By Bridget Spinks
Bronwyn Muller of St Mary’s parish, Bunbury and a team of eight friends raised $2,637 for Caritas Australia in the Perth City to Surf on 29 August.
Bronwyn was inspired to take part in the competition and raise money for the victims of rape and HIV/AIDS sufferers in Congo after watching an eye-opening documentary on the situation in Congo, which was “horrifying”.
“I watched a documentary on the ABC which detailed how violent rape was being used as a weapon of war to destroy communities in the Congo, targeting women, children and babies,” she said.
“At the centre of the conflict is the mineral, Coltan, which is used in mobile phones, laptops and other devices such as Nintendos,” she said, adding that six million have died since the fighting began.
“I realised these daily horrors were being committed while people in Australia were unaware, continuing to live lives of privilege and luxury. The irony was that luxuries we take for granted were actually connected to the conflict in the Congo,” she said.
A few weeks before the City to Surf in early August, Bronwyn contacted Caritas, a Catholic agency for international aid and development.
She obtained information about the situation in the Congo and about the work that Caritas Australia was doing there to help the victims of rape and sufferers of HIV/AIDS. To raise money to help the cause, she organised a team to run the City to Surf and set up an online fundraising page.
“When I started to see the donations come in on our online fundraising site, I was amazed at the generosity of people; it was such a good feeling,” she told The Record. The team hit their target of $2,000 on the day of the City to Surf but surpassed it when people continued to donate money to the cause after the event.
Of the ‘Caritas Congo’ team, only Chris Muller ran the whole 12km while other members including Hanna Lyra and Bronia Karniewicz from the Respect Life Office, Priscilla Grainger, Bridget Curran, Bruce Muller, Amie Thorpe and Bronwyn Muller finished the walk in due course.
Bronwyn said that the team is already starting to consider the City to Surf for 2011.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to know that we’ve done something to help those in need rather than just having seen it on TV and forgotten about it,” she said.
Lulu Mitshabu is originally from the Congo and works for Caritas based in New South Wales as Caritas’ programme coordinator for the Congo. She regularly returns to monitor the progress and success of Caritas’ programme in the Congo. Lulu said that their programme in the Congo seeks to assist women, children and families by providing medical and psychological help and care, as well as strategies to increase their socio-economic status and independence.