Blog

With funding from WPHF and UN Women DRC, PIFEVA built a comprehensive system in Mwenga for promoting women's rights and economic recovery. Three pillars, 22 villages, one training centre — and individual trajectories that tell the rest of the story.

The project had a clear objective: to strengthen local mechanisms for promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls, and to support the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable and marginalised women and girls emerging from armed conflict in Mwenga territory.

Pillar 1 — Mobilising communities

Twenty-two Local Units against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence were established in 22 target villages. They bring together community members, including traditional leaders and political-administrative authorities, alongside vulnerable and marginalised women themselves. Their work combines door-to-door awareness raising, radio broadcasts, advocacy actions and public marches against SGBV.

Pillar 2 — Building a generation of women leaders

120 women leaders and emerging leaders, including young women, were trained and mentored through three Women's Mentoring and Coaching Pools set up in Mwenga centre, Kamituga and Kitutu. These pools act as a nursery: they prepare proactive women to enter local and community decision-making bodies, amplifying women's voices and driving concrete progress on gender equality.

Pillar 3 — A trade, capital, autonomy

300 vulnerable women and girls affected by armed conflict were taken on by the Centre for Socio-Professional and Economic Reintegration created in Kamituga. There they train in tailoring, hairdressing or bread-making, complemented by technical support in setting up, managing and sustaining their own income-generating activity.

Hélène's story

Hélène Kasindila, 47, a mother of seven and a survivor of rape, was abandoned by her husband following the assault she suffered in Kasaga in November 2019. Her children had left school because she could not pay the fees. Identified and selected in May 2021, she completed the centre's six-month bread-making programme from June to December 2021, alongside training in creating and sustaining an income-generating activity.

On completing her training she received a reintegration kit — a 25 kg bag of flour, a 10-litre container of vegetable oil, 10 kg of sugar and various accessories — which allowed her to launch her own production and sale of ndazi doughnuts in her Kabukungu neighbourhood. Within two months of trading, her capital had grown from 100,000 to 175,000 Congolese francs.

« Since I started this work, my children no longer go to bed hungry. This work is restoring my honour and my place as a woman heading a household, in my family and in my community. »

— Hélène Kasindila, project beneficiary, Kamituga

THE PROJECT IN NUMBERS

22 Local Units against SGBV created

22 target villages

120 women leaders trained

3 women's mentoring and coaching pools

300 women and girls reintegrated

1 socio-professional and economic reintegration centre in Kamituga