We have already started. We want to keep going.

The Refugee Archive is building a long-form oral-history collection with displaced single mothers and female-headed households in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Twenty-one mothers have been identified for future collection. Rather than asking one donor to fund the entire project, we are taking the work one oral history at a time.

A complete oral history costs approximately $1,200 from collection through preservation.

That work can include interview preparation and recording, transportation and other participation costs, transcription, translation, documentation, secure storage, and preparation of the historical record.

But you do not need $1,200 to participate.

Give $25.

Twenty-five dollars will not fund an oral history by itself.

But twenty-five dollars joined with another, and another, helps us continue the collection.

Get to know us video.

Why preserve these histories?

Conflict reporting tells us what happened to a place.

Statistics tell us how many people were displaced.

Oral history helps preserve what displacement looked and felt like inside a life and a household.

The women we interview speak about much more than conflict. Their histories include childhood, motherhood, work, family, community, movement, loss, decision-making, humanitarian assistance, survival, and hopes for what comes next.

The original recordings become part of The Refugee Archive's growing primary-source oral-history collection.

Selected testimony may later inform public storytelling, research, education and humanitarian evidence, subject to the narrator's consent.

What your support makes possible

Your contribution joins a larger pool supporting the practical work required to responsibly collect and preserve oral history.

$5 — Help us keep the collection moving.
$25 — Join the next-history fund.
$50 — Help strengthen collection and preservation work.
$100+ — Become a sustaining supporter of the Goma collection.

Any amount matters because the goal is not one enormous campaign anymore.

The goal is to preserve the next history.

And then the next.

Help Preserve the Next Oral History from Goma

21 mothers are waiting to participate. We are continuing the collection one history at a time. Start with $25.