Kananga Socio-Educational Center
Kananga, DR CONGO
Description
The San Lorenzo Social-Educational Center, located in the SNEL district, in the city of Kananga (Democratic Republic of Congo), offers a protected and growth space for children, young people and families who are victims of the armed conflict between rebels of the Kamuina Nsapu group and militia filo--governmental units of the Banu Mura units which between 2016 and 2017 strongly affected the city of Kananga.
Today, the neighborhood is characterized by poverty and violence, with children from the streets ready to become soldiers, widows who do not know how to support their children and few opportunities for growth for young people. These factors contribute to criminality, drug abuse and other vulnerabilities.
In the wake of the Kamilabi childhood fund, set up in the same areas to combat educational poverty and juvenile malnutrition, Associazione Realmonte, in collaboration with Don Elie Moluomba, pastor and longstanding volunteer of the Association, has started the “San Lorenzo” socio-educational center, to offer a reference point for children and young people through the implementation of various recreational and training activities.
The general objective of the project is to promote the education, training and autonomy of the children and adolescents of the SNEL community through actions that favor socialization, aggregation and spirituality of the people in the Center.
The project beneficiaries are about 1500 children from the neighborhood, 300 children from the street, 500 young people between 14 and 25 years involved as educators, 800 widows and the entire community of the SNEL neighborhood. They are children and young people who grew up during an armed conflict, many of whom have dropped out of school or had to move because of the war.
Thanks to your contribution, it will be possible to carry on the activities of the center: youth orchestra, socio-recreational paths with children from the street, training meetings with women and war widows, training of neighborhood social educators.
The young people and everyone involved in the project will attend the educational activities managed directly by Father Elie and by the staff of animators who in recent years have been trained as 'Guardians of Resilience', a model developed by Associazione Realmonte in collaboration with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.
