GOAL need people now - find out more (MPEG)

Fintan Lambe, Enniscorthy Guardian, 5th September 2007

It's a far cry from the green fields around Curragraigue, Ballindaggin to the jungle climes of Lulingu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Trisha Kearns, daughter of James and Susan, has been working with the aid agency GOAL in the DRC since March. She is just one of many Wexford GOAL workers, or GOALies, who have travelled to the four corners of the world to carry out humanitarian work on behalf of the Irish people over the past thirty years.

Trisha works as a logistician. 'It entails everything from management of the transport team, communications, stock and depots, base supplies and basically looking after all logistics for the GOAL team here,' she explained in an email from the Congo last week. 'The GOAL projects here focus on health, infrastructure and agriculture and livelihoods.'

'As a result, this could mean anything from organising the transportation of vaccines to health centres, distributing mosquito nets, delivering food to the hospital feeding centre or getting cement or galvanised sheeting across the river, making my job a very interesting and challenging one at times,' she added.

Lulingu is located in the province of South Kivu which is basically in the middle of the jungle. 'It's absolutely gorgeous,' said Trisha. 'It is very remote, and is accessible only by air, by the airstrip which GOAL rehabilitated. We are the only NGO (non-governmental organisation) operating in this area and with the exception of one land cruiser, motorbikes and quads and a few commercial motorbikes, there are no other vehicles on the "roads" if you can call them that.'

The GOAL team lives in a rented convent which was deserted during the war – on the team there are five ex-patriate staff, including Irish, English, Ugandan and Nigerian, and five Congolese, living on the base.

'Everyday is like living in a movie,' she commented. 'Lulingu is a very colourful place in every sense of the word. As a loggie, my work tends to be quite random at times so dealing with things black mambas (snakes), all out war by red ants on our base and staff carrying out black magic on each other is all part of a normal day's events!'

The Democratic Republic of Congo has had a very troubled recent history. It is emerging from seven years of war, which has contributed to the deaths of approx. 4 million people – 98 per cent of whom died from disease and malnutrition, caused by the destruction of the healthcare system in the conflict.

Most of DRC's 60 million people live in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day. The DRC could be wealthy, as it has some of the most valuable and diverse natural resources in the world, including gold, silver, diamonds, copper, coltan, cobalt, and uranium. But war and decades of misrule have devastated the country and the economic and social infrastructure has been shattered. The vast majority of people have had little or no say in how their country is run and there are no public services.

'Everything is calm now but poverty, unemployment, lack of education and richness and availability of natural resources here (there is big local mining of mainly calciterite here which is used for the making of mobile phones) ensures that Lulingu will always be a place of potential conflict,' commented Trisha. 'The future is uncertain for DRC in general, but in Eastern DRC tensions are rising'.

In its 30 year history, GOAL has dealt with the after-effects of many wars as well as natural disasters. Today, their work is as badly needed as ever. On the ground, GOALies make a huge difference to the day to day lives of thousands of people in dire need of assistance, but after thirty years with his finger in the proverbial dyke, does GOAL founder and CEO John O'Shea ever feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the task?

'Unquestionably the work that the GOALies – 1,300 of them in nearly 50 countries – have done over the years has made a huge difference to hundreds of thousands of people, but I have to be honest and say that the poor of the Third World are as badly off as ever,' admitted John O'Shea.

'GOAL has not been the answer to the problems of the people of the Third World, and the reason is the greed and indifference of the international community at large. The evidence from Darfur, the Congo and Burma shows that the international community has failed in its obligations,' he added. 'Hundreds of millions are caught in a vice like grip between the indifference of the Western World and governments XVia are so corrupt that much government to government aid never reaches those in greatest need.'

Today GOAL spends millions every year (over EUR60 million in 2006) implementing relief and development programmes to help the most vulnerable in 11 developing countries and has managed to do this on an administration cost base of less than 5 per cent per annum.

'Irish people are the most generous on the planet,' commented O'Shea. 'We would be lost without their money and their generous spirit in giving us their daughters and sons to go to these places to do the work'. Recent years have seen some of GOAL'S largest ever emergency responses in Sri Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. O'Shea tells the story of how, back in the early days in the slums of Calcutta, sickened by the sight of so much poverty, he approached Mother Teresa. 'When you work in these conditions every day, surrounded by so much suffering, do you ever stop and wonder if you're making some kind of impact on this poverty?' he asked her. 'She turned to me and smiled, saying: "Every day of my life in Calcutta, I make it my business to lift a leper or a dying person or a child in desperate need and hug and kiss that person. I don't know whether that is the best thing to do for that person but I do know it's the right thing to do".' Reflecting on GOAL'S work in DRC, Trisha Kearns also believes GOAL has made a difference in a remote corner of the world. 'It is really all very different but I feel privileged and very lucky to be living here in Lulingu. It can be difficult but I enjoy it a lot.'

GOAL is always looking for skilled personnel to join their overseas operations and are particularly interested in hearing from doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, logisticians and programme managers. GOAL can be contacted on 101 2809779, or to earn more or to donate, visit www.goal.ie