Coco McCabe
Coco, a former journalist, is the humanitarian writer for Oxfam America where she covers many of the emergencies Oxfam is responding to around the world. She has written on Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Ethiopia and Peru.
From child soldier to Congolese carpenter
Author: Coco McCabe
He rests his hands among the wood shavings scattered across a board on his workbench, as if touching the curls and chips reminds him of who he now is - a furniture-maker in Goma and, at 17, almost a man. It's dark inside his shop: he works only with hand tools, as there is no electricity.
But not so long ago, he was a boy fighting a war in Democratic Republic of Congo.
...
Author: Coco McCabe
He rests his hands among the wood shavings scattered across a board on his workbench, as if touching the curls and chips reminds him of who he now is - a furniture-maker in Goma and, at 17, almost a man. It's dark inside his shop: he works only with hand tools, as there is no electricity.
But not so long ago, he was a boy fighting a war in Democratic Republic of Congo.
...
Blue buckets to fight cholera in Congo
Author: Coco McCabe
"Kabimba" says the sign painted on the wall of a rural health clinic in the eastern Congolese province of South Kivu. The letters of the place name are bold - deep yellow with black shadows - and convey an orderliness and determination that defy the challenges this clinic faces.
Sometimes the water at the clinic doesn't run at all, if maintenance has been lax. That's why an enormous black cylinder is lying on its side in the clinic's front yard. It's a storage tank, waiting for installation as part of Oxfam's program to help ensure the clinic has a reliable reserve of water and decent sanitation facilities. In the back of the yard, a pair of pit latrines and two bathing stalls are under construction. And nearby, deep in the ground, lies the newly dug "placenta pit" - the local solution for disposing of hazardous medical wastes including afterbirth from the maternity ward.
...
Author: Coco McCabe
"Kabimba" says the sign painted on the wall of a rural health clinic in the eastern Congolese province of South Kivu. The letters of the place name are bold - deep yellow with black shadows - and convey an orderliness and determination that defy the challenges this clinic faces.
Sometimes the water at the clinic doesn't run at all, if maintenance has been lax. That's why an enormous black cylinder is lying on its side in the clinic's front yard. It's a storage tank, waiting for installation as part of Oxfam's program to help ensure the clinic has a reliable reserve of water and decent sanitation facilities. In the back of the yard, a pair of pit latrines and two bathing stalls are under construction. And nearby, deep in the ground, lies the newly dug "placenta pit" - the local solution for disposing of hazardous medical wastes including afterbirth from the maternity ward.
...
Congo's "culture of rape" is corroding society
Author: Coco McCabe
Justine Masika had long been interested in the well-being of poor rural women in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo when, in 1996, they began to come to her with reports of a new kind of horror. Out in their fields, they had become prey to men, who attacked and sexually abused them.
But it wasn't until a traumatized 80-year-old woman from Walikale in North Kivu was brought to Masika that the full weight of what was happening became clear. Raped and left dumped in a field, the woman had been rescued by a hunter and eventually brought to Goma, the provincial capital. But she was penniless, and despite her serious injuries, the hospital would not treat her. She died shortly afterwards.
...
Author: Coco McCabe
Justine Masika had long been interested in the well-being of poor rural women in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo when, in 1996, they began to come to her with reports of a new kind of horror. Out in their fields, they had become prey to men, who attacked and sexually abused them.
But it wasn't until a traumatized 80-year-old woman from Walikale in North Kivu was brought to Masika that the full weight of what was happening became clear. Raped and left dumped in a field, the woman had been rescued by a hunter and eventually brought to Goma, the provincial capital. But she was penniless, and despite her serious injuries, the hospital would not treat her. She died shortly afterwards.
...
