What we do
The NGO member’s of COAV Kivu work with very limited means resulting from gifts, contributions of these members, and rarely external funds.
Conscious of their limited means, the members of COAV give priority to projects of fast and durable impact for their recipients.
We work in the following areas:
- Education
- Health
- Breeding Programs
- Agriculture
- Professions Training
- Technical assistance
- Community development activity
Education
Children need to develop themselves in a protective environment. The educational place (schools), is the best for providing this protective environment. The level of schooling is on average of 30%, reaching 12% in rural environment and 40% in town. Above this, the conditions of children schooling are still precarious in many area of the Nord Kivu. The non schooled children are from time to time recruited by different armed groups (boys as fighters, intelligence agents, and military conveyors, girls as sexual slaves). The members of COAV organize two kinds of education which are:
- Formal education: schooling in primary education, secondary and academic of vulnerable children.
- Non formal education: remedial teaching centers, Alphabetization centers , language learning centers, computers training centers and professional training centers.
Education strategies
- Schools have been built by COAV members, to facilitate the free access to thousands of vulnerable children (orphans and vulnerable children) and to improve the schooling conditions.
- Alphabetization centers help raped women to work in a protective environment and allow them focus from their mental ordeals.
- English learning centres on computers
Sponsors
- World Bank through the structures of the Congolese state
- World Computer Exchange
Health
The access to health care for a country led 32 years of miss management, followed by 16 years of civil wars are still very difficult. There is less health taking in charge infrastructures. Above all, these which exist are some times in very bad conditions and missing nurses and drugs. The unemployment level being more than 90%, families have difficulty to access to medical care. That pushes the most of sick persons to self medication and use of medicine plants.
Strategies
- To deal with these difficulties, members of COAV have created health centers, medical laboratory and to promote some medicinal plants such as Moringa, Spirulina, Capucine, aloe vera, etc.
- Sensitisation campaigns are made to prevent various diseases such as AIDS, sexual transmitted infections, malaria and malnutrition. In addition to medical centers, there are psycho social accompaniment centers set up by members of COAV Kivu which deal with identifying people living with AIDS and victims of sexual violence.
Sponsors
World Bank through certain services of the state such as “fond social de la république” (FSRDC).
Breeding Programs
School fees, health costs, and food to eat are hard to come by due to the social structure of the area that supports incomes to families. Small animal breeding helps the majority of the vulnerable people to provide some and sometimes all of these requirements. Fish breeding and bee-keeping give products which are consumed and sold to generate the incomes to the families. Apart from the above breeding the main breeding is still the rabbits, pigs, chickens and goat breeding.
Strategy
- Giving animals to allow for creating more animal and small micro credit businesses.
Agriculture
The community fields help the people to work in collective and decrease the violence made on them when they work individually on their own fields. The agriculture product is sold, and the income is used in micro-credits activities. The fight against erosion, the multiplication of seeds and fertilizer composting are the technique used.
Prospected strategies
- Facing the world food crisis challenge, several hectares of community fields will be used by workers in camping, getting food for work.
Professions Training
Basket making, tannery, sewing, joinery, masonry and computer skills.
Prospected strategy
The wool produced by the sheep could be used by the vulnerable women to weave clothes.
Technical assistance
Among NGO member’s of COAV Kivu, one is in charge of technical infrastructure, mainly installing, managing solar panels, and to utilize solar energy as a clean solution to limited resources.
Community development activity
Organizing the basic communities to built the basic social infrastructures such as schools, health centers, opening of community fields for agricultural products, grouping farmers in cooperatives, water supply, fighting diseases, etc.