« SOWING PEACE, HARVESTING TRUST »: SOCIAL COHESION AT THE HEART OF TULIME PAMOJA IN TANGANYIKA
Kalemie, 27 October 2025 — In the village fields of Tumbwe Chiefdom, a new kind of peace is being cultivated. Through the TULIME PAMOJA (“Let’s Farm Together”) project, the P-DDRCS is not only helping communities recover economically — it is rebuilding trust, reconnecting lives, and laying the groundwork for long-term social cohesion in territories once torn apart by conflict.
This pilot initiative, implemented in the Kalemie and Nyunzu territories in Tanganyika Province, targets both ex-combatants and members of host communities — not as separate categories, but as equal actors in a shared future. On Sunday, 131 beneficiaries, including women and youth from Mulange, Kasama, and Kisalaba, received agricultural tools to launch collective farming activities. These tools are more than implements — they are symbols of reconciliation, unity, and a fresh start.
The project was launched with the full support of local leadership, including customary authorities and the representative of the paramount chief of Tumbwe. Their presence at the official distribution ceremony affirmed the deep local ownership of the process. Far from being an externally imposed initiative, TULIME PAMOJA is grounded in the lived realities and aspirations of the communities it serves.
Fully funded by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and led by the National Coordination of the P-DDRCS under the guidance of Professor Jean De Dieu Désiré NTANGA NTITA, this project reflects the political and strategic vision of H.E. President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo — a vision that places human dignity, community recovery, and national sovereignty at the center of peacebuilding.
By promoting short-cycle food and vegetable crops, the project addresses immediate livelihood needs while fostering joint action across former divides. Farming side by side, former adversaries become collaborators; neighbors rediscover solidarity; and fractured social ties begin to mend. In this way, the land becomes not only a source of food, but a space of healing and reconnection.
In addition to agricultural production, the project integrates labor-intensive public works (THIMO) to provide participants with income, skills, and purpose — crucial elements for preventing relapses into conflict or idleness. The fusion of productivity and reconciliation creates a strong foundation for collective resilience.
In a province long marked by violence and displacement, TULIME PAMOJA proves that rebuilding peace is not only about disarmament — it’s about working together, creating value together, and belonging together again. This is social cohesion in action.
As the project moves forward, it serves as a model of what is possible when national leadership, local engagement, and community will converge around a shared goal: peace that lasts because it is lived.
Communication Unit-P-DDRCS
