Five years ago, I started my adventure in the Congolese rainforest. I remember sitting uneasily in a flimsy canoe with outboard engine, on the River Congo. Greeted by familiar faces in Basankusu, I was soon rudely awakened to the realities of forest poverty: untimely death from childbirth, from malaria and from poor diet. I enthusiastically started my work teaching candidates to Mill Hill Missionaries and looking after the accounts.
Early in 2015, a group of Belgian eye-doctors arrived for a 2-week mission, performing cataract operations for next to nothing. Despite insecurity, they visited every year after that to do the same.
I set up a malnutrition centre. It’s the only malnutrition centre in a diocese half the size of England. I started making wheelchairs for people whose only way of getting around was by crawling on the ground. I’ve now given 24 wheelchair bicycles for those disabled by polio.
From the start, I’ve been harassed by corrupt officials, mostly immigration police who see me as a soft target.
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| Francis Hannaway with the malnutrition centre volunteers |
I started teaching at the local minor-seminary, which involved an exciting solo ride on a dirt-track motorbike, through the forest, each week. It was difficult at first, but I eventually got the hang of it.
In April 2016, our house burnt down. The paraffin fridge had caught fire and there was no way the control the flames. After the fire, I took a trip to Kinshasa with Fr. John Kirwan mhm while he got an emergency travel-document to replace his incinerated passport. It was a welcome break for me, too.
In Kinshasa, I welcomed a little boy and his mother for medical treatment. Judith, who helps me run the malnutrition centre, came to help guide them through the process. Tensions were high as people waited for a presidential election. We were robbed by, probably fake, officials in the street, on our way to give the sick boy’s mother some money for food. Soon afterwards, Kinshasa turned into a bloodbath, with demonstrations being brutally put down by the police. The next 2 years would see many such incidents, and many people, including people at mass, inside their church, were mercilessly shot down, before elections finally took place at the end of 2018.
After the election, I left my work at Mill Hill (we’d cut the teaching program after the fire) and concentrated solely on malnutrition. Sadly, the poverty caused by bad governance has made my centre even more necessary.
Since I arrived in the Congo, we’ve treated over 3,500 malnourished children. We’ve been menaced by Ebola and are now struggling with a rise in numbers caused by the current measles epidemic. I’m still struggling to renew my visa, but I’m really looking forward to 2020 to see what more, with your help, we can achieve.
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