With the financial support from MoneyGram through last week through GlobalGiving we enter into the second phase to bring on the table the debate on the effective protection of refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Only 5,000$ is remaining to support refugee women Income Generating Activities in North Kivu, please donate generously: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/refugeee-conomic-empowerment-in-drcongo/
In 2021 the Collective of Youth Organizations for Solidarity in the Democratic Republic of Congo decided to focus on the situation of refugees with ideas in mind that there are better opportunities for effective refugee protection in the Democratic Republic of Congo which should be exploited.
We strongly object to the collective criminalization of refugees’ especially Rwandan refugees in DRCongo as genocidaires, as members of the Rwandan rebel group of FDLR, and as pretending that they are now Congolese, we also object to the exploitation of refugees for political interests. We propose the effective protection of refugees through right programmes and clear interventions.
Obviously this financial support from MoneyGram through GlobalGiving to help refugee women especially from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda who constitute the big number of refugees in North Kivu, is just a drop of water in the Ocean, but it is worth and very capital in order to push forward our dream to ensure that each refugee is safe in DRC.
Through this funding from MoneyGram, we are able to demonstrate that DRCongo can do better, and constitute a clear statistics of refugees who are engaged in the construction of their lives. Now with this grant we shall have a clear number of refugees who are economically supported in order to challenge myths and stereotypes constructed around refugees.
We do not know the statistics of refugees in DRC, but we assume that at least 80% of the refugee population in DRC are Rwandans, among them only 75,000 are registered by UNHCR and 209,000 are known by the Democratic Republic of Congo, however we believe DRC could be hosting around 4million Rwandan refugees.
The funding for these refugee women will focus on the following activities: Refugee Women Craft Project, Refugee Women Saving Project, Refugee Women Tailoring Project, and Refugee Women Literacy Project.
The beneficiaries will be composed of 80% refugees and 20% Congolese women from the host communities in Goma and around Goma. Two Centers will be opened for these activities and the criteria will be based on the degree of vulnerability: Women victims of rape, single women, and women living with HIV/AIDs, women engaged in commercial sex in order to survive, young people head of families especially young girls, those who are extremely poor among others.
We greatly thank MoneyGram through GlobalGiving for making our dream come true.
Thanks
Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos
Refugee Programme Officer
