Members of the Community Defection Committee (CDC) in Mboki, CAR, which was established by Invisible Children and community partner Vision Development, have been busy lately.
On November 29th, they welcomed Guy Issa Parfait, a 19-year-old LRA escapee who had been held captive for over a year. Guy specifically asked Mbororo cattle herders in the area for directions to the CDC after having seen locally-made defection fliers, produced by the group, in the bush. Just one week later, on December 6th, two local hunters found a 16-year-old Congolese escapee in their camp near Mboki. Weakened by sickness, the boy was unable to walk, so the hunters called for the CDC president to help them carry the boy nearly 20 kilometers back to Mboki.
Less than a week later, the Mboki CDC was in action yet again. Starting December 11th, it co-hosted an Invisible Children-sponsored 3-day training session for LRA returnees, aimed at helping them address the various security and economic problems afflicting their community. The training was part of a broader effort by Invisible Children and community partners to spark community-sourced solutions to issues in the Mboki area, including the construction of the Mboki LRA Victims Association Center and the provision of livelihood training for LRA returnees in the fields of carpentry, livestock farming, and sewing.
The Mboki Victims Association building under construction
For the dozens of Mboki residents traumatized by LRA attacks, these CDC and victims association initiatives can be crucial to their ability to rediscover a sense of normalcy and purpose amidst ongoing instability. Launched in late 2013, CDCs provide a unique and effective way for international and regional actors to work in collaboration with local communities to peacefully disband the LRA from within. CDCs are comprised of 8-12 locally elected individuals and are established in communities where the LRA maintains an active presence. CDC members are responsible for sensitizing their community about LRA defections, as well as coordinating and implementing locally-developed defection strategies that are specific to the context of their area. CDCs also facilitate mobile cinema screenings, where local community members are invited to view “They Came At Night,” a film produced in partnership with Discover the Journey (DTJ) and Solidarity and Integral Assistance to Destitute People (SAIPED), which portrays a child soldier’s journey of escape from the LRA after years in the bush, and with the help of a brave local community member. We screen this film in order to encourage community dialogue about how forgiveness and peaceful acceptance of LRA defectors can be central to ending the conflict.
A Mobile Cinema screening of the film “They Came at Night”
The Mboki CDC’s enthusiastic work over the past several weeks demonstrates that our programs are doing their job. Communities are proactively engaging their problems with an eye on a peaceful future, and LRA members are taking notice. Help us continue these essential programs by donating to our Finishing Fund, which will sustain our Early Warning Network and defection programs through 2015, and enable Invisible Children to effectively hand these programs over to local ownership in 2016. We only need $150,000 to support a small, focused team of experts who will ensure that communities like Mboki receive all the support they need to see this conflict come to an end.
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