Environmental organisations all over the world are starting to carefully take initiatives to integrate the
Batwa Pygmies in nature conservation programmes. After all, the Pygmies have a thorough knowledge of their
own natural habitat...... Kleinood is now assisting the Gorilla Park management with complementary knowledge
of the Pygmy way of live in order to avoid project failures.
The Batwa Pygmies are now trying to survive in the savannah areas, without benefice of the forest products:
a much marginalized existence. The cruel civil war in Congo has extremely traumatised the Pygmies and a lot of
them are displaced and have become refugees. We find seriously ill Pygmies on a daily basis. They cannot afford
any medical care. Kleinood takes them to local dispensaries and pays for their treatment.
Agriculture
Together with Stichting Vluchteling, Kleinood is developing agricultural and urgent food projects to fight
starvation. At the same time we are encouraging the Pygmies to create their own food production. The Pygmy
refugee camps are situated on porous, infertile lava land areas. To solve this problem we supplied 50 tons (!)
of fertile and humus soil to create fields (shambas).
Katie Day on 27 Jun 10"An ugly paradox of the 21st century is that some of our elegant symbols of modernity - smartphones, laptops and digital cameras - are built from minerals that seem to be fueling mass slaughter and rape in Congo."
