CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
The territories of Masisi and Rutshuru, in North Kivu, continue to record massive population displacements accompanied by serious human rights violations, including sexual violence, murders, burning of houses, looting of property and a significant number of recruitment and use of children by armed groups. In 2021, the province of North Kivu of which Goma is the capital recorded around 14,681 cases of GBV . With the population movements caused by the volcanic eruption and the earthquakes, there is a real risk of an increase in cases of gender-based violence. The daughter-mother phenomenon does not date from today in our society. It has grown with the social crisis that has hit the Democratic Republic of Congo in general and the city of Goma in particular for more than a decade, as revealed by the abundant literature devoted to it. This phenomenon has attracted the attention not only of development workers. Some see it as the social consequence of uncontrolled sexual intercourse which, for this author, leads to unwanted births . Children born into such conditions are often unloved and as they grow up they become unbearable to the family in particular and to the community in general due to their misbehavior.
Among the conflicts we can align the poverty of families, the social environment in which the family evolves and the single mothers themselves and their children as agents of family conflicts. The unmarried mother, emancipated not only by marriage, but also by another legal route, becomes an adult because she remains responsible for the legal acts and facts she performs. If she becomes a mother, that is to say she has one or more children born out of wedlock who do not receive any help from the father,
Adolescent sexuality is that which is practiced between young people before the age of majority (before the age of 18). It is also the fact that young people practice the sexual act outside marriage, an illegitimate sexuality that is to say, not recognized by the community or by tradition or by law. In short, irresponsible sexuality, the consequences of which lead in particular to the daughter-mother phenomenon.
Indeed, in Goma, young people in general and single mothers in particular continue to face several problems. These are problems related to education or information, problems related to the economy, problems of a political, cultural, physical environment nature, etc. All of these problems generate as consequences, the proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases and infections but also and especially of early pregnancies (undesirable births) among young people.
Following the difficulties experienced by families in the city of Goma, the growing number of girls experiencing early childbearing and the conflicts that arise in families as a result of this situation, the choice made on this subject is justified by our desire to support them in socio-economic recovery.
Poverty is also the major cause of the increase in single mothers in our country. When she finds the needs that the parents should meet and they do not succeed, the girl decides to support herself by resorting to prostitution or in armed groups.
Goal of the project :
Is the socio-economic recovery of single mothers and vulnerable women survivors of GBV through learning different income-generating trades and setting up village savings and loan associations.
Main objective:
Promote the empowerment of single mothers and vulnerable survivors of GBV through learning different income-generating trades and setting up village savings and loan associations
Goals
Two components constitute the heart of the project.
• Provide integrated psychosocial support to GBV survivors and single mothers;
• Train beneficiaries on entrepreneurship and financial management;
• Provide training in entrepreneurial management and financial management;
• Initiate village savings and credit associations (AVEC) for beneficiaries;
• Facilitate access to rotating microcredit for members of VSLAs;
• Set up a vocational training center in cutting and sewing;
PROJECT BENEFICIARY
This project expects to reach 15 young single women commonly referred to as “girl mothers” and 10 sexual and gender-based survivors.
OVERALL PROJECT STRATEGY
Strategy is the way in which we intend to arrange, mobilize and coordinate activities to achieve objectives while avoiding waste.
For its success, the project will adopt the following strategy:
• Create a cutting and sewing training center;
• Inform about their rights and the role they play in the development process ;
• Train beneficiaries on cutting and sewing and WITH;
• Monitor training activities;
• Evaluate project activities;
PROJECT RELEVANCE
The development of such a project is not made by chance by its functions as single mothers and survivors of sexual violence. The work of women and young girls is of crucial importance for the improvement of the social and economic conditions of numerous families and the education of children and the well-being of the family. As we have pointed out that the consideration of work through training is one of the factors of the self-promotion of women. Our project will consist of carrying out actions in terms of training for management, funding for reintegration.
Support should begin in particular with the organization and creation of village savings and credit associations, as well as the creation of a mutual support fund. This project is an effective weapon for the self-promotion of its beneficiaries.
We thank Brian Frantz, The Rising Phoenix Foundation And Fesser and Friends for their support.