BARAZA | From Survival To Governance

Women war returnees gather for a community meeting organized by Bahati Mubuya Gladys as part of the "Shamba la Amani" (Field of Peace) program in Mudja, Nyiragongo Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 6, 2026.

Their reflection shimmers in a rainwater pool before a partially destroyed wooden building a haunting reminder of the violence that drove these women from their homes and set communities once bound by ethnic ties against each other. Under Gladys' leadership, Shamba la Amani brings together women and families from formerly opposed ethnic groups, uniting them around a shared agricultural field where mutual aid, food security, and peaceful coexistence are cultivated side by side.

As eastern DRC's humanitarian crisis one of the world's most severe, with millions internally displaced continues to demand responses that go beyond military solutions, programs like this one offer a rare and replicable model of community-driven reconciliation rooted in the most basic of human needs: the right to feed one's family in peace.