Congo's Forgotten Children

Is there any good news from the Democratic Republic of (DR) Congo?

Channel 4 Dispatches last night examined how the children of Congo are affected by the ongoing conflict fighting around them. A whole people are scarred by a seemingly endless conflict: in the last 12 years perhaps three million children have died from fighting and the hunger and disease that it creates. And as we have reflected the conflicts going back further have left a map with a trail of orphans marked by Children's Villages we have built to care for them.

At the same time we have the stories of refugees from DR Congo who understandably do not wish to return and Thomas Lubanga accused at the International Criminal Courta of recruiting child soldiers.

Look at the details of any of these at your peril, they are miserable tales. What a Pandora's box of misery. And the hope offered by SOS Children of course always seems so tiny in comparison to the woe but at least we have a few hundred sponsored children living and loved in our children's villages there and some thousands more who benefit from our medical centre, get some education and get support in the community. Children, particularly young children can recover quickly from trauma if looked after well. But it requires someone somewhere who is prepared to make the effort to support them. And people with big hearts and broad shoulders have been coming forward today to sponsor in DR Congo: for which we thank them deeply, and thank Dispatches too.