The collection of donations and funds, #pourgoma2024 (for Goma 2024), organised by non-profit SOS RDCongo at Brussels Expo, with the support of the City of Brussels, ended on Wednesday. The response to the collection was "remarkable" and "beyond expectations," said Dido Lakama, one of the coordinators behind the initiative.
The fundraiser aimed to collect financial and material resources for the people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There, the population finds itself trapped in a nearly thirty-year conflict between the armed forces of the DeCongo and rebel groups, one of the main ones being the M23.
According to a 2023 UN report, nearly "6.7 million people living in North and South Kivu and Ituri are in a food crisis or emergency." This alarming situation convinced Dido Lakama to launch the initiative after he saw first-hand the conditions in which people in the town of Sake, not far from Goma, the provincial capital, were living. "I've seen the camps. It's awful. Even dogs here in Brussels don't live like that," he said.
This year, the fundraising campaign generated an unprecedented "surge" of aid. "I think people are more concerned, and we've tried to do a lot of awareness-raising. He also acknowledged and praised the enthusiasm generated by the DRC players during the African Cup of Nations, which helped to raise awareness of the situation in the east of the country," stated Lakama.
Brussels Expo. Credit: Belga / Hatim Kaghat
The initiative enabled SOS RDCongo to collect items meeting a number of basic yet essential needs: foodstuffs (which have a have a long shelf life), medicines, sanitary and hygiene items (such as sanitary towels and nappies for young children), clothes, shoes, tarps, blankets, and wheelchairs for people with reduced mobility. The non-profit also received a significant number of financial donations.
Although estimates are underway, Lakama told The Brussels Times that loading the boxes onto the trucks required "182 pallets, each measuring between 2 m10 and 2 m20. I was expecting more like 50 or 100 pallets."
'Created a real unity'
"But the greatest surprise was the number of volunteers who came out to help us, and above all, the involvement of the youth. It was a wonderful thing. We had nearly 180 people come to help us every day, both newcomers and those who had been there before."
"It created a real unity between people of different origins. What's more, we were lucky to receive the help of our partners. Indeed, Brussels Expo provided us with this huge hall; the City of Brussels lent us the lorries for transport, and the Ministry of Defence will take charge of the plane journey."
Congolese ambassador Christian Ndongala Nkunku, along with Dido Lakama and other coordinators, participating in the collection at the Brussels Expo. Credit: SOS RDCongo
"However, that's not the end of it. Now we're going to have to transport all these goods to the Congo. Some will leave in a Belgian army plane and the rest by sea in container ships, accompanied by the Belgian army," he said. Once there, a group of local non-profits will take charge of receiving and distributing all the goods.
In order to prepare the shipment properly, all the goods should leave Belgium at the beginning of May.
