GOFUNDME - FUNDRAISER

Hi, my name is Andrew Boyd, and I am fundraising for my Congolese friend and gardener, George, who has been seperated from his son, Keith, in the Congo for seventeen years. Now an Irish citizen, George is a seventy year old veteran career soldier and member of the presidential bodyguard in former Zaire where he served under long term Presidents Mobutu and the assassinated Laurent Kabila. In 2003 George and his newly married wife, Youmi, were forced by violent regime change and ethnic conflict to flee the Congo during which time he was left for dead. Youmi was pregnant with Keith when they embarked upon this dangerous and fateful journey and in all that time, this tiny family only lived lived together for less than two years when Keith was a toddler. George is now a diabetic and in the winter of his life now so the need for father and son to reunite is urgent and intense.

Youmi and Keith have stoically endured physical violence, emotional anguish and daily fear in the sizeable but vulnerable Congolese community in Johannesburg. Despite thousands of miles of sepperation, the couple have remained faithful to their marriage vows to one and other, and through thick and thin, George has unfailingly managed to financially support his loved ones in the hope that one day they would be reunited.

FLITE TO SAFETY – LEFT FOR DEAD

With the assassination of President Laurent Kabila in January 2001, many veterans of the president's bodyguard fled the Congo for their lives and a great number sought safety abroad. George and Youmi took separate and roundabout routes to the relative safe haven of South Africa where they hoped to make a new beginning.

Once in Johannesburg, George's contact, Congolese Dr. Claude Boukassa, directed him to register as an asylum seeker at the United Nations. Minutes after leaving the downtown UN offices, he walked into a boisterous Inkatha political demonstration which was in progress nearby. Identified as a foreigner by the excited Zulu protesters, George was roughed up, shot in the head, and left for dead. Rushed to hospital, his condition was critical, requiring life-support on a ventilator for six months followed by another six months in intensive care.

VANISHED AND SEPPERATED

Without ID on his person, the hospital didn’t know who George was and Youmi couldn't explain how he had vanished into thin air. But as George lay in a coma, the hand of God began to move. An unknown man began to visit regularly and when the hospital could do no more, this man and his family took George into their home. He and George discovered their joint passion for music and so began George’s partial rehabilitation. The man was Panca Coza, a renowned and successful South African performance artist and drummer. "If it wasn’t for Panca..."

One day, George remembered Dr. Boukassa. A visit revealed Youmi's details which had all but vanished form his memory and finally they could reunite. Youmi had made her way to the safety of her sister in Cape Town where she gave birth to baby Keith. George’s health steadily improved, and Dr. Boukassa engaged him as a security officer at his city center clinic which was the target of frequent attempted roberies. George had to earn his wages by having to physically ward off many violent and armed aaassaults where, incidentally, he always came out on top in spite of being himself unarmed. This couldn't go on, he thought. Youmi and himself discussed the matter and they agreed that they would have to seek safety even further afield.

THE IRISH CONNECTION + NIEMBA

At the UN office, it was revealed that George could enter Ireland on his Malawian passport without a visa. He had been given an authentic Malawain travel documents on route from the Congo to South Africa. The new plan was that he would go to Ireland; Youmi and little Keith would follow.

As a boy, George kicked football with the young Irish peacekeepers at the military camp in Kolwezi. The Irish were a boisterous lot but great fun, he remembers, and incredibly generous with their rations, especially tinned corned beef, which George so fondly remembers. In return the local boys taught the Irish lads Swahili and fixed them up with girls. Poignantly, George’s father, an army doctor, helped prepare the remains of the 25 Irish soldiers killed in ambushes, including the nine at Niemba, for repatriation to Ireland.

DUBLIN AIRPORT

Without realising the consequences for himself, Youmi and Keith, George purchased a oneway ticket from Johannesburg to Dublin. Immigration police in Dublin routinely and politely questioned him on his arrival, whereupon he duly coopperated, explaining his actual Congolese origins. His Malawian passport was surrendered rendering him stateless, grounded, and placed in the custody of the Irish Direct Provision hostel system. Visa regulations still prevented Youmi, a Congolese and toddler Keith, a South African, from going to Ireland however. Their They would remain with Panca Coza’s family even after his death some years later. Tragically, it all became too much for Youmi. She was called home to the Lord in 2022, husbandless, scared, and alone with Keith; aliens in a hostile city with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

CONCLUSION

Despite his imposing strength and being mentally sharp, George's English is still very poor, he is illiterate, innumerate and can't drive, making him dependant and vulnerable. He has made many infuriatingly disasterous and hugely costly and unfortunate mistakes here in Ireland. Also, George has some personal charachteristics which are exasperating, magnified by a giantic cultural chasm. Holding down a job for more than a few months has always been a challenge. Garden maintenance is something that George can turn his hand to, however, and his standard is perfection.

George will never be able to see his son again without some intervention and recently, when I heard of GoFundMe I felt, as a Christian, and in spite of the detractions, I must at least try to reunite father and son. Afterall, if we help only those who help us, it doesn't say much about us. Even gangsters help their own. But if you lhelp those who don't necesarily love you, great will be your reward in heaven. You have been chosen to sponsor this worthy cause and I am sure you won't disappoint. Thank you!