Before displacement rewrote her family’s story, nine-year-old Juliette grew up surrounded by love, open green lawns, and the warmth of a bustling home in Katanga, DRC. But at 3:00 AM one morning in 1993, that peaceful childhood was shattered by sudden gunfire. In this first chapter of Juliette’s oral history, she recounts the terrifying night her family was forced to leap out of bed and flee into the pitch-black forest with nothing but the clothes on their backs. What followed was a 30-day nightmare in the jungle—living without shelter, blankets, or food while hiding from regional conflict. Exposed to the elements, Juliette watched malaria sweep through her family, claiming the lives of five of her siblings in childhood. Returning only to find their home looted and destroyed, her father made a life-altering decision: board a humanitarian truck and escape Katanga forever.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

00:00 Childhood Memories in Katanga03:45 A Family Built on Faith and Unity05:52 The War07:58 Losing her siblings

Why This Story Matters

Juliette's testimony highlights the devastating impact of conflict on children and families, illustrating how sudden displacement and exposure to severe environmental risks turn survival into an everyday battle. Her story is also part of The Refugee Archive's broader approach to participatory and community-based research. By documenting lived experience directly, oral histories can contribute to Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), Community Engagement & Accountability (CEA), perception and feedback research, humanitarian policy and systems research, localization and locally led accountability, and evidence-to-action.The Archive preserves these experiences not only as historical records, but as sources of knowledge that can help researchers, humanitarian organizations, policymakers, and communities better understand the realities behind displacement.

About The Archive Speaks

The Archive Speaks is The Refugee Archive's oral history series documenting the lived experiences of displaced women and female-headed households around the world.Each testimony gives women space to speak about their lives in their own words — preserving memories of childhood, conflict, displacement, caregiving, survival, and rebuilding.Through this work, The Refugee Archive connects lived experience with research, education, accountability, and humanitarian action.

Tags: DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Merveille's story, Merveille DRC, South Kivu, Goma, Bukavu, motherhood, motherhood without giving birth, female headed households, female headed household, single mothers, women and displacement, women in conflict, women in DRC, oral history, African oral history, displaced women, displacement stories, caregiving, kinship care, raising a child, women resilience, education in conflict, single motherhood, humanitarian storytelling, conflict in eastern Congo, The Archive Speaks, The Refugee Archive, women and war, motherhood and displacement, stories of displaced women

Arriving in Nigeria as a penniless refugee with a six-month-old infant strapped to her chest, Yvonne faced the immediate, terrifying reality of starting from absolute zero. With her home back in Cameroon reduced to ashes and no family to rely on, she found herself sleeping on bare concrete floors in a foreign land. In this third chapter of Yvonne’s oral history, she recounts her extraordinary journey of survival, resilience, and grass-roots innovation. From working as a commercial bus fare collector so she could pitch homemade nutritional supplements to passengers, to saving up her earnings to buy a mattress large enough to shelter future refugees, Yvonne’s refusal to give up turned her personal hardship into a lifeline for others. What began as a single room providing shelter and vocational training to displaced women quickly grew into the Endam Home of Hope. Yvonne's testimony details how she built sustainable social enterprises, earned international recognition—including the UNHCR Innovation Award—and transformed her experience of displacement into a movement restoring dignity, self-reliance, and hope to thousands.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

00:00 The Escape: Fleeing Cameroon with an Infant02:35 Survival in Abuja03:46 The Bus Conductor & The "Soya Moon" Invention04:55 Why She Insisted on Buying a Large Mattress11:07 A Message to Single Mothers & Refugee-Led Aid

Why This Story Matters

Yvonne's testimony illustrates how refugee-led solutions and lived experience can drive grassroots humanitarian action, proving that displaced women are not merely passive aid recipients, but vital leaders of community transformation. Her story is also part of The Refugee Archive's broader approach to participatory and community-based research. By documenting lived experience directly, oral histories can contribute to Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), Community Engagement & Accountability (CEA), perception and feedback research, humanitarian policy and systems research, localization and locally led accountability, and evidence-to-action.The Archive preserves these experiences not only as historical records, but as sources of knowledge that can help researchers, humanitarian organizations, policymakers, and communities better understand the realities behind displacement.

About The Archive Speaks

The Archive Speaks is The Refugee Archive's oral history series documenting the lived experiences of displaced women and female-headed households around the world.Each testimony gives women space to speak about their lives in their own words — preserving memories of childhood, conflict, displacement, caregiving, survival, and rebuilding.Through this work, The Refugee Archive connects lived experience with research, education, accountability, and humanitarian action.

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Stay connected with The Refugee Archive and follow new oral histories, research, events, and stories from displaced women:Facebook: @TheRefugeeArchiveInstagram: @TheRefugeeArchiveTikTok: @TheRefugeeArchiveLinkedIn: The Refugee Archive

After earning her nursing degree and starting a new life working in Thailand, 26-year-old Yvonne believed she was stepping into a chapter of security and freedom. But when personal choices, cultural expectations, and political unrest collide, her life is radically rewritten overnight. In this second chapter of Yvonne’s oral history, she recounts the crushing social stigma she faced upon returning to Cameroon as a single mother. The public shame forced her into isolation within her own community, but an even greater threat was lurking. Joining what she believed was a peaceful Independence Day march in her village, Yvonne was suddenly marked by local authorities as a political activist. Warned by a friendly officer that her name was on an arrest list, Yvonne was forced to make an impossible choice. When soldiers descended on her compound at night and burned her family’s homes to ashes, Yvonne’s mother handed her a six-month-old baby, a small bundle of cash, and a heartbreaking directive: leave, run, and do not come back. Facing total displacement, Yvonne begins a dangerous journey into Nigeria as a penniless refugee.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

00:31 Life in Thailand and an Unexpected Decision02:15 The Stigma of Single Motherhood in Her Village04:25 Participating in the Peaceful October 1st March05:42 The Tipped-Off Warning and Midnight Gunfire08:06 Houses in Ashes: Her Mother’s Final Choice

Why This Story Matters

Yvonne's testimony shows how quickly safety can collapse in times of political turmoil, and how female heads of household often carry the double burden of social stigma and forced displacement. Her story is also part of The Refugee Archive's broader approach to participatory and community-based research. By documenting lived experience directly, oral histories can contribute to Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), Community Engagement & Accountability (CEA), perception and feedback research, humanitarian policy and systems research, localization and locally led accountability, and evidence-to-action.The Archive preserves these experiences not only as historical records, but as sources of actionable knowledge that can help researchers, humanitarian organizations, policymakers, and communities better understand the hidden, gendered realities of displacement and flight.

About The Archive Speaks

The Archive Speaks preserves oral histories from displaced women and female heads of households around the world.These stories are shared in women’s own words, without political alignment or editorial interference, so that lived experiences shaped by conflict, displacement, and survival remain part of the historical record.