Update: Watch Sienna’s short film about her trip to the Congo here.
It has been a whirlwind three days and so much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin. Twenty four hours of the last seventy two have been spent in a car so we’re all feeling weary. I’m not sure if I even have the energy to attempt eloquence but I’ll give it a shot.
We left Bukavu for Chambucha on Wednesday morning at six. The journey was everything we had been warned about and more: muddy roads that could swallow a truck, flat tires, makeshift bridges, military checkpoints, very young men with very large weapons. It was a six-hour drive through Kahuzi Biega National Park and north to Chambucha. The scenery was breathtaking. Thick dense jungle, bamboo trees and wild orchids, monkeys, every shade of green you could possibly imagine. Enormous spider webs and their equally enormous creators, such a change from the urban feel of Bukavu. There were children swimming in the river that borders the forest where the FDLR (Rwandan rebel group) are in hiding, and where the FARDC (Congolese government troops) have taken positions along the road, weapons trained at their sides. And that’s what’s so confusing about this place..utter purity and beauty juxtaposed with brutal violence.
So we headed to an area engulfed by guerrilla activity. As a result tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes in neighboring villages and have been essentially herded into Chambucha. The road we are on ends there, and we are received like heroes. The people had been told beforehand of our arrival and hundreds turned up to clap and cheer and sing us into our camp. It was so moving and there is no way I can do it justice in words…David Serota has it all on film, so it will no doubt eventually speak for itself.
International Medical Corps’ hospital facility is set up next to the compound where we are staying and after dropping our bags we walk fifty meters into the fenced area for a tour. The care being provided, considering the extremely remote location, is again incredible. The stories I hear are again, harrowing. I met a mother who was running away from a group of militia three days earlier with her baby strapped to her back. They both got shot, but survived and thankfully made it into the facility in time. Her boy is so little and the huge bandages on his arms break my heart. Everything about this place breaks my heart. These people all have stories which they share with me and there is just simply too much to try to grasp. Everyone has lost something, everyone has lost someone. I meet malnourished babies, mothers, fathers, widows and widowers, malaria sufferers, their eyes glazed, victims of rape and pillaging. They are all here in massive numbers, and their stories are agonizing. I meet a group of about a hundred who have selected an old man to read out on behalf of them all, their list of grievances. They have no homes and no possessions and they need others to recognize they are in crisis. I sat down with the Mai Mai, an armed community defense group that has been placed here by the government, but not paid for months. The general told me that he wants to go back to his old post but leaving this area would look like he was plotting to join another force and would essentially place a target on his head. He was surrounded by his men in green uniforms, holding their ammunition and AK 47s. It is intimidating for me to interview them and certainly against the norm for them to answer difficult questions posed by a woman. Even though their definition implies that they are allies of the government, I know that there is really no “good” armed group in this country. I later asked a victim of rape if she felt protected by the Mai Mai or any of the military here. She simply said “I don’t trust any man wearing a uniform”. This woman had been raped on three separate occasions, each time requiring fistula repair. The last time she was held captive for three months and was consistently raped by eleven men. The reason she had had so many of these encounters was because she was disabled and therefore when the men came into the village and the women fled, she was always left behind. She simply could not run as fast as the others. I sat with a fourteen year old girl who was raped nine days ago… and another and another. It is impossible to fathom the sheer number of women who have been violated here, and their stories are way beyond anything I can even begin to comprehend.
I was able to deliver one wonderful treat in Chambucha. Lysa Heslov and her terrific foundation, Children Mending Hearts, provided hundreds of t-shirts for the children who are in desperate need of clothes and it was uplifting and rewarding to later see them running around smiling in their new clothes.
We spent the night in bunk beds within the camps and eat a supper of cassava leaves with some river fish and rice. There is no electricity so everything is cooked on clay pots over coal and we wash before dinner with a bucket of cold water. I haven’t felt so present in a long time. There is something to be said for eliminating choice and the calm that comes with it. It dawns on me that I get so overwhelmed at home and life is often spent planning or organizing or making decisions in general. Here there is really not much choice at all and as a result I find myself stopping and actually having the time to process the experiences we have had. The drive back on Thursday took about seven hours. We slept in Bukavu and then drove eight and a half hours to Rwanda.
I broke down twice on this trip. The first time after being in the displacement camp outside Goma, seeing the woman with the colostomy bag. I had to step into an empty tent and sob. I had consciously planned on keeping it together, but the visual and the look in her eyes broke me. After that, some form of defense mechanism kicks in. Of course you feel enormous empathy but there is no room for personal emotion in these places. Still, as we crossed the border into Rwanda, it all hit me, and I cried. It was a pretty silent journey to Kigali because we all leave a piece of our hearts in DRC. There is a lot to process, but I have never gone on such an incredible journey before and am inspired to come home and start the real work. Please go to imcworldwide.org and if you have anything to spare, donate. Trust me the money you spend will be very well used and these people need and deserve all the help they can get.
Muddy roads in Bukavu
**Listen to an interview with Sienna Miller from Air America radio**
(Images courtesy of Dokument Films)
CATEGORIES: Human Rights
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Sick joke !!
from a sick person….
these stories are heartbreaking - what’s happening in the DRC is a tragedy. I think it’s wonderful that Sienna is using her status as a celeb to shine a light on what’s happening there!
As much as I have empathy for the people in the Congo as I have worked in places like Sri Lanka and East Africa Miss Miller with her drinking smoking and any disregard for Mrs Getty’s feeling after the affair with Mr. Getty is not the person I would listen to and have any respect for. This is all about damage control for her career, if she had done this before the affair I might have respected her a little bit more. Everything she says is for her benefit.
Well done Sienna safe return home x
I am the cinematographer that was on this trip with Miss Miller. I am going to dispel all rumors and lay to rest any question in regard to her involvement and/or behavior.
I met up with Miss Miller in Nairobi, Kenya where we boarded a flight together (coach) to Kigali, Rwanda.
There we met up with the International Medical Corps and took the long and bumpy ride in a 4×4 to the border in Goma. She voluntarily took the center seat with no safety buckle in the front of the truck between the driver and the front passenger seat. For anyone that has traveled in this region of the world, to sit in that seat for 4 hours is grueling, let alone after a 10 hour flight from London.
We arrived at the border, crossed, and checked in to our hotel.
I am a documentary filmmaker with $5,000.00 in my bank account. Sienna stayed at the same hotel with the same accommodations as me and this would be the same hotel I stayed at with or without her in tow.
For anyone who thinks there is luxury hotels anywhere in DR Congo, are as ill equipped to be a journalist as they are a stone thrower.
We spent long grueling days in Goma, woke up early, worked all day and then at the end of the night, when all I wanted to do was go to sleep, she stayed up and processed it all in her blogs.
In everything we did, she simply asked one question, “What’s next?”
Yes, I had heard all of the stories but for you to think because you read something in a tabloid, that it is true, or you are somehow above making mistakes, is laughable at best, and really should be your wake up call. Instead of commenting on the plight of the disenfranchised you are slamming a soul on this planet trying to make a difference with her life.
Imagine for a moment if you used these energies for good. What kind of change could be happening in your town? With you family? Around the globe?
Miss Miller absolutely wrote EVERY SINGLE WORD of her blogs and she endured all of the same hardships that traveling in this region of the world requires. Not eating for long periods of time, no electricity, clean water, bed bugs, and mosquitoes.
In an industry where image is everything, it is a shame that you will never see all the times she sacrificed her own comfort for the team or the story. That doesn’t sell papers. That doesn’t feed the machine.
Sienna Miller is the real deal. Trust me, I brought with me all the same preconceptions as I was racked with anticipation in my ability to tell this story. I learned that until you meet a person, until you know a person, you CANNOT believe what is written about them. People love to tear people down, for whatever reason.
Actually, that is the least of my concern.
What does concern me is doing everything that I can to mobilize people to go out there and make a difference.
Sienna was doing just that.
As I said before, she is the real deal.
Celebrate ones accomplishments, not their mistakes.
My hat is off to her and all of the change makers doing what they feel is right in the face of the naysayers.
Finally somebody spoke up. Well done, David !!! It was about time. She also strikes me as a sincere and very real person without the star attitudes. Her blog was moving and eye opening and genuninly feeling with the peole she met.
I’d just like to add a little to David’s comments. As “the security guy” I was a little apprehensive before I met Ms. Miller and her group at the border post at Goma. My fears were groundless. She, and they, were down to earth, humble, hardworking, uncomplaining and appreciative of everything.
If only everyone in MY profession behaved in the same way.
It was a pleasure to work with her, and them, and I sincerely hope that another opportunity comes along in the future.
Instead of complaining, insulting, sneering or opening one’s mouth to change feet, may I suggest putting that energy to GOOD use, as Sienna did.
Just my 2cents worth.
Stay safe,
M.
as important as the human rights issues are here, you simply picked the wrong messenger. this is self-promotion on Miller’s part, an attempt at image rehabilitation. nothing more.
G,
Is she as sincere when she shows up drunk and naked with someone’s else’s husband? How much does she feel for their wives and children?
This woman has no character at all.
Dave, give it a rest, already
I can’t what I am reading here! Someone donates her time and energy to do something good in this world and describes heart-breaking accounts of what is happening in the DRC and the only comments I am seeing posted are related to her private life? I have been to Rwanda and the border of the DRC and I wrote my own blog. I can tell you that it takes a lot of courage to share your thoughts and impressions while experiencing such a degree of empathy with people who are experiencing hardship at this level. The reason a person perseveres with writing a blog is in hopes that it will open the eyes of others to the problems of the region. The eyes of others who are so busy watching life through the filter of tabloids and television that they forget to live their own life and fail to see that their lives could amount to so much more if they worked on themselves as much as they chastise others that they know of through the media but actually do not “know”. I commend Sienna’s efforts and the bravery she has exhibited by putting her experience in print. As far as her alleged affair goes, what in the world does that have to do with the price of tea in China? or dying children in Africa? Personally, I don’t give a flying fornication! If a person is in need and someone extends a hand to help is that effort somehow made less noble by the person’s past that is offering the help? Of course not! If that were the case we would all be held prisoner by our past. I am glad that I was able to share my experiences of Rwanda without being under the microscope of being a celebrity. To give your time and heart to a good cause only to be criticized and be called a farce must be terrible and I only hope that Miss Miller does not get discouraged by what she reads here and continues working toward this noble cause.
sorry to disappoint you but she’s already in LA, partying.
but keep hoping, because we all know the hope never hurts. unlike the truth and naked reality.
I can only imagine how this trip must have effected you, Sienna. Regardless of what these ridiculous people have posted in this comment section, I think it is a great thing that you have done. I wish that more people were exposed to REAL the wrong doings that humanity is capable of inflicting on itself. I think it would really put things into perspective for people who complain about petty things that they don’t even know are true or not.
Best of Luck with continuing this work!
I think that the wife and children of the man she is having an affair with is being exposed to the real wrong doings of humanity.
I am so sick of people ballyhooing because a rich, beautiful, famouse woman took an interest in the world for 20 minutes. she’s got nothing but time, she could affect some REAL change if she wanted to. she was only interested in jump-starting her career. She’ll never be back, count on it!!!
Is anyone here reading this because they are actually interested in learning something about what’s going on in the DRC, or are you just looking for a gap in this blog to rip on Sienna Miller?
Do you also take time to research the personal lives of the reporters you listen to on the news? Would it make a difference to you if what they were reporting was true?
This is ridiculous- why are you reading this blog to begin with? Regardless of the motives of its author, the accounts she is writing about here hold potential to raise some awareness to some very critical issues going on in the eastern DRC. Working in this country myself, I am often disappointed at the level of apathy I encounter at home in the US when the DRC enters a discussion.
I don’t care what she did with her personal life, I think it’s commendable that she took the time to see first hand what is going on here- sometimes just showing up to let others know that you care about what is happening in their lives can make a large difference in their moral- and here, moral is worth its weight in gold, if you can find it.
She took very real risks, traveling through DRC. She could also have chosen to go somewhere just as “high profile” and less dangerous.
Bottom line, this isn’t about Sienna Miller- It’s about Congo. If you don’t like her blog, don’t read it, and go find some other sources. She certainly isn’t an expert on congo- there are plenty of other sources you can go to for “expertise”. That said, the blog is well-written and clearly from the heart- you don’t take a trip like this to save your reputation, you do it for other, deeper reasons.
Stop thinking about worthless petty gossip, and try and take something from this website- for example, how lucky you were to be born in a place where your childhood was spent free of fear of being spent as a child soldier or being gang raped repeatedly.