Briefing of our monthly meeting of organization members held on Thursday May 30th, 2024
Report of our monthly meeting held on Thursday May 30th, 2024 at the office
During members meeting as participants exchange on various issues being raised.
The COJESKI North Kivu monthly Members Meeting chaired by the Provincial Coordinator Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos started at 9:30 am and ended at 11:35 am.
Participants
Out of the 33 expected representatives of current member associations, 25 people turned up and fully interacted with others in the meeting.
Agenda
Welcome remarks by the Coordinator,
The security situation in Goma, the progress of the M23 rebels backed by the Rwandan Army, the collaboration between civilians and the army, insecurity in Goma, humanitarian crisis, actions and position of COJESKI North Kivu,
Opportunities and challenges faced by Youth Initiatives in North Kivu, what may need advocacy,
Activities of COJESKI North Kivu,
A.O.B
Minute One
The chairperson welcomed all the participants and introduced them the briefing why this monthly meeting. He shared that it is a tradition of COJESKI to have monthly meetings in order to help members to know more what is happening but also come up with advocacy issues, the second reason is that members agreed to have a monthly meeting, and the lastly reason is to help build networks and work on challenges youth associations may be facing.
Each participant was given an opportunity to present him/herself and the organization he/she represented.
Minute Two:
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A representative of a member organization sharing their work with others
The meeting observed that contrary to last month, M23 rebels backed by Rwanda have not progressed much and called upon the Government to shift from the defensive strategy which is heavily catastrophic to the population. A section of the population in North Kivu is viewed as collaborating with M23 and therefore the need to mobilize the people to distance themselves from the enemy, more work should be done to understand better how this is done and come up with strategies. The meeting was informed that some IDPs are already leaving camps towards places which are controlled by the rebels and this is viewed as one way to support the rebels. However COJESKI North Kivu field visits in Camps revealed that IDP are leaving because of hunger, and generalized insecurity. These are facts as many do not access food, and it is common to find armed groups in IDP Camps which are the center of insecurity. Members were briefed about efforts that have been deployed to interact with the Governor of North Kivu who up to now continues to assure us that measures have been taken to finish insecurity in IDP Camps.
Measures were announced by the Governor but they were not yet implemented and it was not clear who should implement these measures, so advocacy should continue. The meeting also raised argument to understand more where power lies and if the Governor was the main responsible of all armed groups in IDP Camps.
The meeting noted that the Patriots called Wazalendo are not fully well taken care off by the Government in terms of food, uniforms, shoes, allowances and other basic needs they may need and that should be advocated for, this will also include trainings and structured command among them. Efforts should also be put in place to encourage the population to denounce what they think is bad and in some cases engage with other actors in order to reduce the risks.
The meeting resolved to advocate to the government to flash out the rebels in all the areas they control and ensure that the situation comes back to normal. Participants expressed the need to put in place a well-coordinated strategy in order to ensure the flow of information at all levels and expand opportunities for people to express themselves. The meetings observed that people in Goma have fear of the rebels who they think be already infiltrated in Goma, and in case they say something bad against them they may be a target.
Participants pointed out that some members of the intelligence services lack professionalism as they make publicity about themselves in various places which affects their work to collect information. Members expressed desire to see all those in intelligence services to remain in the shadow even at the local level in order to collect information and to ensure that their work only limited to collect information. COJESKI was encouraged to look for partners that can offer trainings to those in intelligence services in North Kivu. It was also observed that trainings alone may not address fully the situation if their working condition is not also improved.
Members complained about the attacks of soldiers and police officers on the local population and their property in Goma. The reasons may be connected to the training they receive especially those who were in Zaire where soldiers and Police were told that their gun is everything they need, but also cases were shared where civilians have killed soldiers and police officers, Goma is at the center of insecurity especially at nights characterized by house break in, gun-shots and robbing of people, especially from 7pm up to 1am. Some participants argued that soldiers are not well paid yet they need to survive that is why they resort to people.
The meeting resolve to invite the Commander for the Programme of Civilo-Military collaboration, the Inspector of Police and the Commander in-charge of the trainings for an information session. This will be brought forward, and updates will be shared in the next meeting, and the need to ensure all soldiers are in their camps. Questions were asked about the mental health of the soldiers on the frontline fighting against the enemy and also for their relatives, but these questions remained unanswered because no one had much information about it. Lastly the meeting recommended the capacity building of the population about their rights and civic engagement.
On the issue of the insecurity in Goma, three points were shared among them:
Each participant should mobilize members and the community to know each other,
To encourage the local leaders to hold at least monthly meetings with all community members, especially the need to know the neighbors,
To have a register of all members of the community in a book of the local leader,
The population should be encouraged to be sincere and host during social agreements and contracts among themselves, dishonest among these social contracts are the main cause of killings in Goma,
Due to the time other points were not discussed,
Sharing experiences with others and fostering networking
Minute three: A.O.B
The chairperson encouraged organizations members who need space for their meetings to use the Hall, and even those who have nowhere to work from to come and use the space, on top of that we have now 60 plastic chairs for meetings and the plan is to have 300 plastic chairs,
Participants were informed that COJESKI Nord Kivu was awarded by GlobalGiving and one among highly ranked organizations on GlobalGiving, and thanked all those who share our fundraising links,
A Concert organized by the Pacific Cohabitation and Solidarity between IDPs and the host Communities will be held in Bulengo IDP Camp on Sunday June 9th, 2024, members were encouraged to contribute all they can to help IDPs. COJESKI North Kivu is the host of this Programme and has also different organizations.
A letter of invitation to the Kenya Consulate in Goma was already sent in order to seek interaction on the position of Kenya in the situation of war in Eastern DRC, we are waiting for the reply,
A public debate of the problematic of FDLR in eastern DRC will be organized and we already call upon you to get involved,
We are organizing two trainings: One will focus on the rights of refugees and the second will focus on Advocacy,
In collaboration with REDHAC Cameroon, we have started the identification of Human Rights Defenders in North Kivu who are in difficult situation, this is in line of setting up a programme which will focus on the protection of HRDs in North Kivu.
Thanks
