Remembering Monique and Supporting her children

Hundreds of people, including twenty-eight already orphaned children, lost the only parent they had ever known when my friend Monique Kabugho Murandya died in September. I've struggled to write this post because so much heartache is involved. Twenty-eight kids, including young babies, don't have even a legal guardian - and many more who depended on her for support are without any family.

Monique was one of the most extraordinary people I ever met. My heart broke over losing this friend, but so much more so for these children urgently needing love and support.

I'm in close touch with community leaders and a board we formed to help Monique manage DRC-Home, the orphanage she founded. It's hard to explain just how dire the situation where they are based.

While every day, there are headlines full of natural disasters and man-made tragedies worldwide, mainstream media rarely covers the ones in the DRC. Just last month, in a horrific report, the UN leaders said there are "few worse places in the world to be a child" than Eastern Congo.

I'm eager to raise $10,000 quickly - and more over the next few months. My network is incredibly generous - and has stepped up before. I know we can do this again. Will you contribute today? We have zero overhead - so all contributions outside of bank fees will go directly to help these kids.

A short backstory for those who haven't heard me talk about Monique:

Eight years ago, as part of ASU's McCain Institute, I was in the DRC to train women to run for office in their local elections in Goma and Beni, both in the Kivu region of Eastern Congo. Beni is north of the famed Virunga National Forest, one of the most magical places on earth and also the most dangerous.

Monique was the lead organizer of a group of women who regularly met to support each other's run for office. Their motivation was to bring attention to the problems in Beni, which are many. When I first met Monique, she wrapped a tiny infant on her back. We started talking, and I quickly learned this baby was one of dozens of orphans Monique cared for at DRC-Home. Monique invited me to visit her the next day, which I did, and my life forever changed. I found Monique caring for 70+ orphaned and abandoned children. Some she supported in foster homes, but most were under her direct care. They were all in a tiny compound with no flush toilet or showers, kitchen, and only two beds. Most kids were sleeping on the floors. She prepared food on a makeshift outdoor fire. Only one facet provided water for cooking, watching themselves, and clothing. I've worked in many poverty-stricken places, but the site of so many children and babies living this way broke my heart. Without really thinking, I threw up a GoFundMe Page - and my amazing network of friends and family stepped up and helped raise over 25,000 in less than a month and just shy of 30,000 before I found another platform to raise more.

Moving money to the DRC through proper channels proved challenging - but that story is for another day. It took a few months, but we finally moved Monique and the children to a larger compound with several toilets and showers, a kitchen, beds, and more furniture. And so began my journey with the remarkable Monique and her many children. I have been supporting Monique's work at DRC-Home ever since. After a few years of struggling with moving money through various organizations, I realized it could be easier to form a new one. Meeting Monique led to the creation of Global GAIN - an organization dedicated to supporting democracy activists and gender equality leaders. It may not feel obvious how connected caring for orphaned children in Congo is to Democracy here and worldwide, but they are more interconnected than you can imagine. (If you understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it can all make sense.) But, I digress from the more urgent issue at hand.

Every day since I met Monique and her children in 2016 has felt like a crisis. Beni has been a warzone for years. In 2019, it was the epicenter of the Eastern Kivu Ebola crisis - they had to quarantine for almost a year, and the kids couldn't attend school. Of course, we all learned a bit about what that means in the pandemic, but now imagine no internet, grocery stores, transportation, and nonstop war around you. Rarely does a month go in between horrific militia attacks on innocent civilians like this one in 2019, 2020, or this in March of this year, one just a few weeks ago, September 2023. Just google Beni DRC, and you'll only see tragic stories.

Candidly, the needs the children at DRC Home face are enormous. Monique shielded the children from so much and ensured they were housed, fed, went to school, and cared for when sick. She also left a lot of unpaid bills no one knew about before her death. Now, everything in their lives is upside down.

I've struggled writing much about Monique and her children over the years because I'm eager not to present myself as some white savior. I hate poverty porn and perpetuating harmful stereotypes about the continent, much of which comes from sharing stories like these. I now know that helping these kids is much more important than worrying about what anyone will think. The situation is even more dire than I'm presenting here.

Please consider contributing to Moniques Children DRC-Home if you've read this. I'm raising at least 10,000 over the next few weeks to help with urgent needs to pay medical bills, rent, school fees, and food and find some adults we'll have to pay to help with care. Thank you - Amy Pritchard