The Dodd Frank Bill was  passed and signed into law in July 2010 by President Obama.  The bill itself is over 2,300 pages and implements regulations on everything from domestic banking to international trade.  However, it is one small paragraph, Section 1502, that may have the largest global impact.  Section 1502 addresses what international governments have deemed “conflict minerals”.  Conflict minerals are minerals derived from mines in countries where the proceeds are going to fund rebel groups and where working conditions border on slave labor.  These circumstances could not better describe The Democratic Republic of Congo.  Geologically, the DRC may be one of the richest countries on the planet as it is rich with minerals that are essential for today’s electronics manufacturing, as a matter of fact, the cell phone you hold so closely is most likely composed of minerals and parts exported from DRC.

Geological estimates indicate that the DRC has over $24 trillion in unmined exports yet it consistently remains the second poorest nation on Earth.  This may be due to the fact that the people of DRC do not have any ownership in these mines and do not profit from the exportation of these essential minerals.  In fact, they have no claim to the mines that have sat on their lands for thousands of years.  This is because, in an effort to combat extreme poverty, the Congolese government sold the rights to these mines to multi-national organizations in exchange for monies they thought would help with social programs and cultural progression.  This fatal flaw was only evident years later when the government realized the magnitude of what they had done.  Since these mines were no longer property of the Congolese government they had very little oversight on the working conditions within the mines and these organizations took full advantage of this lack of governance.    Instead of setting up organized or unionized work forces, these organizations instead exploited the poverty of the people in DRC by employing them to work in the mines, thus toiling the lands their government sold from under them.  The vast mines of Congo contain minerals and metals essential for the manufacturing of modern consumer electronic devices, including cell phones, mp3 players, iPod’s and hundreds of other portable electronic devices.  These metals are extracted from the mines and sold to refineries and distributors where they are converted into a product value in the billions.

These conflict minerals are often referred to as “the three ‘T’s””, Tin, Tungsten and Tantalum as well as another essential metal, Casterite.  These metals are essential for the production of micro processing and radio receiving devices.  Millions of our most valued products contain these metals and the vast majority of these devices were manufactured using minerals derived from DRC.  Most of us are unaware of this due to the small scale reporting that has been done internationally regarding conflict minerals.  However, the arduous and archaic conditions under which these minerals are mined is worthy of a global revolution.  Almost everyone of our cell phones, laptops, Kindles, iPads and other mobile devices contain the minerals above.  These metals are available in other locations throughout the globe but, due to the unregulated conditions in DRC and low pay of miners in the DRC, they are cheaper and available in larger quantities.  These materials are sent to worldwide smelters and manufacturers around the world who then convert them into the most popular consumer products.  However, it all begins in the mines.

 The conditions in these mines can only be described as “back-breaking”.   Most of the work in the mines  is usually reserved for men and children over the age of 7.  Congruently, children make up 30% of the mining workforce.  A work day is usually 12-16 hours of tenuous labor in which the miners are tasked to dig trenches, break through walls of sheer rock and carry hundreds of pounds of rocks out of the mines.  The mine owners only grant their employees one short break a day for a meal of very little subsistence.  All of these tasks are done without the slightest intimation of the safety protocols we have become so accustomed to in the American mining sector.  In recent years there have been efforts made by the local governments to improve the working conditions, including the implementation of a minimum wage and the curtailing of extreme work hours.  However, these are rarely enforced and if they were to be stringently enforced the level of poverty would only proliferate.  The average daily wage for an adult male working in a mine is less than $2 per day.  Most of DRC is still communal families where each member works to earn a wage which is then pooled with all others in the family to provide the basic resources for survival.  If work hour regulations were enforced this would reduce the mean income of a family, thus decreasing their ability to purchase these basic resources.  So despite the harsh working conditions most Congolese are forced to object to the very regulations enacted to save their lives.

All of this became even more convoluted in the late 1990’s when Rwandan armies invaded Congo and begun to reign terror on this once peaceful country.  Their first target, the civilian owners of these mines.  Through extreme violence these militant armies extorted the owners of these mines who were forced to provide them with a percentage of monies generated from the mines.  As would be expected, these monies went to further finance the hostile armies of Rwanda who were murdering men and children and who have sparked an international crisis stemming from the barbaric sexual and physical violence against women.  Essentially, these innocent and exploited Congolese workers whom were just attempting to work to provide for their families were financing the very war that was killing their families, brutalizing their women and destroying their country.  During this brutal occupation over 3 million civilians were killed, another 3 million displaced and 1.8 million women reported being raped.   Still, rape is considered socially taboo and most women do not report their rapes for fear of being socially ostracized and having their husbands leave them, so the true number of rapes may be incalculable.

In the last decade several global initiatives have been instituted in an effort to stop the travesties against women in Congo, as their brutality was the predominant method of psychological terrorism for rebel armies.  However, other victims still remain unaddressed and under-recognized.  The number of injuries in men and children as a result of accidents in the mines may be the largest pandemic you have never heard of.   13 million men and children are part of this vast mining sector and traumatic accidents and injuries are commonplace as part of this occupation.  But, due to the absence of any health care system or organized workers groups, these accidents are never reported but the estimates are in the tens of thousands per year.   This is not to diminutize the sexual violence against women and the psychological and physical trauma that these attacks cause can never be quantified.  In fact, the rampant violence against women is what originally, and unintentionally, sired The Spine Africa Project.

The Spine Africa Project was begun in 2008 not by a corporation nor a group of politicians nor a team of any kind.  Instead, by one single man in New York City whose ire was raised by the reportings of the violence 7,000 miles away in DRC, Dr. Richard Kaul.  Dr. Kaul was invited to a speech that was to be given by a doctor who worked as an OB/GYN at The Panzi Hospital in the South Kivu province of Congo, Dr. Roger Luhiriri.  Panzi Hospital had served for a decade as the epicenter for the surgical treatment and social rehabilitation of women who had been raped by the violent armies occupying DRC.  Dr. Luhiriri had become an international voice for raising awareness about these atrocities in his country. After attending the speech and determined to make a difference, Dr. Kaul, a renowned spine surgeon by profession, made arrangements to take time off from his burgeoning surgical practice in New Jersey to travel to this impoverished and dangerous country to employ his medical knowledge and assist in any way that he could.  While traveling throughout the country and visiting several local health clinics he came upon an epidemic that he never expected.  The rate of spinal injuries in men, women and children was astoundingly high.  These injuries were a result of several factors and all of which were equally concerning.   Unregulated and dangerous working conditions in the mines were the primary source of injury as well as the physical abuse against women and the lack of prenatal screenings for deformities in vitro also contributed extensively to the instance of these injuries and deformities.    Alarmed and concerned, Dr. Kaul inquired as to how these victims were being treated medically.  The simple and curt answer he was bestowed changed his live forever, they are not treated at all.  Upon further inquiry he was told that the local doctors  have neither the training nor the resources to perform these life saving procedures.  Most victims are sent back to their communities where their life expectancy is less than 2 years.  From that moment The Spine Africa Project was born.

Dr. Kaul vowed to return multiple times per year to Panzi Hospital to assess patients and use his expertise to perform the live saving surgeries these victims so desperately needed.  Since 2008, he has kept that promise returning multiple times to DRC despite political instability and internal violence.  Each time he returned he garnered further insight as to just how impactful these injuries can be both socially and economically.  As mentioned before, most communities in DRC remain as communal societies and all members work to provide financial stability within the family.  However, when a member of the family suffers a spine injury they are no longer able to work, hence they do not provide a wage to the family.    In DRC not being able to work is not coupled with financial assistance or a stipend of any kind as it is in America.   If you do not work you do not get paid, simple.  Also, there is no semblance of Health Insurance or medical financial assistance that allows the victims to receive the  medical treatment they need.  Many in DRC often proffer livestock and cattle to settle any deb with a doctor and the system of bartering is still widely accepted, even in the medical community.  And with the average income of a miner being less then $2 per, affording any kind of medical is impossible.  With no safety nets in place many families can not survive sans one wage and plus another mouth to feed.  In many instances the entire family of a victim with a spine injury will not survive due to starvation.

This alludes back to the aforementioned Dodd Frank Bill.  The intent of this bill was to mandate transparency by any company operating under the SEC in attempt to prove that the sale and importation of these “conflict minerals” was not be used to fund violence in DRC.  The SEC will be publishing public reports yearly listing those companies that have complied as well as those who have not complied.  One of the drawbacks may be that the SEC has not imposed financial amercements onto those companies who do not comply.  Instead, the report will be made public and the companies who do not comply may suffer the public repercussions of non-compliance which may include the decrease in sales of their products, much like the “conflict diamond” crisis in Sierra Leone.  Many companies have spent millions of dollars in an attempt to premptively avert the inevitable PR nightmare that will result from non-compliance.

However, The Spine Africa Project has conceived a much more benevolent and effective utilization of these finances that directly impacts the lives of those suffering as a consequence of the conflict mineral crisis.  Instead of spending millions on positive PR and adaptive compliance we are encouraging these companies to take a small portion of those finances and donate them to The Spine Africa Project so that we may continue to treat those injured as a direct result of the exploitation of  the mining industry in DRC.  These multi-national organizations spend untold amounts of money on “direct to consumer” marketing, so why not “direct to victims donations”?  Although these companies are taking steps to make sure the money does not fall into the hands of militants they are circumventing one of the other real issues, the working conditions themselves.  As long as they are operating and importing materials from DRC they are perpetuating the problem itself, the forced labor of men and children.

The goal of The Spine Africa Project is to facilitate a self-sustaining spine treatment program within Panzi Hospital as well as improve the economic conditions needed to achieve these goals.     These surgical procedures require modern sterilization techniques as well as equipment.  Although Panzi serves as one of DRC’s most populated hospitals the conditions there are not reflective of the high patient volume.  Water and electricity are intermittent, equipment is scarce, sterile conditions are a severe concern and the nearest MRI clinic is 600 miles away.  This money will used to address the already pre-existing injuries that necessitate treatment, improving hospital conditions and  improving safety and health protocols in the mines of DRC.

We urge you to help us spread the world about this pandemic.  Dr. Kaul is infinitely passionate about his Spine Africa Project, however it is a tremendous undertaking both in terms of resources and financially.  We rely on the magnanimous support of donors to help fund this charity.  We want to get this message out as far and wide as we can.  From the average consumer to the largest corporations.   Dr. Kaul’s next trip is planned for January 2012 and we will continue to push for support of this wonderful project.

Please visit http://www.spineafricaproject.org to see photos and videos of conditions in DRC as well as the lives we have changed.