The Adventure Begins

We're Mara and Liz, two graduate students at NYU's Center for Global Affairs. We met on the first day of our very first class, and quickly realized we shared a heart for Africa and a passion for transforming lives. Our work surrounding development, human security, peace-building, and international relations sparked our discovery of the world's deadliest conflict since WWII. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been deemed one of the "world's worst places to be a woman or a child" (http://huff.to/lb579h). The most commonly cited figures put the death toll between 5 to 8 million Congolese over the past 13 years. The conflict has been characterized by disease, malnutrition, and systemic sexual violence against the people of the Congo. The violence is fueled by complex motives and funded by an enigmatic web of national armies, rebel groups, and regional alliances - all possessing an insatiable thirst for Congo's vast and valuable natural resources. As we began to focus our own individual research, (Liz in Development and Humanitarian Assistance and Mara in Transnational Security) we made the decision to coalesce our work into a single capstone project. The goal of our blog is to take you all on an adventure with us. To give you insight into our thoughts and fears, and along the way, introduce you to the story of the Congo and the Congolese people. We hope this blog becomes a place where you can not only experience our adventures with us, but also a place where you can come to get information and an understanding of the conflict and what you can do to help. 

This is our journey.....