RESPECT International Blog

“Children live in slums here because their parents or guardians have little to no money for education, clothing, shoes, housing, medicine and food. They are surrounded by so many hardships, frustrations, and a lack of basic care because their loved ones have died, were lost in the war or have contracted AIDS,” Oscar Benjamin.

Growing up and experiencing the trouble in Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) Oscar Benjamin, at seven years old, had a dream of helping the children affected by the violence.  That dream became reality in 2006 in the form of Eye to Eye Child Care (EECC): a community based, child welfare organization that helps children in Uvira and Fizi in the DR Congo get off the streets, out of the slums, and into school.  EECC is a childrens home which provides shelter, protection, food and education.

“One thousand children live on the streets in these two towns alone (Uvira and Fizi). They make a living doing odd jobs and they are promised money for school and then forced into labor or sex and taken out of the country to Burundi, and Rwanda,” he said.

EECC is also working with the government DR Congo to find ways of taking the children off the streets and into a place of safety and back into education.  More importantly they are working towards campaigns which protect children from being taken advantage of.  It is common for adults to promise to feed street children or pay for education but instead the children then become victims of sexual and physical abuse.  Children are also taken away to Burundi or Rwanda, for example, and used for child labour.  In addition to this, drug and alcohol are ever present dangers on the streets hich the children use as escape mechanisms.

One of the important jobs when moving forward is for the EECC to give the children hope for the future.  One of the ways in which he is achieving this is through RESPECT International’s Global Letter Exchange Program.  Refugee students, under the age of 18, write letters to non-refugee students.  “This gives the children the feeling that an opportunity lies ahead of them. It gives them something to look forward to,” he said.  More than 30 children from the EECC will participate in the program.

“I am surrounded by children who have reached a point of vulnerability where they can’t handle life anymore. Children like myself who had dreams, ambitions and goals but who are surrounded by so many hardships, frustrations, and a lack of basic care because their loved ones have died, are lost in war or have contracted AIDS,” Benjamin said.  The Letter Exchange gives the children something to look forward to and Benjamin said it might give the children of the EECC “a feeling of being valued somewhere in someone else’s life.”

http://www.respectrefugees.org/

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