Fesser and Friends
Center for Hope
Who We Are
Mission Statement
The Democratic Republic of Congo has long been burdened with instability, violent armed conflict, disease, and famine. The ongoing armed conflict is ravaging the country, leaving a mass of victims in its wake.
The DRC is a paradoxical country. It is the second largest African country and is blessed with vast reserves of natural resources including oil, diamonds and gold. However, it’s people have not had the same luck.
The population of the Congo is among the poorest in the world, and have been mired with multiple long-running conflicts, famine, disease and Ebola outbreaks.
According to World Bank estimates, 64% of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day. The DRC is also the African country with the highest number of internally displaced people, with an estimated 4.5 million being forced to flee their homes.
According to the Kivu Security Tracker, which documents violence in eastern Congo, assailants, including state security forces, killed more than 883 civilians and abducted, as well as kidnapped for ransom, nearly 1,400 others in North Kivu and South Kivu in 2018.
In Beni territory, North Kivu province, around 300 civilians were killed in nearly 100 attacks by various armed groups, including the ADF.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that 12.8 million people in the DRC are in need of humanitarian assistance, 5.6 million of which are children. That is more than the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined.
Impact on Children
The children of the DRC are unknowingly caught in the eye of the storm, and are the main victims of the DRC’s instability and ongoing violence. Children in the DRC face a number of insurmountable problems and life threatening challenges.
The UN Children’s Agency estimates that 13 million people across the DRC lack access to adequate food and over 1.3 million children under the age of 5 are believed to suffer acute malnutrition.
Many are injured or killed as a result of the armed conflict while those who survive are often orphaned or recruited into armed groups as combatants and sex slaves. The number of child soldiers across the world has increased 159% since 2012, with the DRC abducting the second highest number of children in 2018.
Estimates suggest that 8 to 16-year-old-children make up 60% of combatants in the DRC. Those released from armed groups are often shunned by their home communities and not welcomed back.
In the Kasai-Central province in the country, 400 schools have been attacked and at least 260 destroyed, robbing an estimated 150,000 children of their chance to receive education. The World Vision produced a report in 2018 titled ‘Will you hear us? 100 children in DRC tell their story’ about how violence in the region has impacted their lives.
What We Are Doing To Help
In the midst of all of the carnage, disease and poverty, we at Fesser & Friends Centre For Hope have teamed up with the local Beni-based NGO Sowers Of New Hope to create a small yet dedicated safe haven for children orphaned by the ongoing violence ravaging the East of the country. At our centre, we are isolating our children from the violence by providing them the childhood every kid around the world needs and deserves.
Working together with Sowers of New Hope we help identify and care for high-risk children by sending locally trained workers into school districts affected by war and disease. We have managed to identify hundreds of orphans that are at high risk of becoming malnourished, abused, and/or recruited as child soldiers by rebel forces. In order to ensure that everything runs smoothly the center is being directly monitored by the locally staffed and operated organization Sowers of New Hope.
At our new center we now house, feed, love, educate, and care for eleven of the highest risk and most destitute orphans we identified, you can read their stories here. In order to ensure the safety of the children we house, our centre is guarded and protected by 24/7 security.
These children are being given a new chance in life and there is no one to thank but you: our donors. You are the only reason this could turn into a reality and we are beyond proud to call all of you our friends and family. Whether this is your first time visiting us or are a regular contributor, we thank you for your support and encourage you to get involved in our work.
For the kids, from the world.
“History will judge us by the differences we make in the everyday lives of children”
Nelson Mandela
Please Donate!
Bring Change
Your support will provide clothing, housing, nourishment, education at Ecole Berceau de Beni (Beni Primary School), medical care, security, and therapy and counselling for the trauma through which the kids have suffered.
