What does it mean to carry a household on your own—every day, without pause?

In this third chapter of Marie’s oral history, we move into the structure of her daily life in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Not as a single moment of crisis, but as a system of responsibilities that repeat, accumulate, and rarely ease.

Marie describes what it means to raise three children as the sole provider. Her days begin before sunrise with housework, and unfold into a constant search for income—through training sessions, community work, and basket-making. Some days bring small earnings. Others bring none. But the routine continues, because it has to.

She speaks about the absence of shared responsibility—how roles that are often divided between two people now rest on one. Work, childcare, caregiving, financial planning, and decision-making all move through her. Even relationships are shaped by this reality, as offers of support often come without acceptance of her children.

Her story also opens into the systems that sustain survival. Informal savings groups. Short-term NGO contracts. Skills learned in fragments—eight days of training that became a livelihood. These are not safety nets. They are adaptations.

What emerges is not a single hardship, but a pattern: work that is unstable, support that is conditional, and a life that must keep moving despite both.

Marie’s voice brings us close to the everyday structure of survival—where nothing is guaranteed, but everything depends on her continuing.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

00:39 Daily Life as a Single Mother07:51Work, Income, and Survival19:08 Childcare and Care Burden22:18 Housing and Living with Your Aunt26:54 Documents, Financial, and Digital Access34:29 Feeding and Adaptation Strategy35:30 Health, Security, and Violence46:16 Faith, Dignity, and Community Life01:00:25 Community, Leadership, and Voice

Why This Story Matters

Across contexts of conflict and economic instability, female heads of household are often expected to sustain families without consistent support, protection, or recognition.

Marie’s story reflects a broader reality: survival is not only about access to aid, but about the daily labor required to hold a household together when systems are uncertain or unavailable.

Her experience highlights how women build continuity in environments where stability is not guaranteed—through work, community knowledge, and persistence.

Listening to her expands our understanding of what it means to “cope.” Not as a temporary state, but as a long-term condition shaped by responsibility.

About The Archive Speaks

The Archive Speaks documents oral histories of displaced women and female heads of households. These stories are preserved as they are told—without interpretation, without alignment—so that lived experiences remain visible in their own terms.

Goma is a city where life continues, but not freely.

In this second part of Marie’s story, we return with her to a place she knows well, yet experiences differently each time she comes back. She speaks about living in Goma now—not as a child moving between homes, but as a mother responsible for three children, navigating a city shaped by conflict, uncertainty, and watchfulness.

She describes what daily life looks like when movement is limited, when trust is fragile, and when routines are built around caution. Even small decisions—when to leave the house, where to go, who to speak to—carry weight. The city has changed. So have the people in it.

Marie also reflects on what it means to raise children in this environment. She manages fear quietly, making sure it does not settle into them the same way it has settled into the city. At the same time, she carries the full responsibility of providing—food, education, stability—without a partner, and with limited support.

Through local women’s groups and small savings systems, she works alongside other women to create some form of continuity. It is not enough to remove the uncertainty, but it allows life to keep moving.

This part of her story does not move toward resolution. It stays with what is here: a woman, her children, and a city where leaving is not always possible.

Timestamps

00:00 Returning to Goma06:10 Living under constant vigilance13:45 Motherhood and responsibility21:30 What it means to stay

About The Archive Speaks

The Archive Speaks documents oral histories of displaced women and female heads of households. These stories are preserved as they are told—without interpretation, without alignment—so that lived experiences remain visible in their own terms.

What does it mean to grow up in a place where conflict never fully leaves?

In Part 1 of Marie’s oral history, we meet her as a daughter of eastern Congo—born in Masisi, raised between Bukavu and Goma, and shaped early by movement, family expectations, and instability. Long before she became a displaced single mother, Marie was already learning how quickly life could change.

She speaks about childhood marked by love and discipline, pride in Congolese identity, and the quiet weight placed on girls inside extended families. Her memories move between schoolyards and family homes, volcanic eruptions and armed conflict, moments of belonging and moments of rejection. Each transition left an imprint.

This episode traces the foundations of Marie’s life—before motherhood, before displacement, before survival became her daily responsibility. It reminds us that displacement is not a single rupture, but a series of early interruptions that shape who women are forced to become.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

00:56 Introduction & Marie’s early life in Masisi, North Kivu07:48 Family, gender expectations, and childhood inside extended households10:37 Growing up between Bukavu and Goma, war and volcano13:26 Education, creativity, and the first losses of stability17:10 Becoming a young woman22:03 Displacement in Marie’s Life

Why This Story Matters

Women in eastern Congo are often displaced long before they are formally called “displaced.” Through conflict, disaster, and family breakdown, many girls grow up learning to adapt early—without protection or choice.

Marie’s story shows how instability shapes womanhood long before adulthood arrives. Listening to her childhood memories helps us understand what displacement takes—not only homes, but futures that were still forming.

About The Archive SpeaksThe Archive Speaks centers the voices of displaced women and female heads of households—stories often missing from policy, media, and historical record. These oral histories reflect lived memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. We hold space for these voices without political alignment or editorial interference.