Robert from Kagaba

In 2009, I came out to the Itrui Region to meet with communities who had lived through a brutal intertribal massacre in 2003. The goal of this trip was to pitch the idea of Sports4Hope and to hear from the communities themselves; to hear what they thought of the idea of a sports and peace education program aimed at reconciliation and to develop a plan of how to turn this vision into a reality. This was my second journey to the Ituri Region as I visited the area with my Uncle David McAllister in 2008. During one of the community meetings held in Bogoro a young man stood up in the back of a dense crowd of community members just as the meeting was coming to a close. He spoke very clearly and directly to me. He said that I was not the first person who had come to the area talking about a project aimed at peace. Cutting to the chase, he added that many people come and collect data but none of them come back to share with the communities the fruits of their labor. He then said to me, “Stephen, why are we to believe that you are any different from the rest of these people!”

 What a challenge! I left Congo in 2009 with this message seared in my memory. Over the following two years that it took me to get back to the Ituri Region, this encounter in Bogoro often left me asking the question: why should these people who have lived through such pain and suffering have hope in the future? I later found out through Kalongo Rwabikanga, my good friend and Sports4Hope’s local partner in the Ituri Region, that this man was not from Bogoro and that he had actually traveled from another community called Kagaba in order to participate in our discussion. Weeks after I left in 2009 Kalongo received a letter from the chief of Kagaba saying that he wanted the Sports4Hope project in Kagaba as one of his own community members was present the day I was in Bogoro. Kalongo and I both felt that this was a clear message and that we should include Kagaba in our project, which meant that we were now targeting three communities: Bogoro, Vilo, and Kagaba.

This week we had our first community meeting in Kagaba to talk about Sports4Hope and to begin setting up a project committee as we have already done in Bogoro and Vilo. This meeting was a great time of sharing and encouragement to all who participated. As our meeting was coming to a close a young man stood up towards the back of a crowded classroom filled with community members. He talked about how happy he was to hear about the Sports4Hope project and excited to see it’s development. He then looked directly at me and said, “Stephen you are not like those other people who come to collect data and never come back. You have come back.” His name is Robert and we have started what I hope will be a great friendship.