Reunite Children with their Families in Congo

In 2018, six-year-old Kabange was brought 272 kilometers from his hometown of Kasenga and left abandoned at a market in Lubumbashi. When Kimbilio welcomed him into our day center and later the Boys’ Transit Centre, he faced severe health and communication difficulties. Through eight years of continuous care, stability, and medical support at Kimbilio, Kabange slowly healed. As his speech improved, he grew confident enough to express his deepest wish: to find his family.

Armed with only one key detail—the name of Kabange’s father—our staff members, Patrick and Élisé, set out on a mission. On May 7th, they traveled with Kabange and successfully located his family 35 kilometers outside of Kasenga. After nearly a decade apart, he was received with an incredibly warm, emotional welcome.

Long-term rehabilitation, patient care, and intensive family tracing require sustained resources. The funds donated by our GlobalGiving community are vital to keeping these operations running, ensuring we can provide the time, safety, and support needed to help more children like Kabange find their way back home.

Hi, thank you so much for your financial support for this Kimbilio Project which reunites children living on the streets of Lubumbashi with their families. In 2025, we reunited 112 children - 39 girls and 73 boys with their families. An amazing total as each reuniting is the result of weeks and sometimes months of hard work by the Kimbilio team - locating the child's family, ascertaining the circumstances that led to the child leaving home and deciding whether the child can safely be renited. Grandparents or Aunts and Uncles may be the best people to take in the child if the parents circumstances are not good.

Often, the children may have travelled many miles to the city of Lubumbashi and this makes the task somewhat more challenging. Last year the Kimbilio team reunited children with familes in towns up to 200km away, such as Kolwezi, Kipushi,  Kasumbalesa and Fungurume.

Thank you again for supporting this important work