I AM NOT TRASH
 I Am Not Trash: A Call To Action From Child Soldiers is a report published recently by War Child UK, based on participatory action research conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (War Child UK is the only international aid agency working in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo.)
This project was significantly co-funded by War Child Australia, and the report makes compelling reading. This copy has been localised by War Child UK for use in Australia. Download it now.
ADOLPHINE'S STORY
Adolphine is a 13 year old girl who set out on foot with
her parents to escape the brutal fighting in the east of the
Democratic Republic of Congo. During her journey both her
parents died. She was left alone and homeless in one of the
largest primary rainforests in the world. Attacked and abused
along the way, she endured with courage until she finally
reached Kinshasa - a walk of 2,500km.
War Child works with children who have been affected by war.
Many of the wars that affect children like Adolphine have
been forgotten or ignored. In the Democratic Republic of Congo,
War Child supports a number of abandoned children's centres.
Now living in one of these centres in Kinshasa, Adolphine
is protected, fed and is hoping to go to school.
But the centres themselves are run down. They are managed
by well-meaning staff, many of whom work as volunteers, many
of whom are poorly trained. War Child is helping to rehabilitate
these centres with money it has raised internationally. We
will be helping Adolphine with her school fees by the end
of this year.
WAR CHILD'S WORK IN THE DRC
In August 2004, War Child intervened at a military air strip
in the Democratic Republic of Congo and, despite threats from
commanding officers, prevented child soldiers from being put
on the transport planes bound for the eastern conflict corridor.
In the province of Equateur, where this mobilisation was occurring,
there are an estimated one thousand child soldiers. War Child
has led the demobilisation and reintegration of more than
four hundred of these children. Life is unspeakably tough
for these children who have been conscripted into the armed
forces at an early age, some as young as seven years old.
War Child also provides training in family reunification and
social reintegration methods for organisations working with
children who have been abandoned, separated or displaced by
war.
War Child is also a co-funder of the All Party Parliamentary
Group on the Great Lakes and Prevention of Genocide.
Centres for abandoned children
War Child supports centres for abandoned children in the
capital, Kinshasa, and the area around Mbandaka in Western
Congo. The centres look after abandoned children, street children,
those orphaned by conflict or AIDS and those accused of being
child witches. They offer care, support, basic numeracy and
literacy and a safe place to live. At the same time the centres
attempt to mediate with families to rehabilitate the children,
or find safe foster homes for them. The importance of the
centres’ work is demonstrated by the following case
studies collected on a recent field visit to Mbandaka:
Gloire is eight years old and was first found on the
streets in 2001. He had been abandoned for being a socalled
child witch. His parents are divorced and it is understood
that the stepmother is the one to have begun saying he was
a witch. CNDSC housed Gloire for some time and began mediation
sessions with his father, which were seemingly going well.
His family took him back home. Back in November though,
Gloire was found again on the streets this time in a terrible
state. His father had poured petrol in his eyes and set
fire to them.
He had also thrown him up in the air repeatedly letting
him fall back down to the floor which has damaged his spine.
He was severely malnourished. The sister took him to hospital
where they were able to treat his eyes and his eyesight
is apparently not damaged. She also got the Head of Human
Rights at MONUC involved who subsequently arrested the father.
He was sentenced to a month in jail. Unfortunately the sister
couldn’t take him in as they were no longer taking
in boys and he continued to live on the streets for a couple
of months whilst the Sister worked out what to do with him.
Other street children beat him and throw him in the river
calling him a witch. Eventually the Sister was able to convince
a centre that looks after boys to take him in and from there
they transferred him to Kinshasa where he is currently being
looked after.
A little girl called Lafontaine is eight years old and has
been at the centre for 3-4 months now. She too was found
on the streets. About four years ago she was fleeing her
town in the north which was under attack by armed groups.
As was often the case her parents were killed as they fled
and the little girl was tied to her dead parents. Many families
passed by but none stopped either believing her dead or
too afraid to stop. One family eventually did stop, untied
her and pulled her out of the pool of blood she was lying
in. The family took her in and cared for her for a number
of years but gradually with more and more children of their
own, the pressure became too much and she ended up on the
streets. The girl is quiet and nervous and often asks the
Sister ‘are you going to abandon me?’ Following
several months of mediation, Lafontaine has begun to spend
weekends with an adoptive family and will gradually be fully
integrated into the family.
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Other work
War Child has also been active in the Democratic Republic
of Congo in:
- At UNICEF’s request, War Child ran workshops
on child protection and child rights in Matadi.
They presented the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child, the African Charter on Child Rights and The
Family Code and presented national results of the DDRRR
plan (Disarmament, Demobilisation, Repatriation, Reintegration
and Rehabilitation) to local NGOs, local authorities and
the military. Practical sessions on participation of and
communication with children were also covered.
- Displacement camps, where War Child has
provided sanitation facilities, sheeting to repair tents,
tools and equipment to provide income generation projects,
bakeries, and training in bookkeeping skills.
- Centre Notre Dame de Sacré Coeur
(Centre for Child Witches) where War Child provided assistance
to improve administration procedures and to develop tracing,
mediation and reunification procedures aiming to reunite
the children with their families. Additionally, War Child
is developing income-generation projects, including a grain
mill for the preparation of wheat and a freezer in which
they can keep fish and cold drinks, which can be sold, to
the public.
- CERHED Centre, where War Child provided:
- training to improve administration procedures, with
the aim of reunifying children with their families and
host families
- training and apprenticeships for children living at
the centre
- 20 hectares of agricultural land to help with income
producing projects
- Large scale education programmes in the
Western DRC
- APEE Centre (L’Action pour la Protection
et Encadrement pour l’Enfant), where War
Child helped with funding for the vital work of providing
nutrition and child protection for malnourished children,
street children, and babies of Ugandan rape victims
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