On 1st of August, a visit by MEP Malte Gallée was held at Still I Rise’s Pamoja Academy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The meeting was a valuable opportunity for students and the organization’s team to present first-hand evidence of children’s rights violations in the mines of the country to a member of the European Parliament.
Indeed, one of Still I Rise’s main goals is to make sure that local people are truly heard by policymakers, so that this can incentivize an improvement of the situation starting from institutional forums. A large part of the cobalt present in all lithium battery devices is extracted from the Kolwezi mines: this is a strategic and fundamental raw material for national security and development, and its extraction in DRC brings on daily violations of the rights of children and adults.
“We were very happy with this visit. The children of the Democratic Republic of Congo are hoping for a better future and they deserve it: this can be possible through responsible extraction of our natural resources,” said Vital Kamungu, our Program Manager in DRC.
The organization of the visit is part of Still I Rise’s “No More Child Miners” campaign, which aims to achieve concrete change in the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
