Still I Rise Academy - Kolwezi
The first Rehabilitation School for child miners in Lualaba.
Il contesto
- 14M More than 14.2 million children need humanitarian assistance, more than any other country in the world.
- 44% Nearly one in two children drop out of school after elementary school.
- 24T Natural resources in the ground are estimated to exceed a value of $24 trillion.
A "silent holocaust" is taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After more than 30 years of conflict, there are more than 6 million victims, 5.7 million internally displaced persons, and 60 million people living in extreme poverty. To date, there are 25.4 million people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, one in four, including 14.2 million children-more than any other country on earth.
Yet DRCongo is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources, with an estimated $24 trillion of raw materials in the ground. Globally, Congo produces 70 percent of cobalt and 60 percent of coltan, essential minerals in the production of lithium batteries and thus fundamental to the so-called "Green Revolution." The five largest cobalt mines in the world are located in the Lualaba town of Kolwezi, and 85 percent of them are controlled by Chinese multinationals. Here tens of thousands of children work in semi-slavery conditions for an average compensation of $2 a day. It is precisely in Kolwezi, the Cobalt Capital of the World, that we have opened a School to give child miners their childhood back.
I nostri traguardi
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94%
After 12 months, our success rate in combating school dropout is 94%, against a national average of 56%.
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3K
We have reached 3799 people through our school rehabilitation and food security programs.
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7K
After 2 years of operations, we have totaled 7433 hours of lessons and psychosocial support for our students.
In 2022, in the city of Kolwezi, we opened Lualaba's first Emergency and Rehabilitation School, redeeming children from mine work. Still I Rise Academy - Kolwezi, nicknamed "Pamoja," offers high quality education, targeted child protection actions, and holistic nutrition, psychosocial and health support programs to the child and the whole family. We are the only ones doing this in the entire region.
