Congo project uses sustainable green model to bring peace and health

In 2006, while still completing his studies in economics at Hampshire College, Alexander Petroff, the founder of Working Villages International, journeyed to the Ruzizi Valley in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. There his Congolese friends knew a progressive village chief who might be willing to donate land to start an eco-village for some of the victims of Congo’s ten year war – a conflict which had destroyed the social and economic infrastructure and left 4 million Congolese dead (so far). Petroff had just spent a semester working with half a dozen non-profits in Uganda, so he knew some pertinent questions to ask.

“What’s the snake situation like here?” he asked Chief Ombeni. Petroff remembered that in Karamoja, one impediment to development was the threat of poison snakes wherever one walked. Worst of all were the green mambas, tiny green snakes with deadly poisonous venom. Even Karamojong warriors were afraid of them. He wanted to know if snakes would be a problem for a WVI project in Congo.

“No snakes,” replied Chief Ombeni.

“No snakes. How can that be? This is exactly the kind of place snakes like.”

“During the war, the starving villagers ate them all.”

“No snakes? Then you must have a rat problem.”

“No, they ate them also.”

Petroff realized right then that Ruzizi Valley would be the best place to start an eco-village based on Gandhi’s principles of non-violence and swadeshi, or, as Petroff calls it “Village Self Reliance.” People who had eaten snakes and rats would appreciate the value of a wholesome vegetarian diet. Congolese had seen enough violence. Among other things, WVI wanted to offer a village of peace where people from different ethnic backgrounds could work and live together in harmony.

Chief Ombeni donated not only land, but also a roofless, dilapidated old plantation building, which WVI could use for its headquarters. For the next month, several hundred villagers pitched in, working mostly with just hoes, clearing the land. They quickly renovated the headquarters. They had assumed that Working Villages would go to Bukavu and purchase a tin roof for it, since that is what most people did if they could afford to. But buying a tin roof from Bukavu was not in line with the Gandhian idea of Village Self Reliance. Instead, WVI paid the villagers to harvest grass and bamboo (matteti) and put up a thatched roof. Villagers were pleased that instead of the money going to some factory from in the city, they were making the money by harvesting plants that previously seemed worthless.

They cleared land, and even built a half-mile long road – by hand – in 3 days. They cleared half an acre of land for a garden, and planted it. Everything was done by hand. Gasoline in Congo then cost $8 per gallon and the annual income was $100, so practically everything had to be done by hand. Petroff couldn’t stay and watch the crops come up. It was time to head back to Hampshire College and pick up his degree, but he would be back.

How would his new project work out, he wondered? In his study of non-profit groups in Uganda, he noted that the least successful ones were those that relied on a strong, continuous foreign presence to give commands in a top-down manner, “the great white hunter model” as he termed it. The successful programs were those in which gifted local individuals provided visible leadership and inspiration. But, would he be able to find the necessary talented local leadership for his new project, he wondered.

In the two years since WVI started its eco-village in Congo, some things changed. For the first time in forty years, a democratically elected government has been installed. But, though the war is officially over, fighting continues and the number of Congolese who have died from the war has risen to 5.4 million. Annual income is still only $100 per person, but gas now costs $12 per gallon. In spite of a few bright spots, the overall picture is one of starvation and despair.

The global picture for food aid is also troubling. There is a world wide rice shortage. In fact, most food aid programs are making substantial cutbacks due to the rising cost of all grains -- and shipping. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that for the largest American food aid program, U.S. AID, the cost of shipping – not food – now represents an astounding 65 percent of the costs. Commercial agriculture gets 90 percent of its energy needs from fossil fuel, so the price of tractor-produced grain is automatically pushed up by the rising cost of gasoline. Grain prices are also pushed up by the diversion of corn to ethanol, and by the fact that as income rises in Asia, grain-fed meats are becoming a welcome status symbol.

But, what if you had a society that didn’t depend on petroleum? What if you had a society that didn’t make meat a status symbol? What if you had a gifted agronomist (soil and plant scientist) who could show people how to produce crops locally and sustainably, without expensive shipping and commercial agricultural inputs?

As it turned out, Petroff was able to lure an extremely gifted Congolese agronomist, Fiston Malago, away from a highly paid position with the U.N., back to his home in the Ruzizi Valley, where he agreed to be the project manager for WVI. There, he trains local villagers in practices of sustainable agriculture seldom seen in central Africa, such as mulching, composting, raised-bed gardening, green manuring, etc. Under his management, in just two years, WVI has grown from nothing, to a point where it employs about 400 villagers in farming and learning organic farming techniques. Once biogas digesters are installed to provide fuel for cooking, sanitized slurry will provide additional crop fertilizer

WVI built a 100 acre irrigation system. Now it has 100 acres under cultivation, producing 90 different varieties of lush organic vegetables. In an area where hunger is still a great problem, recently local manioc production has been nearly wiped out by a plant virus, leaving beans and rices the important staples. And, so far in 2008, using sustainable techniques, WVI has produced 100,000 pounds of rice, making it the largest producer of rice in South Kivu province. Following Gandhian principles, production must go first to the workers and their families; then the surplus can be sold locally. If there is further surplus, it can be sold to the nearest cities.

As WVI provides overall management and start-up capital to replace war-devastated infrastructure, the situation is quickly improving. At this point WVI has just begun to build housing. As funding becomes available, more housing and work places will be built, encouraging small-scale ownership. It is Petroff’s conviction that full employment in meaningful jobs will go a long way towards building peace in the region. But even at present, the healthy well-fed workers and their families are getting a very practical lesson that their health and quality of life are being substantially improved. This quiet miracle that is unfolding in the Democratic republic of Congo has been made possible by the hard work and sacrifice of many people. If you like to help make this dream a reality, visit our website www.workingvillages.org