RDC 19 – STANDING FOR A BETTER FUTURE
Project Location
Following the civil war of which the Democratic Republic of Congo has been a victim for several decades and which has caused the displacement of populations from the interior to Kinshasa, the capital of the country, the inhabitants live in poverty, insecurity and know the social phenomena of street children and the homeless. In Kinshasa many families live in these miserable conditions, women and children are the most affected.
Education is a luxury that poor families and girls without parents cannot afford and therefore they either remain illiterate or interrupt their studies. In their struggle for survival, unfortunately, some women end up finding themselves on the streets or engaging in different forms of barbaric and unhealthy practices. This situation exposes them to the risk of prostitution, begging, abuse, various forms of exploitation, prison where they lead even more deplorable lives than before, which plunge many families into despair.
To face this situation and find a dignified lifestyle to come to the aid of our destitute sisters and alleviate their suffering in some way, the Comboni Missionary Sisters opened a house in Kinshasa called “Casa Sociale San Daniele Comboni”, located in the municipality of Mont-Ngafula, in the district of Mitendi. The San Daniele Comboni social house opened its doors on 23 May 2018.
Project description
The project aims to help young women learn trades that can enable them to take care of themselves and thus promote financial independence for a dignified life. This is reflected in the multifaceted and comprehensive training provided by the social center, in particular: vocational training (apprenticeship in trades: sewing, aesthetics and hairdressing, small business, etc.), literacy, life education and starting an income-generating activity at the end of their training to find their place in society and build a better future.
Vocational training takes place outside the social center in a vocational school. To ensure the smooth running of the training and to provide the beneficiaries with a favourable framework for the realization of this project, the women are hosted in the social house where they live for all the time of the training in order to learn with tranquility ways and means that can help them improve their living conditions.
The duration of the stay is a maximum of one year. The project guarantees a total cost of being covered (food, training costs, purchase of training materials, transport costs, purchases of material for manual work, personal hygiene, first health care, internship costs, start-up costs for starting income-generating activities).
At the end of the training course, women will acquire the knowledge that will allow them to face their future independently, to fly alone so that they too can become a source of recovery for many others. Women who have acquired the necessary skills start, with the help of the Social Center, an income-generating activity according to the training course chosen by it to allow them to be better people in the society.
Objectives
- To promote the social and professional reintegration of women living in marginalized conditions
- Re-establishing women's family ties
- To empowering women to start small businesses with micro-credit
Beneficiaries
Direct: a dozen women
Indirect: their families and Congolese society
Referent Sister for the project: Sr. Angeles Arlandis Pellicer
Project's costs