Some of the children were born from rapes and therefore they need assistance for survival...
Up to now, we are only sponsoring three children born from rape. This because of the lack of appropriate means.
Update from COFAPRI - Safeworld Field Partner in DR Congo:
Sometimes, women carry on their back burdens that are heavier than their own weight, just to earn money to feed their children.
We have started a plant and vegetable growing project on a very small plot of land in or near the compound of every member.
Some women are cultivating maize, sorghum, soya beans, beans, vegetable marrows and potatoes. The first harvest was very beneficial to the whole membership of COFAPRI.
Nyota told us that a majority of women in her area are widows because their husbands were killed during the wars.
This drove them to sell their bodies so that they could support their orphans. Once the husband is killed, the husband’s family members do not support the widow. They leave her alone with her children, and sometimes, she is chased away from the husband’s family; thus, everything the husband gave her: land, animals, clothes, etc. is taken from her.
These women now are suffering a lot, and some were again raped by militants....
The women strongly believe that a priest cannot harm them because he is a man who was chosen by God to serve them and these priests know this, which they use to abuse these DRC illiterate women and girls in remote villages....
COFAPRI is based in Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Rupublic of Congo.
The organisation empowers women through encouraging income-generating activities such as sewing and knitting projects, and the rearing of livestock.
COFAPRI also sponsors the education of children and provides them with school equipment.
