An Every Shelter Story
Mary* had a settled life in Eastern DR Congo – a husband, three boys, a home.
She farmed with her neighbors. She had community. Though life was still hard, she had peace.
*name is a pseudonym
Then rebels came and killed her husband in front of her sons.
The M23 rebels move village to village with one ultimatum for men: join us or die. Her boys — six, nine, and eleven — hid in the bush and watched.
She took what she could carry and crossed the border into Uganda.
Her youngest has a congenital heart disease. She carried him on her back. She did what any of us would do to keep her children safe.
She was handed 2 tarps and a plot of land–and left to fend for herself. For women here, that’s not just hard. It’s dangerous.
Mary had never built shelter before. She knew no one. Men offered help in exchange for food — or worse. Alone at night in a leaky shelter, she was exposed.
This is where Every Shelter enters the story.
