Elisabeth Roesch

Goma, Nov. 24, 2008 – Another trip to new displacement sites in Goma brings more stories and more questions about what people really need in times of conflict. Some needs are evident – shelter, clean water, food, clothes – but others are harder to see and therefore harder to respond to. That is certainly the case when it comes to responding to sexual violence.

In a church in Goma, there are more than 1,000 people gathered, having fled their homes in the past few weeks. Since our last visit, a few hundred more people have arrived. The other sites I have been to in Goma are smaller, with a few families from the same town or village moving together and setting themselves up in the same site. But in this church I find people from all over and from farther away, Masisi and western Rutshuru, and many of them came alone. (more…)