I am Watema Emmanuel from the central African country of the Democratic Republic of Congo. My country is rich, wealthy and strong. However, it is confronted by serious conflicts which have resulted on turbulent times ever since it won its independence from Belgium on 1960. From 1960 to present, the beautiful people of this great country have never breath the air of peace. On August 1996 … this was the year, the year that the grand war started. The war in Congo has cost more than five millions lives of my fellow Congolese people, including my dear father, Papa. This armed conflict is perhaps the third biggest war on human history after the Second World War were more lives have been lost and continue to be lost even to this day.
On 1996 the war forced me to flee my country of Congo into neighboring country in Kigoma, Tanzania where I lived for 20 years in the refugees's campus. In 2016, I resettled in the United States as a refugee seeking safety and a better place for myself. Currently, I am public health studeny at Georgia State University. During the height of the COVID-19, I and my organization and Georgia State University Clarkston Campus's Community Engagement Center distributed over 20,000 masks and bottles of sanitizer to the largely immigrants and refugee communities surrounding the campus.
I started continueing my public health work by sitting on the Represent ATL Community Advisory Board and acting as a leader for communities. Click My goal is to educate communities on proper piblic health practices and support them as they make important healthcare decissions.