Otb Foundation, a non-profit organization of the fashion and luxury group, founded and led by Renzo Rosso, and the Augustinians in the World Foundation they announced a partnerships aimed at strengthening the Residential Center Juvenat in city of Dungu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
This project aims toreception and social reintegration and economical former child soldiers, both male and female, and marginalized youth.
The Juvenat program
Il Juvenat program, started in 2020 by the collaboration between the Augustinian Foundation in the World and the Augustinian missionaries in Congo, provides support for 450 former child soldiers, both males and females, every year. In the initial phase of the project, a residential center and various workshops were built to assist young people in the region.
In the Juvenat project, which will develop over the next two years, the agro-pastoral laboratory will be the most challenging component, broken down into two main activities: the transformation of agri-food products and the production of charcoal briquettes from vegetable waste for domestic use, in order to replace wood and kerosene, which are more polluting and contribute to deforestation. Furthermore, other activities have been started, including beekeeping (with hives built by the carpenters of the Juvenat Center), and traditional activities such as pig, cattle and fish breeding.
I young people involved in the project they will receive training with an agro-ecological approach, in order to raise awareness and promote fair agricultural and food systems, respond to the climate crisis and ensure dignified livelihoods for farmers. The objective is to involve at least 50% girls in the initiative.
The contribution of Otb Foundation
Thanks to Otb's contribution, the training and production laboratories already existing in the center will be strengthened, including PC programming, carpentry, tailoring and agro-pastoralism, expanding the social and economic reintegration program for the beneficiaries.
The Center will be able to assist another 200 young people per year, bringing the total number of beneficiaries of the program to 650, including boys and girls, with a del% increase 50.
The problem of child soldiers in Congo
Il phenomenon of child soldiers it is widespread in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children are kidnapped, often at a very young age, even between the ages of 4 and 5 by tearing them away. by their families. They then suffer violence, torture and are forced to carrying out assassinations on behalf of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), terrorist group active in Africa.
In recent years, the population of Dungu has often been the victim of raids by the Resistance Army, which has perpetrated massacres among innocent civilians, rapes and kidnappings of child soldiers in the region. It is estimated that around 30.000 child soldiers have been recruited in this area of the country, many of whom are in the hands of various paramilitary groups. Most of them are aged between 8 and 15, and 40% are girls.
The mission of Otb Foundation
Having always shown a strong sensitivity towards violence and the difficulties faced by women and children, the OTB Foundation has thus decided to tackle this problem in a concrete way. The foundation has decided to support this project as part of the initiative “Brave Actions for a better world” to express his rejection of the horror of child soldiers.
“The Juvenat Project program is cmade up of two sections: training and production”, he clarifies Ariadne Alessi, vice president of OTB Foundation. “Thanks to the training course, around 200 more young people will be involved per year, starting from the second year of the project; of these, many ex-boy soldiers. Some of these young people will remain to work for the agricultural company, in the various sectors, and will themselves become trainers for the new beneficiaries. A. is also planned school reintegration program thanks to some agreements made with the city's schools. With the new project the aim is to increase the number of school placements by 30%. Through the production sector, economic income will be guaranteed for the beneficiaries and an important contribution will be made to the sustainability of the entire centre. We have embraced this project also because great importance is given to the gender issue, which has always been a priority for the Otb Foundation: the 50% of the beneficiaries are girls and it was also decided that the person responsible for the agro-pastoral program will be a woman expert in agro-ecology. The selections have already begun."
