Hello friends. We thought it was time to give you an update on all the happenings at Congo Calling. We have been very busy making progress on all sorts of fronts. It is not possible to share everything until it comes to fruition, but we hope the following gives you a flavour.

Congo Connect

On 13th February, the Royal Africa Society and Frontline hosted a meeting for Congo Connect, a relatively new organisation. Their vision is to connect together those organisations working to highlight and ameliorate the suffering of people in the Congo was presented. They want to establish a coalition of organisations to increase the impact of their work. Bandi attended and shared Congo Calling’s vision about empowering people globally to demand conflict-free minerals in the new technologies we purchase. He made some excellent connections at the event – more about these as and when they come to fruition.

House of Lords

Bandi was personally invited by Lord John Alderdice to an evening of dialogue at the House of Lords on 5th February, where the key speakers were Jo Berry and Pat Magee. The event has helped establish some important links for our future parliamentary campaign work. It grew out of an event hosted by Building Bridges about justice and forgiveness, which Bandi attended in January. The event explored the role of forgiveness in moving beyond a cycle of violence.

Also on the subject of parliamentary links, we were very excited to see Vince Cable’s grandson longlisted for a children’s photojournalism prize for his work on “blood phones”, inspired by Congo Calling.

Facebook

A very exciting link has been made with Facebook, which is offering Congo Calling a package of support to help with the campaign. This came out of a contact Bandi made when speaking at Campus Party in August 2012. He was invited to speak to a group of Facebook employees in London, and as a result Facebook has made some very generous offers. Some of their technical staff have already provided time to support Congo Calling in establishing the campaign and raising its profile, which includes promotion on Facebook of a series of articles.

Universities

A number of universities in the UK are interested in becoming conflict-free. Georgia Potton (Exeter University) and Bennett Collins (University of St Andrews) have agreed to coordinate responses to members of other universities interested in setting up conflict-free campus initiatives.

Exeter: The Business School and the Camborne School of Mines are both putting on modules that are looking at issues around conflict minerals, and Bandi has been invited to lecture on both modules, exploring corporate social responsibility and responsible mining practices. In addition, one of Exeter University’s Grand Challenges to their first year students is around the costs and benefits of mineral wealth. Bandi’s TEDxExeter talk initiated this work, and again he has spoken to students taking up this challenge.

The Be The Change student society is focusing on Congo and has taken on a campaign to make the university a conflict-free campus. It held a week of events focusing attention on The Congo from 11 to 15 March. The Students’ Guild has signed up to be conflict-free (the first guild in England to do so). The University of Exeter has officially joined the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative after much lobbying from Be The Change and the Students’ Guild.

School of Oriental and African Studies: SOAS students are in the early stages of putting together a conflict-free campus campaign and Bandi is in discussions with those trying to get this work off the ground.

Warwick: Bandi launched the work of a student group focusing on the Congo, and they are exploring whether a campaign for a conflict-free campus is something they want to pursue.

St Andrews: St Andrews students have already succeeded in their campaign to make their university a conflict-free campus. They have organised a conference for 19-20 April focusing on Eastern DRC, and have invited Bandi to speak.

Ayrton Cable, Vince Cable’s grandson, longlisted for children’s photojournalism prize for work on “blood phones”

Ayrton Cable, the 10-year-old grandson of Liberal Democract politician Vince Cable, has been longlisted in the photojournalism category of a prestigious Amnesty International competition. Ayrton’s photo shows his mother using a mobile phone and the text “Blood Phones: Demand A Fair Trade Mobile Phone”. Ayrton took the photo to highlight the work of a new organisation, Congo Calling, that is dedicated to campaigning for an end to exploitative sourcing of minerals for mobile phones and related technologies that cause terrible harm in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ayrton’s photograph has been longlisted for the Amnesty International Young Human Rights Reporter Competition 2013 as part of the photojournalism category, which is running for the first time this year.

The eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been involved in an extremely violent civil war since 1996. Much of the war is driven by clashes between rival warlords over the right to mine precious minerals that are used in the manufacture of mobile phones, game consoles, and similar technologies by companies including Apple, Samsung, and Sony.

The war has brought great suffering to the civilian population of the Congo. People, including children, are forced to work as slaves in the mine. Many die or become seriously ill as a result of the dangerous conditions there. Sexual violence is used by the armed groups as a way of terrorising and controlling local populations; the United Nations has identified the area as having the worst record of sexual violence in the world, and gang rapes and extreme sexual violence are commonplace. The area has been economically and culturally devastated and is likely to remain in that state until fairer ways of sourcing minerals for use in phones in the UK and other more-developed countries are found – and work like Ayrton’s is crucial in drawing attention to the problems in the Congo. (There is more information on this website)

Ayrton Cable, who took the photograph, said, “I’m very happy to have been longlisted! I really would like to thank everyone who is helping out with the campaign. There is a terrible amount of suffering in the Congo. A fair trade phone would make a huge difference to the nation.”

Bandi Mbubi, founder of the Congo Calling campaigning organisation that inspired Ayrton’s entry, added, “I am really impressed that Ayrton has been longlisted for this high profile award. Publicity generated by his participation in the competition is drawing much needed attention to the role conflict-minerals play in fuelling the war in Congo. Over 5 million people have died since 1996. Increased awareness of the situation there allows consumers to make informed decisions about the electronic devices they buy. Just as we demand fair-trade food and clothes, we should demand fair-trade phones that will allow communities in the Congo to start benefitting from their immense natural wealth. I am delighted by Ayrton’s concern and solidarity with the people of Congo.”

A Congolese woman from Aru, Ituri, knitting in front of her house with a baby on her back, in Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo. UN Photo/Martine Perret.

The Congo is Africa’s deadliest conflict, in which an estimated six million people have died and hundreds of thousands of women have been raped as warring factions fight over its mineral wealth.  The continued use of rape as a tool of war and as a way to intimidate local people makes life in the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo especially violent and hard.

UN officials consider the problem of sexual violence there worse than anywhere else in the world. Add this to a female life expectancy around the lowest 10% of the world, huge numbers of displaced families trying to survive in refugee camps, and a dramatic increase in rapes by civilians, and you can understand why an international day to mark women’s progress towards equality might seem out of place in the Congo.

Why should this matter to people in the Western World, and to Facebook users in particular? Because much of the conflict in the Congo is over mineral rights, and the minerals concerned are essential to the production of mobile phones, game consoles, and similar technologies. Without these minerals, your mobile phone would not work; that means that some of the money that pays for your phone goes to fuel the civil war in Eastern Congo and the resultant violence against women, children, and others.

What can you do about it? Here are three things you can do right now – call them additional ways of marking International Women’s Day:

1. Write to your MP to tell them about the situation and why you’re concerned about it. To make things easy for you there’s a template letter here (doc), and if you’re not sure you can find out who your MP is here.

2. Put pressure on the companies that manufacture your phone and other new technologies.  The campaign is already making a difference, for instance Apple recently reported that  ”we’ll require our suppliers to move their sourcing of tin, tungsten, and gold to certified conflict-free as smelters become certified” (see here). Please keep up the pressure and sign the petition calling on Apple to make conflict-free products that include minerals from eastern Congo. You can view and sign the petition, as well as read why others have signed it, here. If you don’t use Apple products then why not write to the manufacturer of whoever does make your phone and ask them how they plan to improve their policies on conflict-free minerals? You can check out the position of other technology companies by following this link to the Act page of this website.

3. Read more about the work of Congo Calling on this site. We are a new organisation devoted to campaigning for peace and ethical natural resource management in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You can find out more about what you can do to make a difference here too.

Here’s to solidarity with the women of The Congo on International Women’s Day!

The event will also feature ‘Pictures of Success’, a project initiated by Antony Turner, another TEDxExeter 2012 alumnus.

Download the poster (pdf).

In “Birth of a Consumer Movement”, he describes the problems created in the DR Congo by mining of tantalum for use in mobile phones, the aims of the Congo Calling campaign, and the latest information on international law and the efforts by some companies to clean up their mineral supply chains.

Please share.

Andy was also a speaker at TEDxExeter 2012, about sustainable video games. TEDx speakers have to agree to attend the whole of the day, so Andy was there to hear Bandi’s talk, which encouraged him to think more about ethical gadgets. In particular, Andy was impressed by Bandi’s “insistence and hope that it would be the very technology that was causing the problem that would also be its solution.” We hope you will enjoy their conversation.

We’re proud to announce that Bandi Mbubi will be speaking at our next Congo Calling event in Exeter on 29 November – please come!

Bandi has been busy since he presented his TEDxExeter talk in April about the need for conflict-free technology.  The Congo Calling campaign emerged from the outpouring of support following his talk. Since then Bandi has spoken on conflict minerals at Campus Party, the international technology conference held in Berlin, and participated in the Centre for African Development and Security/SOAS Round table on Conflict Minerals. He is supporting student groups in their campaigns for conflict mineral free campuses. Last month his TEDxExeter talk was featured on TED.com, and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times all over the world.

Bandi has inspired individuals and groups to find out more and take action. Our meeting in Exeter will be a great opportunity to learn about how the mining of rare earth minerals, used in so much of the technology we use every day, is fueling armed conflict, slave labour and sexual violence in the Congo. The talk will be followed by an open discussion.

Tickets are available now at £5.00 from Eventbrite.

There are many more exciting things coming up in the near future. To find out more please follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and keep an eye on our website.

Thank you for your support,

Congo Calling Team

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According to the Wikipedia article on languages of the DR Congo:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a multilingual country where an estimated total of 242 languages are spoken. Ethnologue lists 215 living languages. The official language, inherited from the colonial period, is French. Four indigenous languages have the status of national language: Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba.

If you could help translate Bandi’s talk (or any other TED talks) into languages indigenous to the Congo, please contact TED.

Breaking the Silence Congo Week is a week of activities that commemorates the millions of lives lost in the Congo conflict while celebrating the enormous human and natural potential that exists in the country. Communities throughout the globe join in partnership with Congolese each year on the third week of October to screen films, hold teach-ins and forums, organize rallies, host fundraisers, put on concerts and undertake many other activities to elevate the profile of the Congo throughout the globe.

Students and community organizers initiated Congo Week in 2008.  Religious leaders, scholars, intellectuals, artists,  and ordinary people throughout the globe also got involved to acknowledge the lives of the Congolese people and their pursuit for human dignity.

More information and to sign up…