Congolese Community of New Hampshire
Urgent Humanitarian Crisis
Saturday, March 22
2:00pm - 3:30pm
Peterborough Town Library
1833 RoomJoin F. Noel Sagna, Djems Kwembe, and Lois Numbi, as they shine a light on the deadly humanitarian crisis taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“We are giving this talk to educate our communities since the Western media is not doing enough to cover the genocide. We want to save the lives of our family members, to stop the illegal exploitation of our minerals, to stop the rape of women and children, to stop the killing, to stop the poverty. We want the world to assist the 110 million CONGOLESE after discovering what is going on.
Help us to stop the genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We need everyone’s voice/ action to stop the ongoing war.”
From the 1960s to today, around 18,000,000 people have been killed or disabled in the conflict - half of those children under the age of five. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped as a weapon of war. Seventy percent of Congolese live in extreme poverty, earning less than $2 per day.
Congo is a storehouse of strategic minerals (cobalt, copper, zinc, gold, diamond, silver, magnesium, germanium, uranium, coltan, petroleum and many other resources), which the international community is systematically looting. In this talk, Noel, Djems, and Lois ask the question: when is it time to stop the suffering and how many people should die before the world reacts? Are minerals more valuable than human beings?
About the speakers:
F. Noel Sagna: MS. CMHC from Senegal, Executive Director ASPIR INTERNATIONAL.
A retired military policeman from the West African country of Senegal, he served on the force for 13 years, engaging in conflict resolution and peace keeping in the country’s Southern Casamance Region. He then worked in Gueckedou, Guinea where he was a consultant for an American NGO, American Refugee. It was during this time that he founded ASPIR with fellow colleagues and friends. Mr. Sagna continued supporting and promoting ASPIR and refugees when the refugee camps and operations were relocated from Gueckedou to the neighboring town of Kissidougou between 1999 - 2001 and returnees from Kailahun, Koidou, Lumpa camp, and Freetown Sierra Leone to establish programs in 2001 to 2004.
Mr. Sagna returned to New Hampshire USA at ASPIR’s headquarters in 2004 to assist caring for his in laws with health issues. While in NH, he continued advocating and promoting youth refugee success and refugee mental health support. He was awarded with a PROCLAMATION of “Francois Noel Sagna Day” at Hillsboro for his Americorps Vista volunteer service on September 11, 2007. He participates in numerous committees to develop policies to improve refugee/immigrant life.
Djems Kwembe: I am an entrepreneur and activist, passionate about the development of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I pursued studies in architecture at the Institut Supérieur d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme (ISAU) in the DRC and am currently continuing my education in Electrical Technology at Community College NH in the US.
At the same time, I am a political actor and an advocate for civic awareness. I actively promote collective consciousness by encouraging entrepreneurship, social responsibility, and the emergence of a new generation of leaders in the DRC.
Lois Numbi: MA in global policy, recently graduated from Kinshasa DRC Democratic Republic of Congo, and now living in New Hampshire for nine years. I'm passionate about advocacy and helping others access valuable resources.
Peterborough Town Library
Peterborough Town Library, located downtown at the corner of Main and Concord/Rt 202, has a large meeting room, study rooms, classroom, and a board room available to the public.