October 2010 Notes
Congo Action Now
Democratic Republic of Congo Committee
October 24, 2010
Present: Samba Halkose, Coleen Houlihan, Antonieta Gimeno, Suzanne Bas-Davis, Kelley Ready, Jackie Fletcher, David Amis, Pat Aron
Congo Action Now met on October 24, 2010 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain. The meeting began with check-ins. Pat then reminded people that we need to mail our Dear Hillary for the Congo postcards to Secretary Clinton on Wednesday, October 27. The Dear Hillary Campaign has 50 chapters across the U.S. The postcards urge Secretary Clinton to work for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the DRC. We have gotten signed all of the 200 postcards we received. Pat will send a reminder email.
The group continued our consideration of ways we may become involved with the Huntington Theatre’s production of Ruined (January 7 - February 6). Peggy had contacted the Huntington Theatre and had an excellent discussion with Adam – they are excited about working with us. They’ve begun contacting other groups in the area that are working on DRC issues. They would like for us to help with advertising the play and with participating in post-production discussions. Kelley, Samba, and Antonieta volunteered to participate in the on-stage discussions. The Huntington will send us a calendar of productions so we can sign up for discussions. We agreed that we'll meet to clarify the format and what we want to cover - we're thinking that our major goals are to increase people's awareness and to inspire them to take action. We’d like to distribute materials and information on action steps. We will ask Peggy if she can be the contact person with the Huntington. We came up with a number of questions:
- How long will the discussions be?
- Will the Huntington provide a flyer that can be posted and distributed?
- Can we put an insert in the program (possibly list of things people can do)?
- Will we be able to find out names of other participating groups?
- Can we coordinate with the other groups on information covered and on an insert?
- Will the playwright be there?
- Can we collect money at the discussion (either for CAN or VICO)?
We also identified a number of places to advertise the play:
- Our website and email list
- Women's organizations - Kelley can get a list from women's studies program
- U.S.-Congolese for Unity, Peace, and Development (NH group) - Samba can send flyer to them
- Cambridge Women's Center - Antonieta can send flyer
- YWCA
- WILPF Boston email list - Pat can send flyer
- Undoing Racism - Samba can send flyer
- Liz Walker and Evelyn White-Hammond's organization - Kelley will get information
- Southern New Hampshire University - Samba can post flyer
- The Shalupe Foundation
- Community Change - Antonieta can send flyer (Antonieta suggested that the Huntington might also want to advertise in the program for Community Change's Nov. 30 annual awards meeting.)
The group agreed that we will focus on the Ruined discussions and we won’t plan another event until the production is over. Locations we’ll consider for future events include the African meetinghouse and the Haley House cafe.
There was a brief update on legislative activities. It appears that the conflict minerals bills are not going forward given the successful adoption of the conflict minerals amendment. We will encourage people to contact electronics companies to say they will buy products made from conflict-free minerals. We will publicize the Enough Project’s website where people can email companies. Our website will direct people to this site for sending emails. We began to question if we may need to re-focus our legislative efforts. The Enough Project is continuing to focus on conflict minerals, while Friends of the Congo is urging pressure on Rwanda. We will devote a good portion of next month’s meeting on a discussion of our direction. We’ll all read the two articles Antonieta sent as well as the coverage of the recent UN report prior to the next meeting.
Samba reported on the October 2 march she attended at the UN The march was well-attended – many Congolese participated. Its focus was to bring attention to the information in the UN report that was withheld and to call for the truth to come out about Rwanda’s role in the DRC conflict.
We discussed the need for training on the CAN website given that Coleen will be re-locating and isn’t sure how much time she will be able to devote to it for a while. Antonieta, Suzanne, and Pat want to be trained. Anyone else who is interested is encouraged to join us. Coleen explained how we can access the Weebly website (www.weebly.com) for a tutorial and to practice creating a website. Coleen will identify a time when she can meet with us.
Samba led us in an impassioned discussion of the recent UN report. The initial report strongly implicated Rwanda in the continuing violence – much of this material was deleted from the final report. Samba’s experience and insight are invaluable in helping us understand the current situation. She explained the history of recent Rwandan, Burundian, and Ugandan involvement with Rwanda entering the DRC to bring Kabila to power and to pursue Hutu following the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda. When Kabila later called on Rwandan forces to leave, the violence continued against the Hutu and Congolese. Hutu forces including the Interahamwe are also killing Congolese – the Congolese are being attacked, raped, and killed by all the foreign forces as well as Congolese militia. Most of the killing is in the villages – people have to leave the countryside and go to areas where they have no food and no jobs. All foreign forces need to disarm or to leave the DRC. We need to pressure the US government to support the UN and the African Union in dispelling or disarming these forces and in bringing justice and peace to the DRC.
Pat distributed flyers sent by Maman Jeanne for a celebration of the launching of the African Women’s Decade. The event will be held all day on December 10 at UMass Boston.
The next meeting of Congo Action Now will be on Sunday, November 28, 2010, at 3:00 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain. Following the October meeting, the group had a wonderful baby shower and going away pot luck party for Coleen who we will miss tremendously. We wish her the very best!
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Democratic Republic of Congo Committee
October 24, 2010
Present: Samba Halkose, Coleen Houlihan, Antonieta Gimeno, Suzanne Bas-Davis, Kelley Ready, Jackie Fletcher, David Amis, Pat Aron
Congo Action Now met on October 24, 2010 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain. The meeting began with check-ins. Pat then reminded people that we need to mail our Dear Hillary for the Congo postcards to Secretary Clinton on Wednesday, October 27. The Dear Hillary Campaign has 50 chapters across the U.S. The postcards urge Secretary Clinton to work for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the DRC. We have gotten signed all of the 200 postcards we received. Pat will send a reminder email.
The group continued our consideration of ways we may become involved with the Huntington Theatre’s production of Ruined (January 7 - February 6). Peggy had contacted the Huntington Theatre and had an excellent discussion with Adam – they are excited about working with us. They’ve begun contacting other groups in the area that are working on DRC issues. They would like for us to help with advertising the play and with participating in post-production discussions. Kelley, Samba, and Antonieta volunteered to participate in the on-stage discussions. The Huntington will send us a calendar of productions so we can sign up for discussions. We agreed that we'll meet to clarify the format and what we want to cover - we're thinking that our major goals are to increase people's awareness and to inspire them to take action. We’d like to distribute materials and information on action steps. We will ask Peggy if she can be the contact person with the Huntington. We came up with a number of questions:
- How long will the discussions be?
- Will the Huntington provide a flyer that can be posted and distributed?
- Can we put an insert in the program (possibly list of things people can do)?
- Will we be able to find out names of other participating groups?
- Can we coordinate with the other groups on information covered and on an insert?
- Will the playwright be there?
- Can we collect money at the discussion (either for CAN or VICO)?
We also identified a number of places to advertise the play:
- Our website and email list
- Women's organizations - Kelley can get a list from women's studies program
- U.S.-Congolese for Unity, Peace, and Development (NH group) - Samba can send flyer to them
- Cambridge Women's Center - Antonieta can send flyer
- YWCA
- WILPF Boston email list - Pat can send flyer
- Undoing Racism - Samba can send flyer
- Liz Walker and Evelyn White-Hammond's organization - Kelley will get information
- Southern New Hampshire University - Samba can post flyer
- The Shalupe Foundation
- Community Change - Antonieta can send flyer (Antonieta suggested that the Huntington might also want to advertise in the program for Community Change's Nov. 30 annual awards meeting.)
The group agreed that we will focus on the Ruined discussions and we won’t plan another event until the production is over. Locations we’ll consider for future events include the African meetinghouse and the Haley House cafe.
There was a brief update on legislative activities. It appears that the conflict minerals bills are not going forward given the successful adoption of the conflict minerals amendment. We will encourage people to contact electronics companies to say they will buy products made from conflict-free minerals. We will publicize the Enough Project’s website where people can email companies. Our website will direct people to this site for sending emails. We began to question if we may need to re-focus our legislative efforts. The Enough Project is continuing to focus on conflict minerals, while Friends of the Congo is urging pressure on Rwanda. We will devote a good portion of next month’s meeting on a discussion of our direction. We’ll all read the two articles Antonieta sent as well as the coverage of the recent UN report prior to the next meeting.
Samba reported on the October 2 march she attended at the UN The march was well-attended – many Congolese participated. Its focus was to bring attention to the information in the UN report that was withheld and to call for the truth to come out about Rwanda’s role in the DRC conflict.
We discussed the need for training on the CAN website given that Coleen will be re-locating and isn’t sure how much time she will be able to devote to it for a while. Antonieta, Suzanne, and Pat want to be trained. Anyone else who is interested is encouraged to join us. Coleen explained how we can access the Weebly website (www.weebly.com) for a tutorial and to practice creating a website. Coleen will identify a time when she can meet with us.
Samba led us in an impassioned discussion of the recent UN report. The initial report strongly implicated Rwanda in the continuing violence – much of this material was deleted from the final report. Samba’s experience and insight are invaluable in helping us understand the current situation. She explained the history of recent Rwandan, Burundian, and Ugandan involvement with Rwanda entering the DRC to bring Kabila to power and to pursue Hutu following the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda. When Kabila later called on Rwandan forces to leave, the violence continued against the Hutu and Congolese. Hutu forces including the Interahamwe are also killing Congolese – the Congolese are being attacked, raped, and killed by all the foreign forces as well as Congolese militia. Most of the killing is in the villages – people have to leave the countryside and go to areas where they have no food and no jobs. All foreign forces need to disarm or to leave the DRC. We need to pressure the US government to support the UN and the African Union in dispelling or disarming these forces and in bringing justice and peace to the DRC.
Pat distributed flyers sent by Maman Jeanne for a celebration of the launching of the African Women’s Decade. The event will be held all day on December 10 at UMass Boston.
The next meeting of Congo Action Now will be on Sunday, November 28, 2010, at 3:00 at Pat’s house in Jamaica Plain. Following the October meeting, the group had a wonderful baby shower and going away pot luck party for Coleen who we will miss tremendously. We wish her the very best!
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom