Congo Initiative

Congo Initiative

Together We Are

GIVECONNECT
Menu
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • Where We Work
    • Our Leadership
    • Close
  • What We Do
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Invest in the Next 500 Future Leaders
    • Host A Fundraiser
    • Become a Church Partner
    • Receive Updates
    • Read Our Book
    • Contact Us
    • Close
  • BLOG
  • GIVE
By Noé Kasali, Director of Bethesda Counseling Center

December 7, 2020

Lesson 3: Stigmatization interferes with the joy of healing

Gloire, middle, survived Ebola but faced social isolation.

Recently, I was taking a walk with my wife and our children when we heard men yelling from the top of a truck “corona, corona, corona!” My wife being an American, is perceived as a carrier of COVID-19. This one-time incident that I faced with my family is a daily occurrence in the lives of my brothers and sisters who have survived Ebola in Congo.

Around the world, stigmatization interferes with the joy of healing.

Ebola survivors return to their world expecting to be welcome and accepted but in reality the majority experience rejection. Their communities and their families fear contracting Ebola from the survivors, so the survivors are pushed away. The joy of surviving, of healing, is stripped from them.

Gloire is an Ebola survivor who recently shared with me, “I don’t want people to call me healed. Because if I was healed why are they afraid of me? This means they lied to us. Even at the hospital sometimes, we can see the nurses are afraid of us. Nurses are those who declared that we were healed. Why are they also afraid of us? Does it mean they are lying?”

This stigma is dehumanizing, living in a world in which people are afraid of you robs people of their sense of humanity and takes a toll on their emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. As a result, survivors may experience PTSD. “When people in my neighborhood,” Gloire recounted, “see me coming to fetch water, they will leave the well. People continue to be afraid of me. Dying is better for me because those who died don’t know what we are dealing with here. We are no longer treated like human beings.”

“It is here where I realized that I am still a human.”

Bethesda provided space for Gloire to heal from the emotional wounds and connected her with other Ebola survivors. She says, that one of the things she learned at Bethesda was “how to develop a positive image of self. It is here where I realized that I am still a human.”

Another person Bethesda worked with is a man named Kambale. This is how he shared his dramatic experience of stigma: “Everyone was calling me the son-in-law of Ebola. I didn’t know why I continued to live. I decided to make an end to my life. Last year, I took a long rope and went into the woods. I attached the rope onto a branch of a tree and wrapped the rope around my neck and let go of the rope. As I was hanging, a man happened to pass by and saw me. I only found myself on the ground after the man had cut the rope.”

The stories of Gloire and Kambale are a reminder that the social, emotional, and mental impacts of disease linger long after survival. This stigma is dehumanizing, living in a world in which people are afraid of you robs people of their sense of humanity. Love and compassionate care can be powerful antidotes to social isolation and stigma. They can unify where there has been division and discrimination.

Related

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Filed Under: Testimonials, Uncategorized

About Noé Kasali, Director of Bethesda Counseling Center

Noé is the Director of Bethesda Counseling Center and lecturer at UCBC. He received his Master’s degree in Counseling from Wheaton College USA in 2014. In 2016, he founded and launched Bethesda in order serve the local population with professional Christian counseling.

Bethesda provides counseling interventions that are critical for personal and community transformation in a context that experiences domestic and political violence, and common mental and behavioral health challenges. Noé conducts various seminars and training for health care workers, pastors, and community leaders in the area of forgiveness, grief, trauma, domestic violence, and reconciliation.

Noé lectures in the theology department at Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo (UCBC) and teaches courses such as: Ethics in Counseling, Grief and Trauma Counseling, and Introduction to Christian and Pastoral Counseling.

Noé and his wife Bethany have three girls (Joy, Anna, Lydia, and Selah) live between Nairobi and the city of Beni, located in the Province of North Kivu.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Contact Us
Blog
Organizational Structure
History of Congo
Links & Literature
Our Book

Annual Report
Financials
Privacy Policy

guidestar logo
Accord Member badge
Great Nonprofits

Website by Tomatillo Design · Copyright © 2023 Congo Initiative · CI-USA EIN: 20-3467419 · CI-UK NIC: 107268