The Hands That Build Peace | From Survival To Governance

Members of FUDEI (Femmes Unies pour le Développement Endogène et Intégral), the women's organization led by coordinator Rachel Malulu, plant trees along a street median in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on February 21, 2026.

Under Malulu's leadership, FUDEI has pioneered a unique model of community peacebuilding that is both literal and symbolic transforming neglected urban spaces into living green corridors that restore public health, community cohesion, and collective pride in a city that has endured decades of armed conflict, volcanic eruptions, and mass displacement.

As international negotiations over the future of eastern DRC continue to stall and restart, initiatives like this one remind the world that peace in Goma is already being built quietly, stubbornly, by women with shovels in their hands.