A newcomer to Ottawa who devoted her life to helping people back home, but who struggled in her final months with mental illness, has died after being found downtown in the cold on Jan. 10.
As her grieving loved ones now prepare to lay her to rest, Marceline Tawembi’s story is highlighting the challenge of getting appropriate care for people in mental distress, her family says.
Tawembi, 69, was an accomplished humanitarian worker from Congo who settled in Canada last year to spend more time with her family, including her daughter and two granddaughters.
Her son-in-law, Jean DeDieu Hakizimana, said the family looked forward to having her around.
“She was really happy and alive,” he said. “And then life [started] to change.”
Only a few months after Tawembi’s arrival, her mental health suddenly began to decline and the family wrestled with how to care for her, according to Hakizimana.
For about a month before paramedics found her outside near the Byward Market, Tawembi had been staying in an emergency homeless shelter for women in west Ottawa.
Now, in the wake of her “unimaginable” death, Hakizimana is questioning whether the dedicated advocate ultimately got the help she really needed.
“This is very sad for us. It’s very tragic,” Hakizimana said. “When you see a loved one is sick and you see the deterioration for a period of time … [it is] very sad.”
Helped found school
Hakizimana described his mother-in-law as an intelligent woman who, in her early life, was a devout member of the Carmelite Catholic order. Tawembi spent much of that time in silent prayer and generally expressed herself best in writing.
She even introduced Hakizimana to her daughter, Patience Mayani, at a reception in Congo. They were participating in a meeting on ways to support non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Tawembi was instrumental in building a school for vulnerable women and girls in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, as well as supporting several NGOs in that country including her own, Save African Children.
Hakizimana said her one-on-one work with children living in poverty earned her the nickname Maman Tawembi.
A decade ago, Tawembi moved to New York City as a refugee fleeing persecution for her efforts to advance women’s rights in Congo, according to Hakizimana. There, she sought funding for development efforts back home and worked as a consultant to the United Nations.
Photos of Tawembi taken in 2017 and posted online show her at the UN General Assembly.
She came to Canada last May and planned to continue her work from Ottawa. A few months after settling in, however, Tawembi’s behaviour took a turn for the worse, according to Hakizimana.
In August, she suddenly stopped eating and sleeping.
On Dec. 13, in a desperate attempt to keep her mother safe, Mayani called the Ottawa Police Service (OPS). Tawembi had been leaving the house early in the morning without enough warm clothing.
“We did everything we are supposed to,” Hakizimana said.
Seeking support
Hakizimana said police brought Tawembi to a shelter at her own request. They recommended Cornerstone Housing for Women’s emergency homeless shelter, he said.
The Cornerstone location she was referred to, on Carling Avenue, has room to temporarily house up to 160 women and gender-diverse people at a time. It’s often full.
It’s unclear whether OPS’s mental health unit was involved. The police force declined to be interviewed or provide details, citing its ongoing sudden death investigation. Tawembi did not die under suspicious circumstances, OPS later clarified in an email.
Hakizimana said he hoped the shelter would provide social and mental health support, and eventually help Tawembi find a place to live independently.
Cornerstone would not discuss nor confirm Tawembi’s stay, citing client confidentiality, but added in an emailed statement: “Our thoughts are with the loved ones of this individual as they mourn her loss. Any death in our city is a tragedy.”
The shelter, which is not a mental health facility, does connect its clients with mental health support and other community services such as the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre and Ottawa Inner City Health.
Shannon Miller, Cornerstone’s director of shelter operations, said in an interview the facility probably isn’t always “the best place” for people like Tawembi who have “complex needs.”
Beds in long-term care facilities often aren’t available immediately, and hospitals are often overwhelmed and limited to acute care, she added.
“The needs of the people who are coming through our doors are much higher,” Miller said, noting that the increased demand is due in part to a lack of supportive and affordable housing. “There’s such a lack of services and such a lack of supports in the community.”
Hakizimana said Tawembi stayed at the shelter for almost a month, except for some trips to the emergency room. He said she was sent back to the shelter without treatment because they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with her.
In emails sent to Cornerstone less than a week after the shelter took Tawembi in, Hakizimana asked them to provide his mother-in-law with mental health support. Cornerstone staff said they would pass the email along, their reply shows.
Hakizimana said the shelter never followed up with him about that.
The next communication he received from Cornerstone was an email on Jan. 15 — five days after Tawembi’s death — to arrange the collection of her belongings, he said.
‘They did their best’
On the morning of Jan. 10, Tawembi, wearing a red coat, was found outside in cardiac arrest, about 11 kilometres from the shelter. She was later pronounced dead at hospital, according to the Ottawa Paramedic Service.
A doctor told the family Tawembi likely died of hypothermia. The temperature that night was as low as –12.5 C, but with the wind chill it felt like –21 C.
Mayani and Hakizimana had been woken up earlier that morning by police. Officers told them Tawembi left the shelter that night and had not returned.
CCTV footage showed Tawembi near the Rideau Centre at 1 a.m., Hakizimana says he was told by police.
Miller said it’s not uncommon for people at Cornerstone to leave the shelter.
“They’re there by their own choice and we support them as best we can,” she said. “But people come and go as they want.”
“I don’t want to judge them. They did their best,” Hakizimana said of Cornerstone.
Kim Van Herk, a team lead with Ottawa Inner City Health, said there are no longer enough resources in the city to support a growing homeless population with intensifying needs.
“Ottawa was a place that, at points, people would come … and say ‘Ottawa was a good place to be homeless,'” she said. “I don’t think that would be the same anymore.”
A fitting farewell
Hakizimana is speaking out about Tawembi’s story because he hopes it can lead to change.
“I trust they can do better than what they did,” he said of the wider system.
The family is now trying to repatriate Tawembi’s body to Congo and give her a large funeral there.
She didn’t have many relatives in Canada, but was well known in her home country given her life’s work.
“All kids, all people in the city of Kinshasa, they know her,” he said.
