IU junior aims to aid Congo through campus group

In central Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo, ongoing violence perpetuates rape as a weapon of war and one in five children will die before their fifth birthday.

At IU, however, and seemingly a world away, junior Dani Walker is attempting to create change for these people.

Walker single-handedly created the Giving Back to Africa student association, and is president of the organization. She also balances a 30-hour work week between waiting tables at Bloomington’s Village Deli and babysitting.

As a junior in high school, Walker caught a glimpse of what was happening in the DRC through The Oprah Winfrey Show.  

“One, I couldn’t believe this was going on and that I have never even heard about it, and two, it was going on and nobody was doing anything about it,” Walker said.

A history of conflict has torn the nation apart. Multiple wars in a decade’s span have caused more than 5.4 million deaths, worse than any conflict since World War II, according to the group’s Web site.

Walker grew up on a grain farm in Waterloo, Ind. Living on the farm instilled the sense that “you have to work for what you get,” she said.

She said she was overwhelmed when she saw the women of the DRC who have worked so hard for their lives, yet are “brutally raped” and face acts of violence.

“There’s absolutely no reason for that,” Walker said.  

Ann Marie Thomson, along with her husband Jim Cali, founded the parent organization Giving Back to Africa in 2003. After years of planning, Giving Back to Africa sponsored  its first two students in 2007. Thomson, a professor in the School of Public Affairs, grew up in northwest Congo, away from the intense violence.  

“For me, it was the best childhood I could ever have,” Thomson said.  

Thomson returned in February after a trip to the DRC to visit the people they sponsor in eastern Congo.

“It’s the tiny things that are making the difference, by focusing on four people and really investing in them – they are going to make such an impact on the people around them,” Walker said.  

Giving Back to Africa’s primary focus is on four scholars who are from and study in the DRC. The scholars are expected to create a “giving back” project they designed for an underserved area of the DRC, according to the Giving Back to Africa Web site. Giving
Back to Africa also supports an orphanage in a destitute area of the country, Thomson said.  

Walker plans to study abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, this summer as part of her major in International Studies. From there, she hopes to travel north to the DRC.

Although Walker encourages people’s involvement with the DRC and Africa, she said people sometimes address the situation the wrong way – that is, without humility, she said.

“As opposed to sitting down with somebody and understanding their life and understanding why this phenomenon is happening and listening to them and actually learning from them, rather than going over there and saying ‘I’m here to save you,’ it’s just kind of degrading,” Walker said. “I almost feel guilty for the blessings that I have.”