Quite some time back, I heard about this website called Mediastorm by Kee Sitt. The photo documentaries presented there were so touching and really played its role in bringing about issues to the public. Today I watched a really heart wrenching documentary about the Democratic Republic of Congo. The synopsis of the documentary from the website:

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998, the largest death toll since the Second World War, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

IRC reports that as many as 45,000 people die each month in the Congo. Most deaths are due to easily preventable and curable conditions, such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, and neonatal problems and are byproducts of a collapsed healthcare system and a devastated economy.

The people living in the mining towns of eastern Congo are among the worst off. Militia groups and government forces battle on a daily basis for control of the mineral-rich areas where they can exploit gold, coltan, cassiterite and diamonds.

After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West's desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure.

This is definitely a documentary worth watching and telling others about. I hope that by sharing videos like these, we are all inspired to document issues around us and to make them known to the public.