THERE IS THE AMBULANCE OF GSI ITALIA IN THE DARK NIGHT OF KINSHASA

Here is a picture sent by our Congolese partner Oseper. It shows one of the interventions carried out to rescue street children and girls in the nights of the capital, taking care of them, providing health care, food, clothing and physical and psychological assistance.

The condition of street children is always miserable in every underdeveloped country, in Congo the severity is greater for the social violence that characterizes life in African megalopolis, more than 20 million people in search of survival in a country that literally navigates on the gold of basic raw materials for the welfare of the West.

In 2018 two training workshops were organized for the staff of the center (educators, literacy instructors, psychologists, lawyers, nurses, etc.) and for those working in the mobile center (bus de nuit).

The first training session took place from 7 to 10 December 2018 and focused on daily educational practices. Its purpose was to strengthen the knowledge and skills of the staff center, in order to improve the quality of support and the provision of basic social services to the hosted children. The second training session took place from 19 to 22 December 2018 and was based on the process of social and economic reintegration of prostitute girls living in the streets.

The work with the prostitute girls starts on the street, they are contacted through a team of multisectorial educators. An ambulance acquired with the funds of the project allows the mobility of this team, especially at night, when these young girls are more visible. The work of this educational group in the “bus de nuit” has allowed us to establish a relationship of trust between the educators of the center and the girls, whose trust has facilitated the reference or the voluntary presence in the center. This work is generally carried out at night from 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm, but exceptionally this action was carried out during the day in October within the UJANA operation (a police action started in October 2018 by the urban authorities of the city of Kinshasa to track down underage prostitutes). 45 sites (aggregation places of street children) were visited by this team and at least 1750 children including 850 girls contacted and sensitized on various topics, including the return to the family through the center, if possible. 793 children of whom 283 girls were treated (in most cases, the treatment consisted of medications and de-worming) from nurses of the mobile team in the street and 15 children of which 6 girls went to the hospital for specialist care.