DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO A vast country rich in natural resources, including diamonds, gold and timber, DR Congo has suffered years of deadly conflict that has triggered a devastating humanitarian crisis.
Located in south-central Africa, more than 200 ethnic groups make up around 62.6 million people living in this French-speaking country, Africa’s third largest nation.
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| | Children Displaced by War Surges in conflict over the past decade have forced millions of Congolese to flee their homes and set up temporary homes elsewhere. Around 50,000 children live in these informal settlements in eastern DRC.
These areas are densely crowded, chaotic environments with no basic social services, where children are more vulnerable to sexual violence, abuse and exploitation, recruitment into armed groups, abduction, social exclusion and emotional distress.
Displaced children and their families need:
• food, clean water, medical care, and clothing.
• a safe environment for children, young people and women.
• protection for girls and women against physical, verbal and sexual abuse.
• educational activities and recreation.
• ways to be informed and take part in decisions affecting their lives.
• help dealing with increased anxiety because of an uncertain future.
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The DR Congo Crisis More than 4 million people have died since the start of DR Congo’s brutal five-year war (The Second Congo War of 1998-2003), mostly through starvation and preventable diseases.
The country is slowly recovering from the conflict; a peace agreement was signed by warring factions in January 2008. Yet despite a democratic election process, and efforts to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate soldiers, fighting continues in eastern DRC and a serious humanitarian crisis is still evident there today.
The eastern region currently has more than 1 million people displaced, with countless women and girls the victims of sexual violence and children recruited as soldiers. Today, an estimated 45,000 people are dying every month primarily from malnutrition and infectious diseases. Urgent help is needed to provide adequate food, work, education, water, healthcare and sanitation to displaced households. Above-all, peace is needed to rebuild the lives of conflict-affected families. World Vision in DR Congo
World Vision began working in DRC in 1958, helping girls who would otherwise have been forced into early marriage. By 1988, World Vision had established longer-term community-based projects, through child sponsorship, and is now assisting 56,000 sponsored children in the country.
Currently World Vision is directly and indirectly assisting some 1.6 million people in DR Congo through the provision of emergency assistance to the most vulnerable children and their families in conflict-affected areas. Additionally, World Vision is:
• working with communities in three provinces through 25 long-term development programmes.
• improving water and sanitation, developing infrastructure, improving health and education, responding to HIV/AIDS and improving food security through special, shorter-term projects.
• helping families in crisis in eastern DR Congo with survival items like blankets, soap, and plastic sheeting for temporary shelters.
• helping 50,000 children recover from the trauma of war through a UNICEF-funded psycho-social and child protection project, as well as providing other emergency help to children and their families.
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