Healthy and Happy: children's food security in RDC

Dear Donors,

In June our country manager Francesco and our Aleimar’ volunteers Franca and Gianni took part in the periodic monitoring trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This has been the opportunity to visit all Aleimar’ projects in the Country in favor of children that live in conditions of vulnerability and in particular to strengthen the relationship with our local partner that manage the dispensary of Sambwa near the city of Lubumbashi. Moreover, our collaboration with AMKA Onlus in Mabaya gives us hope for the future!

Strengthening collaborations is really fundamental also because malnutrition is unfortunately still widespread in the Democratic Republic od Congo. Nowadays 43% of children suffer from moderate or severe malnutrition and 76,6% of the population live under the poverty line (UNDP data). Guaranteeing availability and access to safe and sufficient food, with the purpose of affirming the right of local populations to be able to decide their own food and production system, is what we would like to promote. Food self-sufficiency has been put to the test by the social and economic crisis caused by the pandemic and by extreme climatic phenomena caused by climate change, which are increasingly affecting our areas of intervention.

Our effort in favor of all the children of the province Haut-Katanga has never stopped, especially after the geopolical turmoil happened in 2022 and also in 2023, which have increased inflation and food insecurity. A lot of families in the region can not afford daily food access and clean water. These factors have led to raising malnutrition of the most vulnerable part of the local population: children and pregnant women.

We hope that all of you will follow us in our mission in order to support even more children in the Democratic Republic of Congo!

Thank you!

Dear Donors,

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC - an innovative multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making made up of Governments, UN Agencies, NGOs, civil society and other relevant actors) analysis found that between January and June 2023 in the Democratic Republic of Congo 25.8 million people continue to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity.

The most determining factors are:

- Conflicts and insecurity – the intensification of armed conflicts continues to cause the massive displacement of the population. 2.3 million displaced people have to leave their livelihood to escape the war that limits their possibility to access to food;

- Prices increase – since July 2022 food prices keep on growing. In particular the price of corn and beans remain superior compared to the seasonal average and the purchasing power of the local population remains low;

- Humanitarian assistance – the prolonged nature of the current crises in the DRC and the emergence of new crises (in Sudan and Ukraine) could exacerbate the already precarious situation of households in need of food assistance;

- Agricultural production - Previous weather anomalies (mainly poor distribution of precipitation and excessive precipitation that cause floods) lead to the decrease of agricultural production. Ongoing conflicts also continue to prevent or reduce people’s access to production basins.

In this general context of the country, Aleimar and Amka continue to monitor the state of food safety and overall security of Katanga region, in particular in the areas of Mabaya and Sambwa, where our projects are developed. Our efforts in providing supplies of monthly protein-based food packages (milk and local food enriched by carbohydrates, proteins, fats) and of supplements of vitamins and minerals has never stopped. Next week our Aleimar Country Representative will take part in the periodic monitoring trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and – together with other Aleimar volunteers - they will deliver all the products to the local communities and evaluate the progress of the project.

Follow our monitoring trip and be part of the change. Your help would make it all possible!

Thank you!