• Opportunities for joint operations to be explored, particularly for activities in the two Kasai provinces, where no demining organisation is currently working.
• MAG will gain privileged access to communities all over the country – invaluable given the extremely limited transport and communication infrastructures in DRC.
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Mgr Eveque Pierre Marini Bodho (ECC), and Ronald-Paul Veilleux (MAG) signing the MoU; in the background, D’herd Kabongo of ECC-MERU. |
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Left to right: Reverend Milenge (General Secretary of the Diaconie department, ECC), Marc Angibeaud (MAG CWMD Operations Manager), Mgr Eveque Pierre Marini Bodho (Head of ECC), Ronald-Paul Veilleux (MAG DRC’s Country Programme Manager). |
MAG has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Congolese Association ECC-MERU (Eglise du Christ au Congo – Ministère de l’Eglise pour les Réfugiés et les Urgence; Church of Christ in Congo – Ministry of Refugees and Emergencies).
ECC is a group of 65 Protestant Churches numbering approximately 25 million members throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo. ECC-MERU has been involved in the humanitarian mine action sector for many years and has had a series of successful internationally funded projects.
MAG and ECC-MERU have created this partnership in order to benefit from each other’s expertise and, potentially, to explore opportunities for joint operations, in particular for mine action activities in the two Kasai provinces.
No organisation with a demining capacity is working in the Kasais at the moment, and minimal information is being collected by local organisations, mostly by ECC-MERU.
Various sources are, however, confirming the presence of unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination in the Kasais, and the associated need for demining and Mine Risk Education (MRE).
A further important aspect of this partnership is ECC-MERU’s extensive network, which extends deep into communities all over the country; collaboration between the two organisations means that MAG will gain privileged access to populations and their leaders in order to get their support for MAG’s activities.
Such access is invaluable – especially in a country the size of DRC, which possesses extremely limited transport and communication infrastructures.
MAG and ECC-MERU are planning to work together in order to make populations aware of the threat of small arms and light weapons, landmines and UXO, and, as a consequence, contributing to security and reducing the constant risk of injury and death faced by some communities on a daily basis.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in an official ceremony on October 10, 2008, by Ronald-Paul Veilleux, MAG DRC’s Country Programme Manager in DRC, as well as Mgr Eveque Pierre Marini Bodho, Head of the ECC. Other high-placed members of the ECC, the UN Mine Action Centre in DRC, and more were present. The ceremony received extensive press coverage, including on national television.
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17 November 08
