26 people trained in BARAKA, Kamituga and Kalehe on approach "Gender in the families"

As part of the campaign gender in our families, the Association of Media Women in South Kivu AFEM SK in his project "Advocacy and awareness for the fight against gender-based violence has training 26 people from three areas of South Kivu. 

These trainings were conducted at FIZI / BARAKA, Kamituga / Mwenga and Kalehe. 

For AFEM SK the new approach based on the integration of men alongside women in their different formations that address gender-based violence in families.These courses focused on gender and gender-based violence and human rights.

AFEM SK gives three offices to the listening core clubs

Rural women members of listening core clubs of AFEM SK will carry out their activities without much difficulty. 

This is the essentially of the message they sent to the leadership of the Association of Media Women in South Kivu. AFEM SK in partnership with DIAKONIA gave 3 offices to provide Listening Core Club in BARAKA / FIZI, Kamituga / Mwenga and Kalehe. These offices will enable NCE ensure their awareness, advocacy and recording broadcasts. According to the Coordination of AFEM SK, these offices are given in their project accompanying Listening Core club to the Women's Media Association of South Kivu.

Kalonge: hunger overwhelms the displaced

Approximately four thousand households were displaced Kalonge in Kalehe, following the upsurge in armed conflicts since January 2012. They came from Shabunda, Kalehe and Kabare.

These families are living in difficult conditions. Some are under-housed by host families and others spend the nights in small houses from straw, or in tents, tarpaulins, given by a humanitarian NGO, International Rescue Committee IRC. They are many, men, women and children, suffering from hunger, cold, and homeless.
They reach out to just anybody to find any answer.

Also, nature seems hell-bent against this population: hail rains fell in March, April and May, destroying the plants. A mosaic tackled the cassava plant, abundant food resource in the medium; which led to a general lack of productivity. Thus, neither the host families, or families displaced seem to know what to do.

Bukavu DRCongo: Female carriers ply trade as human pack horses, a vestige of war years

Cesarine Maninga carrying a load of charcoal,

which she sells at a local market in

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Years of war — when men were off at

battle, killed or returned to find no work

— gave eastern Congo its legions of female

bearers. ‘‘I don’t have a choice,’’

Ms. Maninga said, bitter resignation in

her voice. ‘‘I have to feed my family.’’

It’s around 6 in the morning and the sun is slowly rising, a clear sign that Cesarine Maninga must leave. In one practiced movement, she straps a 50-kilogram sack of charcoal to her back, tosses the rough rope around her head and trudges off toward Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Ms. Maninga, 43, is just one of hundreds of women who ply this trade each day, lugging loads of up to 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds. On this morning, she hopes to sell makala — dry charcoal used for heating and cooking. She will walk almost 10 kilometers, or about six miles, with the heavy load, a trek she makes at least twice a week. ‘‘I don’t have a choice,’’ she said, bitter

resignation in her voice. ‘‘I have to feed my family’’ — 11 children, and an unemployed husband. Women like Ms. Maninga are a common sight on the streets of Bukavu, striking not for their looks but for the outsize burdens they carry. In French, they are les femmes transporteuses; in Kiswahili, they are called babeba mizigo. Whatever the language, the job is the same: Female carriers are human pack horses. Several international surveys haverated Democratic Republic of Congo as the world’s worst place to be a woman. Often, these studies focus on gender violence. According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health last year, 48 Congolese women are raped every hour. For years, various militia and rebel groups have used rape as a weapon to destroy communities. Across eastern Congo during these years of war, women have acquired an added burden, that of bearing heavy loads. Horses, donkeys and trucks are too expensive, residents say. The roads, if any, are so bad that the few miles between Ms. Maninga’s mountain shack and Bukavu are nearly impassable, except on foot.

AFEM / SK received an award for the first Forum called The New York Forum for Africa

AFEM / SK has just received an award for his incredible activism for women in South Kivu, in the Forum called The New York Forum for Africa; Dialogue For Action.
The objective of this International Forum is to contribute to the improvement of living conditions of African in terms of safety, health and productivity, the Dialogue for Action Africa brought together a distinguished panel of speakers and participants, including presidents of NGOs, political leaders and academics, business leaders and medical experts, in order to find innovative solutions to major problems facing women in Africa face.
Well established in the 21st century, women around the world continue to face limitations in access to education, employment, care and safety. These limits are particularly increased in this vast African continent, more than half the population is female. African women, who face these challenges every day, are also those who hold rich potential of measures for their resolution.

AFEM SK publishes two documentaries on sexual violence in South Kivu

"The presence of military and political authorities was important

so that we may be edified of the recurring situation of sexual violence in the province of South Kivu." These words was said by participants in the exchange which was organized by Women's Media Association of South Kivu AFEM SK. Due to the material being processed, participants thought that it was essential to share with the military authorities, who have their office in the protection of national territory.
A screening of two documentaries on sexual violence in South Kivu was made to scan the status of women in the territories of South Kivu province. During two hours, the actors of civil society and those politics have had a debate about the question.

AFEM SK is against the aggression of children in DRC

Children, all over the world, not all so lucky. Sometimes some of them from aggression, which is why the United Nations chose the date of June 4, which, since 1992, recalls the violence suffered by thousands of young people.
The majority of young people are exploited in different ways by adults and, although the rights of children are now rights "sacred", poverty, work and conflicts often lead them to perform acts that lead to their loss. It is for this reason that the Association of Media Women of South Kivu joins the United Nations has chosen the June 4 to remember and fight against violence suffered by many young people.
In DRC, for example where several children, girls and boys have become  miners, spend their days in the mines in search of the precious stone.