Construction of a hall for skills training for the empowerment of widows and adolescent mothers among the internally displaced families at Our Lady of Africa Parish, in Goma, Congo DR

Our context
North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with Goma as its capital, has been a battlefield between the government forces and the armed rebel groups for over 20 years. The presence of numerous armed rebel groups has installed a general atmosphere of insecurity in the region marked by killings, kidnappings and rape. The high number of murdered men, or those who have just disappeared with no news about their whereabouts, explains the ever-growing number of households headed by widows or women. Besides, Women have also been targets of sexual violence. Consequently, the insecurity has forced a big rural population of people to abandon their farms, their means of livelihood, and come to settle in the city where they have practically nothing, hence, they are forced to start from zero. Suburbs mushroom around Goma, Katoy township, where people live in miserable conditions. In order to survive, these deprived widows and young girls (adolescent mothers) are sexually exploited by men.

In response to such humanitarian socio-economic disaster, the Society of Missionaries of Africa, a Catholic religious congregation ministering principally in Africa especially in fracture zones, has tried to put up in place infrastructures in order to order to empower the deprived population such as 4 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, 5 kinder gardens, a health post, and a youth centre. The Youth centre comprises of a hall for cultural activities, library, study area where the young people find a quiet space to study and do their homework, a silent place that they can’t find in their small, squeezed homes of the township.

Despite such efforts already made a lot still remains to be done, especially since the situation of the women-headed family becomes worse and worse. Struggling to survive, the vulnerable women and girls fall prey to men who abuse them sexually just for some centimes; adolescent girls are married off for money, while others are impregnated and later abandoned often par elderly men.

Our wish
Our wish is to safeguard the dignity of the internally displaced women and girls. We think we can achieve that by empowering them with skills like tailoring, basket weaving, cookery; to mention but just some. These crafts will enable them not only to earn a living but will also empower them to freely take decisions about their lives without being constrained by their economic deprivation.

That is why we need to build a hall where these vulnerable women and girls can learn to stand on their own. To us, this is not just about constructing a hall but also, and more significantly, the reconstruction of the wounded lives of these vulnerable women so that they can stand on their feet, with dignity as human beings. So, please, join your hands with ours so that together we can make this wish a reality in favour of the women-headed families of the internally displaced women and girls.