Vocational education

Child Mercy Sweden collaborates with the local partner LAV and the goal of the project is to give young women, being victims of sexual violence, education and help them to start their own business to become self-sufficient. Women in these situations are often excluded from their families and are left to manage on their own. Not only are they wounded psychologically but also often physically and not seldomly they become pregnant as a result of the rape. Child Mercy Sweden supports two centers that are located outside Bukavu, the places are called Luhwindja and Bideka. About 30 young women between 14-22 years of age, receives vocational education in sewing every year. The selection for this one-year training is made based on a number of predetermined criteria, to reach the most vulnerable women. What they all have in common, is that they have fallen victim to sexual violence and that they have had children as a result of rape. Some of the women have been held captive as sex-slaves by armed forces in the woods, and others have been forced to work in mines where they have been subject to serious abuse. They have endured horrible things and need help to process their experiences. In the project, they receive conversational therapy, both individually and in groups. They are also educated about HIV, health care and hygiene, human rights and equality. They are taught to read and write. In order to provide for themselves and their children, they learn how to sew and receive education in business administration.

At every center, there is a preschool for the women’s children. Thanks to the preschools, the children also get help to develop in a safe and stimulating environment, where there is time for both indoor and outdoor play.

Many of the girls suffer from mental illness. Rape, loneliness and unwanted pregnancies have made many of them depressed. LAV helps the girls to receive an individual psychological action plan. The girls get to meet with a psychologist in individual appointments and eventually they learn to talk about their experiences in a group, in order to help each other. LAV is constantly trying to meet with the girls' biological families to strengthen the bonds between the girls and the families. This has been very successful and many of them have been able to return to their village with new found knowledge in sewing.

At the beginning of 2018, a farming project was started in Luhwindja to help the poor population and especially the young women who had been raped, to provide for their families. Many people in DR Congo are suffering from the lack of food and this leads to malnutrition. To be able to help with both emergency and long-term work regarding the problem, we know that farming is very important. We work with promoting women’s opportunity to a long-term provision through farming and sewing. Women are also to learn animal farming, as well as agriculture. A chicken coop and a stable for the pigs are now in place and the expectations for what this project can lead to are high. Not only are the pigs a source of nutrition, but the manure is also a surplus that contributes to larger harvests. A laying hen produces eggs that generate income.

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The aim of these vocational education is for women to become self-sufficient. When completing a course, each girl is given a starter package that amongst other things contains a sewing machine. The package helps her to start her own business. Women turns from being stigmatized to become respected in their villages and many of these young women are welcomed back to their own families. The girls that can not return to their village or a family, get help to together start a cooperative where several single girls with children support each other in a business and a household. This has been very successful.