Porridge to IDP malnourrished children in East RDC

Improving the lives situations of Internally Displaced Persons in Camps around Goma

Nutritious food to IDPs especially to children and vulnerable women is crucial in order to restore their physical health, and this is what we are doing through Porridge distribution and access to healthy food in camps. Cases of malnourished children and women are currently reducing around Goma but we have also observed the increased number of children and vulnerable women begging in various streets of Goma because what they are having is not enough.

We worked on two major things which improved the situation. Being first of all an advocacy group, first of all, we documented cases of those affected by malnutrition, secondly we organized porridge distribution to people and lastly we shared reports with various actors which created debates among humanitarian actors, and this led to the change of interventions in some camps. Our activities led of the change of food items granted to IDPs and to the quantity which is given to people, but also this led to the increased number of those accessing relief aid in camps, which was not the case before.

As you also observed, in our various activities, we mobilized the media and other actors of the Civil to visit IDP Camps through our different activities which attracted the number of people from Goma towards the camps, this helped people to see exactly what is happening and give their views which were different from humanitarian organizations.

However despite these great efforts which we do observe, the situation of IDPs is still the worst and often unnoticed by the international main stream media which exposes many to all risks.

We are aware that proving people with porridge is not the solution, we are aware about all the possible questions which may be asked, however we are also that a cup of porridge may make a difference in expand the life time of a person on this earth. We know that the end of the war and the safe return of IDPs are the key solutions towards this, much as we should also address issues related to poverty once people are gone back to their villages.