Educate 130 Children of Rape Victims in DR Congo

Our extraordinary middle schooler Claudine (see report of 4 Feb 2013) has had a successful year despite personal trauma a year ago. As many victims of sexual violence do, her mother departed from her family to avoid bringing shame on her children; earlier their home was burned and they relocated from one of our school communities to another. Fortunately Claudine has had generous people in her life who arranged to relocate her to the nearest town to attend a better school there. She showed that much promise, and she was at that much risk. After returning to her village to stay with her grandmother over the summer, Claudine - still a student of this project - will return to her town school, advancing to the third year of secondary school. She writes (translated from French):

"I was born into a poor family without a father and of a mother driven away from the locality of Rwenena. Being that I am an offspring of violence [rape], I am without a person of goodwill who can support my studies in my family.

"I say thank you to all the people of good will that support vulnerable children like me for the advancement of their education in DRC. Thanks to the education you have provided to me, I will be one of the great helpful women of society and I will never forget to support the children in the same category as myself."

On Wednesday, July 16, GlobalGiving will be matching this project's donations 50% beginning at 9:00 AM Eastern time. We are gearing up for the fall (needing to allow 2 months from fundraising to delivery to the project) so please consider a generous donation. Thank you for your support of this important project. Claudine's and others' lives would not be the same without it.