SOS Children in Democratic Republic of Congo

The fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) has received little attention from the world's media, yet it is one of the bloodiest conflicts the world has known since the Second World War. In around five years, an estimated 3.5 million people are thought to have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians.

Many have been killed in fighting - often in a horrific manner - but a far greater number have died of disease and starvation. With homes, hospitals and schools destroyed, families and communities have found themselves without food, water, shelter or other basic services. Children are by far the most vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of children have died due to malnutrition and other preventable diseases.

Children die faster in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) than in all but 10 other countries in the world, according to United Nations statistics. A house-to-house survey by the International Rescue Committee found that the child death rate was four times that for Africa as a whole. If conditions remain unchanged, 515 of every 1,000 children will die before turning 5, the organization said. In developed nations such as the United States, the comparable statistic is six deaths for every 1,000, according to the United Nations, which relies on somewhat different statistical methods.

We began working in the former Zaire in 1989 with the opening of the SOS Children's Village in Bukavu on the shores of Lake Kivu in the east of the country. It is the eastern DRC that has witnessed most of the violence since 1996. The Village has fifteen family houses which are home to 150 children, and SOS Youth Homes for over 140 young people from the village who are taking their first steps to independence. Much-needed educational and medical facilities for the local community are provided through the well-established SOS nursery school (125 children), primary school (420 children), and medical centre (5,000 patients per year).

An SOS Vocational Training Centre for 80 youths opened in 2008, and gives the teenagers the skills needed by the local economy. Courses include secretarial studies, IT, woodwork/carpentry, masonry, electrics and plumbing. Students study for between one and three years and will receive a government-recognised certificate as a skilled worker.

Since 2004, SOS Family Strengthening Programmes have supported local families to protect and care for their children. They reach out to up to 300 children a year and provide them and their families with food, school fees, basic medical treatment and counselling. Moreover, AIDS affected families are offered support to improve their housing and their living conditions. Those accepted onto the Family Strengthening Programmes are mainly families where children who have lost both parents now live with grandparents, or older siblings or other relatives, as well as those whose parents are seriously ill.

In 1994, Bukavu provided a refuge for children who had to be evacuated from the SOS Children's Gikongoro community in neighbouring Rwanda because of the civil war.

Following unrest in the South Kivu region in 1998, an emergency relief programme was set up in Uvira to support children who had been abandoned. Although many were reunited with their own families, it was decided to make the temporary village into a permanent SOS Children's Village. Family homes were provided for 150 children whose parents had been killed in the fighting. As in Bukavu, there is an SOS Nursery for 75 children, an SOS Primary School for 210 pupils, and an SOS Medical Centre for 5,000 patients, and an SOS Family Strengthening Programme for 300 AIDS affected children and their families.

SOS Children ran another emergency relief programme in 2002 following the volcanic eruption in Goma, not far from the Villages, which left thousands homeless.

To support children in and around the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, we opened DRC's third SOS Children's Village in 2011. SOS Children’s Village Kinshasa has 15 family homes for 150 orphaned or abandoned children, an SOS Nursery School for 75 little children, an SOS Primary School for 210 students, and an SOS Medical Centre for 16,000 people.

Aids Orphans in Democratic Republic of Congo

See also Aids Orphan Projects in the Congo, Africa.

Eleven-year-old Rodrigue at SOS Children’s Village Uvira wrote a letter to Father Christmas last year:

"Dear Father Christmas,

I am happy to write this letter, on behalf of the street children who don't know how to reach you. Our country was struck with civil wars since 1996, and several children became orphans due to this situation. Many of them are homeless and live on the street. They don't go to school; they don't have food to eat and even clothes to wear. I know, you can probably buy them some clothes and shoes to wear on Christmas, and even the food that they will eat on Christmas and after the holiday. Please, also buy them school stationeries so that they can go to school.

Thanks a lot in advance, a kiss from Uvira, Rodrigue."

*name has been changed to protect privacy

Villages d'Enfants SOS de République Démocratique du Congo
BP 1988
Avenue Lundula No. 17 / Muhumba
Bukavu
Congo, Democratic Republic

Tel: +243 (0) 813 186 244, +243 (0) 999 792 787
email: vesosrdc@yahoo.fr