes primitive, as Cameron said a couple nights they slept at hospitals in beds, a couple nights at local hotels where there was no running water, and another night at a Catholic priest’s rectory.
“The last day we took a boat ride around Lake Kivu to a small island. We bought mattresses that we were going to donate to a hospital, but first we slept on them on the island.”
Cameron needed to raise $15,000, which was to be used to purchase land and provide training opportunities for women in eastern DRC communities. Funds raised by the marathon runners as a part of Project Congo also will provide opportunities by introducing practical initiatives supporting women’s empowerment and educating female farmers to become entrepreneurs, taking control of their lives and creating a brighter future in the war-torn communities.
“I only raised about $6,300,” Cameron said, “so I am still collecting donations. Our plan is to have a reunion in a year to visit the coffee farms that we saw, and meet with the people who we visited. It was an amazing experience and I want to help the country where my son was born.
“The Congo became part of our family,” she said. “Running is a great way to advocate for any cause. With a sustainable business such as coffee farming, women there can feed their families, send their children to school and pay for medical care. They can become empowered.”
Those interested in donating to Project Congo in support of Cameron’s efforts can do so at: www.razoo.com/story/Britt-Cameron-Fundraising-For-Run-Across-Congo.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.