DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, NORTH KIVU – Five armed groups are active in North Kivu province, DR Congo. The mileu of waring ideologies, interests and motivations has created an environment where things like sexual violence and child soldiers and thousands of displaced people are the result.

In 2007 war broke out again in North Kivu. Over the last 12 months nearly one million people have been uprooted from their homes, forced to look and seek shelter elsewhere, safe from the bullets, the weapons, the war.

In Minova, a community sitting on the borders of North and South Kivu provinces, they had no choice but to open their arms to the displaced. 1,500 families huddle in makeshift homes made of stick and plastic sheeting, set on the slanting slopes of a hillside. They are waiting. Waiting to return home, waiting for peace to be realized.

When the 1,500 families came pouring onto this hillside there was no one to assist them. FH responded. FH built wells and latrines to provide clean water and access to basic sanitation for these families.

In an area heavily fought over and dangerous, FH is one of the only organizations working to provide emergency relief.

The struggle is still real and the waiting is still present, but the impact of war, we believe, is lessened, at least a little. And we aren’t leaving.