The Archive Speaks

Ep 20 | Ruth’s Story Part 1 – DRC: Gift of Simplicity

How would you look back on your childhood after living through war and displacement? In this first chapter of Ruth’s oral history, we meet a young woman from Walikale in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo who remembers life before conflict altered its course. Today, in Goma, where insecurity continues to shape daily life, Ruth sits with us and returns to memories of family, faith, school, and the small routines that once made the world feel stable. Ruth grew up in a household of eleven children led by parents who worked constantly to keep the family together. Her father farmed, preached in church, and prepared his children for school each morning. Her mother ran a small home business while caring for the household. Much of Ruth’s childhood was shaped by church life, shared meals, games with neighbors, and learning how to contribute to the family from a young age. As she grew older, education became central to her ambitions. She developed a love for mathematics, finance, and business, eventually dreaming of earning a doctorate in economics. But moving to the city brought financial strain, instability, and obstacles that slowly interrupted the future she imagined for herself. This episode stays with the years before displacement fully takes hold. It is a story about memory, aspiration, and the ordinary life that existed before survival became the center of everything. What You’ll Hear in This Episode 00:56 Birth and Family Background06:42 Childhood in DRC09:00 Education, Talent, and Aspiration Why This Story Matters Stories about conflict often begin after violence arrives. But for many displaced women, there was a full life before displacement—filled with ambitions, routines, relationships, and plans for the future. Ruth’s memories remind us that internally displaced women are not defined only by survival. They are also daughters, students, creators, and people whose lives once moved with stability and possibility before conflict interrupted them. Listening to these early memories helps us understand not only what war destroys, but what women continue carrying long after displacement begins. About The Archive Speaks The Archive Speaks documents oral histories from displaced women and female heads of households across the world. These testimonies reflect lived memory shaped by conflict, migration, poverty, and survival. We preserve these stories without political alignment or editorial interference, allowing women to speak in their own words. Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe [https://therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep 19 | Marie’s Story Part 3 – DRC: “I Carry Everything Alone”

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. Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe [https://therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep 18 | Marie’s Story Part 2 – DRC: A City Under Watch

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. Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe [https://therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep 17 | Marie’s Story Part 1 – DRC: Raised Between Moves

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. Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe [https://therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep 16 | Kolima’s Story Part 2 – Rohingya: Life in the Waiting

What does life look like when displacement stretches into years? In the final chapter of Kolima’s oral history, we hear from her as she lives now — inside the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Her days are shaped by sickness, ration schedules, paperwork, and the quiet labor of keeping a household together without a husband or extended family nearby. Kolima speaks about managing illness with limited medical care, repairing her shelter after landslides, standing in long lines for food, gas, and cash assistance, and raising her children while navigating systems that were never designed for women doing everything alone. She shares the work she once did in Myanmar, the work she wishes she could do now, and the small skills she hopes to learn so she can survive through honest labor. This episode is not about escape or resolution. It is about continuation. About what it takes to endure when displacement becomes routine and when survival depends on patience, faith, and the support of other women living through the same conditions. Kolima’s story brings us inside the everyday reality of Rohingya women leading households — not as statistics, but as people living full lives inside constraint. This oral history was recorded live inside the refugee camps in Bangladesh in partnership with the Ziabul Hossain Foundation, whose community-based work made it possible for Kolima’s voice to be documented where she lives. What You’ll Hear in This Episode 00:00 Fleeing Myanmar06:32 The Struggle for Shelters10:34 Living conditions and Rations15:58 Access to livelihood and means for income16:39 Hygiene and Security in the camp21:44 Necessities outside of basic needs23:30 Work for Rohingya Refugees28:10 Registration problems31:20 Open drains and unsafe latrines in the camp31:59 WATER PROBLEMS33:05 Kolima's son, and her problems as a widow Why This Story Matters For many Rohingya women, displacement is not defined by the moment they fled — it is defined by the years that followed. Female heads of household often carry the heaviest burden: caring for children, managing aid systems, maintaining shelters, and making daily decisions without income or protection. Kolima’s story shows how survival is built through accumulation — of labor, patience, and care — rather than through singular moments of resilience. Her testimony helps us understand displacement as a condition that reshapes every part of daily life. Listening to her is an act of recognition. The Archive Speaks centers the voices of refugee and internally displaced women leading households—stories often missing from policy, media, and historical record. These oral histories reflect personal memory, shaped by time, trauma, and survival. The Refugee Archive preserves these stories without political alignment or editorial interference—so women can speak in their own words, on their own terms. Get full access to The Refugee Archive: Global Center for Displaced FHH at therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe [https://therefugeearchive.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]