SUPERWOMAN LIVES IN CONGO!

Mama Elyse, as she’s called, taking a moment to do her most important work - share love with children.

FOR the next few months we'll be profiling the folks who make Congo Kids Initiative and St. Kizito orphanage possible – starting with our single and most important team member,Elyse Pifwa. Elyse runs our day to day operations in Bunia, everything from buying food and supplies for the children, taking take them to the doctor, to organizing well drilling. It’s a big job, but one for which she’s expertly qualified. 

Elyse was born in western Congo in the town of Inongo, situated on the banks of Lake Mai-Ndomba, one known as Lake Leopold after the Belgian king whose rubber empire reaped so much horror on Congo. Elyse studied psychology and pedagogy in Bunia and nearby Aru. In 1987, she trained with the UN Refugee Agency in Uganda. Ever since she’s been working with women and children, through Congo’s two decades of conflict and its aftermath. During the worst of Bunia’s fighting in the early 2000s, she counseled women and girls who’d been raped by government soldiers and militia and helped them find medical treatment. 

Now at St. Kizito she’s caring for the 76 children whose parents have died or abandoned them for financial or psychological reasons, as post-traumatic stress is endemic in the region, crippling millions. Fighting between militia and the army continues to force thousands from their homes, where children are often born far from medical care, leaving mothers are susceptible to infection, malnutrition, and violence.

“It makes me feel good caring for babies who’ve lost their mothers,” she says. “The mothers are dying every day, and I’m afraid this situation is permanent. But we will continue to care for them and be here.”