The Way Back | From Survival To Governance

Women war returnees make their way across a lush hillside landscape toward the Shamba la Amani collective field in Mudja, Nyiragongo Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 6, 2026, as part of a program led by community development actor Bahati Mubuya Gladys.

Carrying seeds and supplies on their backs, leaning on walking sticks, moving in a quiet procession through one of eastern Congo's most spectacular and bloodied landscapes, these women are not fleeing they are returning.

For Gladys, this journey physically, emotionally, communally is the very heart of Shamba la Amani: the act of women from different ethnic backgrounds choosing to walk the same path, toward the same field, for the same future, in a territory where that choice has never been easy or guaranteed.