Meet Ety!
Ety is our DRC Country Director and the glue that keeps US staff and DRC staff together! He has worked with us since the beginning and we are incredibly lucky to have him on our team.
We sat down with Ety recently for him to share some of his thoughts with us.
Ety: My name is Ety Muyaya. So, I've been working with GOF for what is now about six years, since 2014. I've been working as a country director.
Question: What has been your favorite part of working with GOF?
Ety: My favorite part was when I was welcoming these kids here. So, I was proud of myself and proud of the GOF team, the whole GOF team, because I was able to give to those kids a home and an area where they can live - like a community, like a kind of a family. So that's my favorite part of this job.
Question: What's the difference between a DRC orphanage and Bolingo Village?
Ety: So the difference between a regular orphanage and Bolingo Village is this: in a regular orphanage, kids are sharing beds and sharing everything, and there is not enough space for children. And there is not enough food for children. The children are fighting for one doll. So, there are not enough employees that can take care of children, who can give them love, and can assist them. They are sharing space, sharing food, sharing toys; sometimes there is not enough for them. And they need healthcare. They don’t go to school because there is not someone who can provide for the school. So the difference is simple. In Bolingo Village, we put kids in homes. We give them hope. We build a home, we give them a house. With a foster care mom inside, they can take care of them like they are growing happily in a family. And we are building a community. Those kids can have access to healthcare, because we have a clinic here, and we are taking care of their education; we pay for school for them. That is the main difference between Bolingo Village and orphanages, regular orphanages in DRC. Here, we take care of kids in a different way, because we are trying to build a community, we’re trying to build a big family. They can live inside of a house, inside a home with a foster care mom who can give them love and more attention.
Question: What would you say is the main difference between the US and DRC?
Ety: So, the US is a developed country. DRC is a poor country. That is the main difference. In the US, you guys have roads, hospitals, schools, you have social security. You are really organized, but here, DRC is not really organized. In the West Division, people don’t have access to healthcare, people don’t have access to school, to education. People don’t have access to jobs, which makes a lot of people abandon their kids. That is a reason why there’s a lot of abandoned kids and orphans. So that is the big difference between DRC and America.
Question: How has GOF changed since you started?
Ety: In the beginning, GOF started with other projects. We were working on other projects: we were fighting against malnutrition, working with orphanages and trying to provide them with food and plumpy nuts, and some healthcare, to help kids be healthy. At a certain time, that project was working very well. But the point was, these kids still didn’t have homes, they didn’t have access to school, they didn’t have access to healthcare. That is why GOF moved to build this village: to help those kids live in a community, to have access to education, healthcare, and to grow up in a kind of community.
Question: Why do you love Global Orphan Foundation?
Ety: GOF is really special - it’s very special because it’s changed the lives of many orphans here in DRC. So kids who are living in Bolingo Village, they are not living life like kids living in an orphanage. They're living like people living in a community. Every house here, or every home, has about 8 children with one Mama. So they're living in a regular home, with a mom who can take care of them. They grow up like they’re in a family. I think that is a big change. That’s something very great, which has made the Global Orphan Foundation very special. The other thing that's made Global Orphan Foundation very special is because they give these kids the chance to get educated, to go to school. To be in touch with other kids like normal kids. Kids who are living here in Bolingo Village, they’re living like normal kids. They don't feel like outsiders. They feel like they are living in a family, and they have access to education. And when they are sick, they can have easy access to health care, because there is a clinic in Global Orphan Foundation’s Bolingo Village. There is a big clinic; we have nurses, we have doctors, we have lab technicians. I mean, that is the gift, the big gift that GOF has to offer. And it’s made GOF very, very special for me. And I think for everybody who is living in this village, and also for people who are living around this village, because the clinic is not only for kids who are living inside of the village. It's also for people living outside of this village. They can have access to healthcare, too.
Ety is, and has always, done an amazing job. We’re lucky to have him - we wouldn’t be where we are today without his dedication to the kids.
Watch his interview below: