60 million girls in the Fizi District of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
With a few more thousand steps under our belt, we have arrived in the Fizi District of South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where we partnered with War Child Canada. The DRC has struggled to find peace after years of a conflict that, by 2012, had left 5.4 million people and forced millions from their homes. The goal of the project was to increase both educational participation and retention rates for female youth. Two programs, the Accelerated Learning program and Functional Literacy and Numeracy program, provided catch-up skills and knowledge to children and youth affected by war.
Would you like to know more about the DRC?
Bienvenue! (Welcome in French)
Congolese proverb: Wewe ni mzuri, lakini kujifunza kazi, kwa huwesi kula uzuri wako. (You are beautiful, but learn to work, for you cannot eat your beauty.)
Did you know that…
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly called Zaire and, before that, the Belgian Congo) is located in central Africa.
- The DRC is experiencing violence due to armed conflicts. The origins of the current violence in the DRC are in the massive refugee crisis and spillover from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
- The DRC is one of the countries with the largest number of children who lack access to education.
- Due to factors such as low family incomes, poor school infrastructure and the emphasis on boys’ education, a basic education is a luxury few girls can attain.
- Many families cannot afford to send their daughters to school. As a result, adolescent girls often consider joining an armed militia to acquire wages so they can return to the classroom. However, this is rarely the case and the girls are often subject to physical and emotional abuse in the militia.
It is NOT safe to hike in the DRC
The DRC has some beautiful landscape, as well as a wide variety of flora and fauna. However, it is not a safe country in which to travel. You should not venture unaccompanied outside the major cities.