ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

We offer free elementary school to 50 children of the cobalt mining community of Fungurume, with the goal of serving 200 kids by 2025.

Kamibamba school in Fungurume, DRC, opened its doors in Spetember 2022.

With our local partner Acacia (acacia-rdc.org) we opened an environmental elementary school focused on nature preservation and agro-ecology. The children are going through a solid K-6 program and also learn how to protect their environment and face climate change.

The school follows the national educational program but also instill values such as gender equality and team work. It is hosted on a commercial farm in Fungurume, home of a protected forest of 3,000 hectares.

The school has access to the forest for its environmental education program, as well as to hands-on, best-practice agricultural training from the farm’s experts. The program will be augmented with online access to partnering institutions in Europe and the USA.

CASSAVA FOR HEALTH

220,000 women die yearly in Africa mainly of infection due to the lack of access to affordable antiseptics and disinfectants.

Woman and child in hospital in Burundi. Photo: UNDP

To support gynecologists and women’s rights activists such as Dr. Denis Mukwege in DRC, we invest in expanding local cassava production by and for women and girls victims of sexual and gender based violence; and initiate local fabrication of surgical alcohol made out of cassava:

Providing local clinics with quality pharmaceutical alcohol (otherwise imported from China or India)
Increasing sustainable revenue for women producers of cassava
Promoting women’s health education and sharing best practices to other regions

FOOD PROCESSING

70% of the agriculture is produced by women. A large part of their local, seasonal vegetable and fruit production is lost due to lack of transformation, packaging or cold chain facilities.

We promote the transformation and conservation of fresh vegetables, through processing, packaging, warehouse and transportation services, to:

Increase women’s revenue
Secure a marketplace for their production
Substitute poor quality imported goods with organic product

UPCYCLING

Pollution by plastic waste and lack of proper sanitation pose major public health issues in the Great Lakes region. The clogging of drainage systems increases severity and frequency of floods and cause the proliferation of malaria mosquitoes, which threaten women and children.

We promote the development of a recycling value chain to:

Set up women’s networks for collection and sorting of plastic waste
Produce artisanal products for retail such as sandals and flip flops