Our work
Two centers. One promise: no child is forgotten.
In Beni we reach children before armed groups can. In Goma we help boys who have already been through war find their way back. Both lead to the same place: home.
Beni Center for Hope · Since March 2020
Prevention before recruitment
- Reunified
- 892
- In care
- 25
- Girls
- ~50%
Most responses wait until children have already been part of armed groups. We reach them in the hours after an attack, before an armed group, a trafficker or an exploiter can claim them.
Around Beni, most of those attacks are carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group that began in Uganda in the 1990s and has operated in eastern Congo for decades. Since aligning itself with the Islamic State around 2019, it has become one of the deadliest groups in the region, raiding villages, killing civilians and abducting children, and leaving many others orphaned or separated from their families.
The Beni center cares for girls and boys aged 4 to 17 who were orphaned or separated from their families by armed attacks. About half are girls. Children are referred by the state child-protection authority and UNICEF-funded partners, and the center runs as a family home, not an institution.
Site Director Freddy Moise, who is also Head of Child Education for the city, has led the team since the first day.
A family home
Shelter, three meals a day, clothes and a calm routine. Caregivers sleep at the center every night; girls and boys have separate rooms.
Health care
An admission exam, treatment and hospital referrals. Since May 2026: Ebola screening at the gate, handwashing stations and isolation protocols.
Healing
Individual and group psychosocial support adapted to Congolese culture, plus art therapy, reading-and-writing therapy, play and sport.
School
Fees, uniforms and supplies for local schools, a school van, and, while Ebola circulates, on-site classrooms with qualified teachers on the national curriculum.
Community
34 local teachers trained in trauma-informed education. When the ADF entered Beni in mid-2026, the center sheltered an entire neighborhood.
Reunification
Family tracing from day one with DIVAS, careful mediation, and follow-up visits after every child returns home.
Goma Center for Hope · Since May 2025
Recovery has no clock
- Reunified
- 110
- In care
- 27
Most transitional care centers for former child soldiers keep children for about three months. Ours keeps them for as long as they need.
The Goma center opened in May 2025, months after M23 invaded and took control of the city. Built for 20 children, it received 50 referrals on its first day, as authorities rounded up children living on the streets. For months the team cared for more than 50 boys at once and reunited most of them quickly.
Today it provides long-term care to boys aged 8 to 17 who were associated with armed groups, or who are at the greatest risk of recruitment, especially those whose communities reject them. To our knowledge, it is the only long-stay residential rehabilitation center of its kind in North Kivu.
Safety & routine
Accommodation, meals and a protective daily structure that helps boys unlearn armed-group rules. Some arrive dependent on drugs.
Specialized counseling
Individual and group sessions every week, including support for the violence boys were forced to commit and abuse they survived.
A trade
Carpentry, welding and mechanics for boys aged 14 and over, with literacy lessons.
Reintegration
Family tracing, sometimes across active front lines, community awareness sessions, and a starter kit to begin earning a living.
Reunification
How a child comes home
A child goes only to verified family, and only when both sides are ready. Children whose families can't be found, or can't safely take them back, stay in our care.
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Identified & referred
Community networks, the state child-protection office (DIVAS) and UNICEF partners refer children at risk to us after attacks or from the front lines.
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Safe the same day
A bed, three meals, a health check, clothes and comfort, with caregivers there every night.
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Healing & learning
Counseling, play and art therapy, and school or a trade.
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Tracing the family
From day one our team searches for relatives, often across insecure areas, and prepares both sides.
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Home, and followed up
Children return to verified family, and we visit afterwards to make sure they are safe and in school.
Safeguarding
“Every child entrusted to us is safe with us, first and always.”
From our Child Protection Policy, October 2026
- A designated safeguarding lead appointed by the board; concerns reported within 24 hours
- Safe recruitment: two-person interviews, two verified references and good-conduct certificates
- A zero-tolerance code of conduct on sexual exploitation and abuse for all staff, volunteers and visitors
- No armed group, soldier, police or intelligence agent may enter to question or remove a child
- Confidential complaint channels, including an anonymous box and a hotline run by World Hope Givers
- We never publish a child's real name with their image or location; at-risk children are never shown identifiably
What we're building next
After six years and four moves, a home that will never have to move again.
In July 2026 we bought 1,500 m² of land in Beni for a permanent Center for Hope. Now we're raising the funds to build it, and to keep both centers running and growing.
Help build it
A permanent Beni campus
Walls, water, solar power, classrooms, a library, therapy rooms, a girls’ safe space and a playground, for up to 40 children. The land is already bought.
An accredited on-site school
Four qualified teachers and official recognition so children can sit national exams while Ebola keeps community schools out of reach.
Vocational workshops in Goma
A production workshop and youth cooperative so trainees can earn while they learn, and leave with a livelihood.
Safe water
Water filters for the centers, staff and surrounding communities, designed with our water-quality advisor.
Join us
Every child deserves to be a child again.
Your gift keeps a bed, three meals, school and counseling ready for the next child who needs them. Monthly gifts let us plan ahead in a place where nothing else is predictable.
Tax-deductible · Secure checkout by Donorbox · Our treasurer reviews every field expense