Janine di Giovanni is executive director at The Reckoning Project and a columnist for The National
July 06, 2023
A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting in a private apartment on the Upper West Side in New York, where a Nobel Prize-winning surgeon from the Democratic Republic of the Congo told a small group of human rights activists about his fears for his country.
Dr Denis Mukwege highlighted the prolonged and deteriorating humanitarian crisis in DRC – which the UN calls the one of the world’s “longest and most complex” crises. One in four Congolese – about 27 million people – are acutely food insecure in a country that has been dealing with the fallout of conflicts, epidemics such as Ebola and natural disasters. About 6.4 million people, mainly children under five years old, are affected by acute malnutrition.
But Dr Mukwege did not only speak of hunger. He spoke of how his country is at a tipping point as it faces an election year in 2023. Key civil society leaders in the DRC are urging him to run for the country’s presidency, although he has not announced any intention of doing so.
Vendors selling basic necessities in Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on March 16, 2022. Three-quarters of Congolese households live below the poverty line. AFP
I had long heard of Dr Mukwege’s extraordinary and courageous work, but it was the first time I met him. He is a large, charismatic yet humble man, a surgeon who trained as a gynaecologist and obstetrician but now treats victims whose bodies have been used as weapons of war. His work is gruelling, heart-breaking, never ending. Scarred women arrive at his clinic weekly.
He has spoken of helpless civilians fleeing the most terrible circumstances. But he has also spoken of the wealth of his country, and the greed of others who exploit it with little concern for those who suffer. Ironically, the DRC is one of the richest countries on the planet in terms of natural resources, but one of the most brutalised and traumatised by war.
My country is being systematically looted with the complicity of people claiming to be our leaders
Dr Denis Mukwege
Dr Mukwege won the Nobel Prize in 2018 for efforts “to end sexual violence used as a tool of war”. He now runs Panzi, a hospital he founded in his hometown of Bukavu in the east of the the DRC, where he usually works 18-hour days. Naturally, he was in the operating room when he was notified of his Nobel.
Despite the official end of the war in 2003 – which killed an estimated 6 million people and displaced millions more – horrific violence remains largely focused on the country’s raw materials.
The attacks against civilians are innumerable, taking the form of kidnapping, rape, death, and mutilation. Armed rebel groups use sexual violence as a weapon.
People walk in the courtyard of the Panzi General Hospital in Bukavu on November 4, 2021. AFP
The conflict spreads beyond the DRC’s borders, partially fuelled by trade in mineral resources. Gold, tin and coltan come from mines armed by the groups who carry out these attacks, play an enormous role in the destabilisation of the country.
The violence in the DRC is one of the greatest modern tragedies that gets little attention and little compassion. At the heart of it is greed. What causes the conflict? Largely, it is the war for cobalt, the mineral used to power our tech devices.
“When you drive your electric car; when you use your smart phone or admire your jewellery, take a minute to reflect on the human cost of manufacturing these objects…” Dr Mukwege said in the New York meeting. “As consumers, let us at least insist that these products are manufactured with respect for human dignity. Turning a blind eye to this tragedy is being complicit. It’s not just perpetrators of violence who are responsible for their crimes. It is also those who choose to look the other way.”
Artisanal miners work at Tilwizembe, a former industrial copper-cobalt mine outside Kolwezi, in the south of Democratic Republic of Congo. The bulk of rare earth mining is done in dangerous and environmentally damaging conditions. Reuters
Dr Mukwege has not been quiet about the mineral trade, about regional politics and about the DRC’s armed groups. In 2012, he survived an assassination attempt when five armed men attacked his hospital.
“My country is being systematically looted with the complicity of people claiming to be our leaders,” Dr Mukwege said. “Looted for their power, their wealth and their glory. Looted at the expense of millions of innocent men, women and children abandoned in extreme poverty. While the profits from our minerals end up in the pockets of a predatory oligarchy.”
When I left that early summer evening, deeply touched by Dr Mukwege’s words and his humility – and his insistence on working despite being a walking target – I walked home thinking that if more doctors, humanitarians and activists were in charge, what a different state Africa – and the rest of the world – would be in.
Imagine a world where more leaders understood from a grass roots level what people need to grow and thrive. The possibilities for change would be endless.
“Change must come from the Congolese themselves,” Dr Mukwege said. But if the DRC had more help, and more opportunities for its humanitarian voices to lead, then change would come faster, with real hope for post-conflict healing.
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
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George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
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Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
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Hunting park to luxury living
Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
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