Gearing up 4 Gorillas

Emmanuel won’t mind me copying his latest post to you: 

I have just come from the camp in Goma where 670 Ranger family members have been living now for over 2 weeks - since the fighting worsened up at Rumangabo station on 8 October. There have been 7 outbreaks of cholera in the last 24 hours - 6 children and 1 woman.

We need to get medicine to the camp so cholera can be treated immediately, and then the children and others who get the disease can eventually be transferred to a clinic. There is just no such thing as emergency services right now, and cholera can spread like wildfire. Joel the nurse just went to try and buy medicine at the pharmacy in town, and then all the riots broke out against the UN and the pharmacy and all the other shops closed their doors.

Life tries to go on as normal, but the atmosphere is strained as the wives are worried for their missing husbands

We have just heard again from some of the Rangers in the forest. Of the 53 Rangers that were guarding Rumangabo station and were forced to flee, we are in touch with a group of 12. All the others have dispersed as a result of the fighting and we have no way of knowing where they are. The group we are in touch with are exhausted and dehydrated, and still a long way from safety. They did make it to the road at Rugare, but when they came out of the forest the rebels shot at them and they had to run back in. They are literally at their wit’s end.

Goma is quiet. Those who can are going over the border to Rwanda as rumor is rife that the rebels may try and take the town. It is all over the international media. If you go to this BBC article here the photo says it all.

Thank you for your support and your donations. We have just drawn up a budget of urgent funds that we need to support our Rangers and their families which we will be posting shortly. All the donations in the last few days will go towards the goal. Remember we don’t take any admin fee - all your donation goes to the field.

Alternatively, you can donate via the G4G button on the right and we will send 100% of your donation directly to Emmanuel, to help in these desperate times.

Thank you

Linda, G4G

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Rangers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.