The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains a country with high insecurity, divided and with a total breakdown in law and order. In the Eastern part of the country especially the Kivus, warlordlism has once more become a problem making delivery of humanitarian assistance to the severely impoverished and traumatised populations difficult. Poverty has remained widespread with malnutrition reaching high levels and basically becoming endemic. Ongoing conflict, displacement, decreased economic activity and general deterioration of social services in the communities have made it difficult for the population to meet their basic needs and for the assistance provided by the humanitarian organisations to make positive impact. The eruption of Mount Nyirongongo in Goma in January, 2002 further complicated the lives of people in that region.

ACT members working in the Eastern DRC have come together and formulated response programs to assist some of the people both victims of the war and those who were victims of the volcano eruption. Last year after the volcano disaster, an appeal to provide relief was issued and generally the victims of the disaster got most of the basic relief items required. However, the appeal (AFDC22) which was addressing the people affected by the war had a very poor response of less 15% which made it impossible for the ACT members to respond adequately.

In this appeal, the ACT members; Christian Aid (CAID), The Church of Christ in Congo (ECC), Lutheran World Federation-World Service (LWF/WS), Bureau Oecumenique D’Appui Au Development (BOAD), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Congo (ELCC) would like to respond in South and North Kivu and Maniema in the distribution of seeds and tools, shelter provision, water programs, Education, Health, Non Food Items, psychosocial and trauma counselling. The organisations have formed an ACT forum in order to co-ordinate their programs well.

Project Completion Dates:

LWF/ECC-NK - 31 December 2003

CAID - 31 January 2004

BOAD/ECC/EELC - 31 December 2003

ECC-SK - 30 August 2003

Signed by:
Thor-Arne Prois, ACT Director
Elizabeth Ferris, Co-ordinator, Diakonia & Solidarity, World Council of Churches
Robert Granke, Director, Department for World Service, Lutheran World Federation

For full details of proposals and budgets, please click below to download a PDF file of the entire Appeal.

Democratic Republic of the Congo - Relief & Rehabilitation - AFDC31 (file size: 169 Kb)

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