Stories of hope

Every child who comes home has a story. These are a few.

Boys who escaped armed groups and are learning a trade. A baby found alone after an attack who has grown up with us. Children going home to families they thought they'd lost.

Daniel, 17 · Goma Center for Hope

From the front line to a welding workshop

Daniel left school young because his family could not pay the fees, and went to work in the mines. That is where armed men found him and forced him into their ranks. After a week of training he was sent to the front.

One night he saw a chance and ran, all the way to Goma, a city where he knew no one. He survived on the streets until child-protection advocates brought him to the Center for Hope.

Today Daniel is fed, safe and in counseling, and he is learning to weld. His dream is simple: to leave the center at 18 with a starter kit, a small business of his own, and a place to live on his own terms.

Name changed to protect identity.

Samuel, 16 · Goma Center for Hope

A boy who scouted front lines now wants his own workshop

War and floods took everything Samuel’s family had: their home, their animals, and any hope of paying for school. Like many boys around him, he was drawn into an armed group, then captured by another, which used him to scout enemy positions.

When his commander was killed, Samuel slipped away and hitched a ride on the back of a trader’s truck to Goma. City authorities eventually referred him to the Center for Hope.

There he receives care, counseling and training in fitting and welding. When he finishes, he wants to set up his own workshop and stand on his own two feet.

Name changed to protect identity.

Patrick, 17 · Goma Center for Hope

Learning to build a life with his hands

Patrick was working in a dangerous mine to help his family when an armed group took him and his friends. He was moved from one front line to the next until he was wounded. Red Cross volunteers carried him to hospital, but when he recovered there was no home and no food waiting for him.

Life on the street led him down paths he deeply regrets. During the city’s crackdown on street children he was detained, then referred by UNICEF’s child-protection partners to the Center for Hope.

Today Patrick is learning carpentry. He wants to earn a living with his hands and help support the family he was taken from.

Name changed to protect identity.

Eli, 15 · Goma Center for Hope

Six months after arriving, Eli went home

Eli was working to pay for his own schooling when he was forcibly recruited, trained and sent to fight. He escaped to Goma at 15 and spent months on the street, until child-protection workers found him in mid-2025 and brought him to the Center for Hope.

While Eli went to literacy classes, learned computer skills and discovered music, our team quietly searched for his family.

Six months after he arrived, Eli went home, reunited with people he thought he had lost. Our team still checks in on him.

Name changed to protect identity.

Neema, 5 · Beni Center for Hope

Found alone after an attack, she has grown up with us

Early one morning, after a night attack on a remote village, the Beni team went looking for survivors. They found almost none. As they were leaving, they heard a baby crying, and found a baby girl only a few months old, alone.

Today Neema is five. Despite years of searching, no surviving relatives have been found, so the Center for Hope is her home and the people there are her family.

For children like Neema, the new permanent campus means a home that will never have to move again.

Name changed to protect identity.

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Behind each story is a bed, a teacher, a counselor and a caseworker who never gave up.

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