Democratic Republic of Congo

War, hunger and disease have killed more than five million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 1998. One child in every five dies before reaching their fifth birthday.

“It’s impossible to overstate how desperate the situation is for children here. We have emergency rates of malnutrition and children living on the streets. We have half a million children under five dying every year. The government lacks the capacity and inclination to respond. We need international support to turn these figures around.” 

That’s the message from our country director in the DRC, Maman Sidikou. 

He believes that we can save the lives of half a million children in the DRC in the next two years. But we can only do it with your help.

  • 5.4 million people, mostly civilians, have been killed in fighting since 1998; there are 1,000 rapes every month.
  • One in five children die before the age of five – a quarter of them before they’re a month old.
  • In the next two years, we’ll save the lives of 500,000 children.

The challenges

Wimana (pictured above) was sitting on a piece of plastic when we met her, her tiny infant in her arms and her three other children milling around in a crowd of people displaced by fighting.

Baby Emanuel was emaciated, but his mother did not know where to turn for help. By the next day, he had died.

Wimana’s story could be that of almost any woman in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Her baby died, she believes, because she’d had to flee from violence so many times.

Two-thirds of Congolese live in extreme poverty. Even in fertile provinces, as our recent study shows, half of all children are stunted from malnutrition. Two million people are displaced.

The country suffers from corruption, lack of investment and an ineffective government. The worst of the war is over, but the crisis for children remains.

“The DRC is emerging from a terrible war,” says Nicole Henze, our fragile states project adviser. “The support for this transitional time needs to be there, or children die.”

What we’ve achieved

It is rare, nearly nonexistent, to find a child who doesn’t have multiple problems – acute malnutrition as well as lack of education, or abuse in the home on top of chronic illness.

That’s why our DRC programme has developed an integrated range of supports – a child might receive regular health check-ups and start school, or be reunified with his or her family and given vocational training. 

This approach gives us the greatest chance of success with children and their communities.

Through our fragile states project, we have strengthened our emergency response and ability to confront the enormous obstacles of geography, conflict and uncertain funding to help the DRC’s children. 

Child survival

In a country where a fifth of children don’t live to see their fifth birthday and which has one of the world’s poorest health systems, we are saving lives.

In 2009, we provided healthcare to 78,800 children and 9,600 women of reproductive age, and health education to 1.5 million people.  

Protection

Many aid agencies work on child protection and sexual violence, but few specifically address the needs of the 45–60% of rape survivors who are under 18.

We work with local organisations to provide medical, health, legal and psycho-social support to the half of rape victims who are children.

In 2010, we helped nearly a thousand abducted and separated children find their families.

Education

Just four years from 2015, the deadline by which countries are committed to providing universal primary education, nearly half of all Congolese children – 3 million – are out of school.

In the first half of 2010, we helped more than 5,000 children start school for the first time, and more than 50,000 children now attend schools in which teachers are trained and have the necessary materials for learning.

What’s urgent now

  • We’re committed to delivering an ambitious life-saving programme of treatment, vaccinations, skilled health workers and anti-malnutrition measures. Our aim: to save 500,000 lives in two years.
  • By 2011, we’ll help keep 208,000 at-risk children safe from of displacement, separation from their families, sexual violence and military recruitment.
  • By the end of 2010 we’ll be providing access to primary education to 20,000 children, half of them girls, and helping 90,000 achieve more in school.
  • We’ll help at least 20% of children affected by acute emergencies.

 

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