Tag: kinshasa
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Day 24~ April 24th~ Congo
Coming from Lebanon, I get asked a lot about the civil war that ravaged my country for so many years and with that question there is always a request to clarity what the war is all about there. On many occasions I find myself likening the war to a board game. The board being the…
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Day 22~ April 22nd~ Congo
If I were to put one common word when describing children from any country, I would say ‘resilience’… Children are developing beings, changing at a rapid speed, growing, absorbing, evolving and filled with energy that drives them through their process of becoming young adults. What I saw in a lot of the children in Congo…
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Day 21~ April 21st~ Congo
For ‘les enfants de la rue’, the children of the street in Kinshasa, a bit of ground in an enclosed secure place can make a world of difference where their safety is concerned. These children roam the streets by night in search of food, opportunity and means and ways. During the day, a center like…
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Day 8~ April 8th~ Congo
Back in 2009, when I visited Congo, there were about 300,000 children roaming the streets of the country and categorized under the name “les enfants de la rue”~ children of the street. I interviewed some of these children in the CAJED center in Kinshasa, a Congolese non-governmental organization created in 1992 to lodge, care for and…
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Children are the hope for our future but who will give them the hope?
They must have hope to give hope. They cannot be struggling for survival and be expected to carry the weight and responsibility of the future. It just goes against nature not to nurture the young and helpless. They need us who have to give. And maybe just a very small thing can change a child’s…
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They have totally made my day!!
Today was my last day in the DRC, and I had planned to visit some child artists and some centers for children of the streets. For the first time since I got here things seemed to be all going wrong. Cars coming late, information miscommunicated, child not at appointment… you name it. By the end…
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Let the world know about us..
This was the resounding message in the faces and words of the children I met today in Kinshasa. They want the world to know what is happening to them. The girl above attends an embroidery class for “les enfants de la rue”, the children of the street. There is an incredible number of children living…