According to a report released in March by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were about 450,000 displaced persons in Tanganyika, the most affected region among the four provinces of the former Katanga, DRC. But in the past five months, it seems that this number has doubled. In Kalemie, the province capital, there are more displaced people than local inhabitants: for every ten people, six are migrants.
To support displaced people in the region, AVSI is currently implementing two projects. The first project’s main goal is to guarantee that 15,000 children living in Kalemie have access to quality education. Funded by Fonds Communs Humanitaires, the project responds to the current crisis in DRC supporting the most vulnerable victims: children who have lost everything.
As part of this project, AVSI is financially supporting the schools located near the displaced population camps, so the schools can accommodate new students, train teachers and school directors to ensure that greater attention will be on those who have already suffered major traumas, and provide school materials, such as kits for teachers and soccer balls and toys for the moments of leisure.
The second project is the Rapid Response to Population Movements (RRPM) that has been extended for the eighth year and whom AVSI is one of the main partners.
In the next six months, RRPM aims to reach displaced people in the most inaccessible areas of the four provinces of the ex-Katanga (Tanganyika, Lualaba, Haut-Lomami and Haut-Katanga), where other NGOs have no access. The main goal is to assist those who have been displaced for less than three months, providing essential goods, and organizing interventions in the fields of education, health and hygiene in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC).