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STORY: DR CONGO PROTECTED COMMUNITIES
TRT: 4.23
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH, LINGALA
DATELINE: OCTOBER 2011 DR CONGO
13 OCTOBER 2011, KINSHASA, DR CONGO
1. Various shots, people walking out of the Martyrs stadium
13 OCTOBER 2011, MBIMBI, DR CONGO
2. Med shot, children coming back from school wearing school uniforms
13 OCTOBER 2011, KINSHASA, DR CONGO
3. Med shot, children playing soccer
13 OCTOBER 2011, KIMWANZA, DR CONGO
4. Med shot, children on the street
5. Med shot, boy playing
14 OCTOBER 2011, MBIMBI, DR CONGO
6. Various shots, children washing dishes near the river
15 OCTOBER 2011, MALUKU, DR CONGO
7. Med shot, children playing foosball
8. Med shot, Maluku village near the river Congo
12 OCTOBER 2011, KINSHASA, DR CONGO
9. Med shot, children running
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Alessandra Dentice, Chief of Child Protection, UNICEF: “The community, the family has no means anymore to take care of their own children. The program Protected Communities tries to reinforce the capacities of the communities, which already naturally exists, to avoid children from becoming vulnerable, or to prevent them from being more vulnerable than they already are.”
11. Med shot, woman walking hand in hand with a young girl
13 OCTOBER 2011, KIMWANZA, DR CONGO
12. Wide shot, Kimwanza village, children gathered under a tree
13. Med shot, school children gathered under a tree
14. Various shots, Theophile Keto Lukelo, volunteer for the Protected Communities program walking with two other volunteers
15. Med shot, Kimwanza
16. Close up, Samuel Amsi Batoko, 14 years old, at school
17. Tilt up, Samuel writing notes
18. Tilt down, school classroom.
19. Med shot, Theophile and Samuel walking
20. Various shots, Theophile walking with other volunteers
21. Various, Theophile and Samuel and family
22. SOUNDBITE (French) Theophile Keto Lukelo, Volunteer Protected Communities Program: “If you don’t get into the households, you can’t really understand what’s going on, that’s why we have to come regularly. Here, the main difficulty is food, the house is not in a good state but they’re protected from rain and heat. But so far, there is nothing we can do for food, even though we support them a little with food.”
23. Various shots, Theophile and Samuel’s family
24. Various shots, school classroom
25. Various shots, Bienvenue in village
26. Various shots, children in shelter
27. SOUNDBITE (French) Bienvenue NLANDU, Social worker:
“We work on the field to provide those children with a psycho-social help, we work with the children. I hope they live the child’s life they have never lived. We progressively mix them with the community, and the community will progressively accept the child who is not a danger anymore.”
28. Various shots, Bienvenue at coordinating committee office
29. Medium shot, Bienvenue playing around with children
30. Wide shot, program for young girls building
31. Various shots, Jocelyne sewing
32. Various, Jocelyne with adopted son Joseph.
In DRC years of civil war and conflict have damaged the glue that holds communities together.
The children are the most affected by this situation. Half of the national population of 66 million is under 18. Of these 33 million, an estimated 8.2 million are considered orphans of vulnerable children.
And as vulnerability extends beyond orphanhood, the majority of children in DRC can be considered vulnerable.
As a result, few children attend school, most do not have access to improved water and sanitation, and many children have to work to help support their families.
To respond to the great challenges of children’s vulnerability, UNICEF has tailored a country wide massive initiative: the Protected Communities Program.
The main objective is to respond those children’s need by empowering their families and communities.
SOUNDBITE (French) Alessandra Dentice, UNICEF Chief of Child Protection: “The community, the family has no means anymore to take care of their own children. The program Protected communities tries to reinforce the capacities of the communities, which already naturally exists, to avoid children from becoming vulnerable, or to prevent them from being more vulnerable than they already are.”
Around the child, UNICEF and its partners together with the government have created a whole system to help communities take care on their own to their children.
Many actors work in the local level to bring each and every child a personalized response to their specific needs.
The first key actors of the system are volunteers.
In the village of Kimwanza, 40 kilometers from Kinshasa, Theophile has lived here his whole life. He knows well the people in his community and he chose to work with the program on the local level.
Every day, in good neighbors, Theophile and other volunteers meet with the population to evaluate the situations of children.
Two years ago he came upon Samuel who lost his father in 2007. As a result his family lost his house and Samuel and his siblings dropped out of school.
Theophile regularly visits Samuel and his household.
SOUNDBITE (French) Theophile Keto Lukelo, Volunteer, Protected Communities Program:
“If you don’t get into the households, you can’t really understand what’s going on, that’s why we have to come regularly. Here, the main difficulty is food, the house is not in a good state but they’re protected from rain and heat. But so far, there is nothing we can do for food, even though we support them a little with food.”
Today, after three years without education, Samuel and his sisters are back to school.
This school offers free education for 120 vulnerable children of this community every year.
In this village, like in many others throughout the country, two social workers are in charge of choosing the best solutions for the children. They are the backbone of the intervention.
Here, Bienvenue is responsible to find a personalized solution for each child that is referred to him by the volunteers.
Here, together with the government, UNICEF helped build a shelter for over a hundred vulnerable children. They are now safe in this place and benefit from a range of services.
SOUNDBITE (French) Bienvenue Nlandu, Social worker:
“We work on the field to provide those children with a psycho-social help, we work with the children. I hope they live the child’s life they have never lived. We progressively mix them with the community, and the community will progressively accept the child who is not a danger anymore.”
Like in this village, each project site has considerable autonomy, exercised through a local coordinating committee that includes community leaders and local officials.
The Provincial Coordination, third element of the protected community, establishes links between vulnerable children and the available services in their vicinity.
Celestin Kabamba is the provincial coordinator of the Mont Ngafula Area.
He is in charge of finding solutions for more than 4,000 children in this area.
The projects also aims at providing training and jobs for the less fortunate children who dropped out of school.
Here, to prevent girls from being out on the street, the Protected Communities program provides young women with training in sewing.
And the program gives very good results.
After 10 years spend in the center for vulnerable children, Jocelyne, 17 years old, was able to start a small business on her own.
Moreover, she met Joseph, a little boy aged two who was abandoned because his parents thought he had AIDS.
It turned out Joseph is perfectly healthy, and Jocelyne decided to adopt him, and to become his foster mother, to prevent him from the sufferings she experienced.
