For more than 2 decades, DR Congo has faced a violent humanitarian crisis and is considered as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman”. According to the United Nations, approximately 1,100 rapes are being reported each month, with an average of 36 women and girls raped every day.
W4’s field project in DR Congo, the Alpha Ujuvi Collective, helps these women to become financially independent through its microfinance and entrepreneurship project. Thanks to this project, women survivors of sexual violence in the city of Bukavu can learn how to launch and run an income-generating activity (IGA), empowering them with a reliable income. The first part of the course is more theoretical and teaches women the most basic skills needed to start a business: reading, writing and arithmetic. Upon completion of this first component, the Collective provides the women with the seed capital necessary to launch their IGAs and offers them practical support throughout the development of their small businesses.