DR Congo: New businesses transform Kivu women’s lives

Hundreds of women whose husbands were killed or who experienced sexual violence during more than a decade of conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have started setting up small businesses to help rebuild their lives.

Some 25 women’s groups in DRC, made up of 1,025 individuals in South Kivu and more than 500 in North Kivu, have launched income-generating enterprises in farming, manufacturing, embroidery, cooking, baking and retail.

In the town of Uvira, South Kivu province, 25 women formed a soap-manufacturing organization called ‘Tutaenda.’ The organization brings in US$500 in revenues weekly, providing a monthly salary of US$30 to each employee.

“Before we set up Tutaenda, we depended on our own subsistence farming to earn an income,” says Charlotte Kadabua, who also noted that her role in building the business has helped her earn respect from her community.

“With this income, I can provide for my five children and five other people,” says Abiya Bitocho, another Tutaenda employee whose husband formerly spent long periods seeking work far from home, but is now able to live with his family full time.  

Tutaenda was created through a community centre that provides women with a safe place to recover from trauma. The centre also helps them to re-enter their communities, where they sometimes face prejudices from family members or neighbours.

The larger Kivus initiative is supported by a US$1.6 million grant from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP designed the project based on priorities that were identified through assessing the needs of local women who have endured extreme brutality and widespread human rights abuses.

UNDP also helped to set up 10 community centres in the Kivus where women can learn about their rights and receive legal advice, medical treatment, and job and literacy training.

In 2010, the centres provided 10,000 women and girl survivors of sexual violence with psychological treatment and professional counseling, enabling them to start rebuilding their lives through entrepreneurial projects like Tutaenda.

As a result of such projects, many women can now pay their children’s school fees and feed their entire family. Moreover, the projects have taught the women to manage and save money, practices that are intended to empower them to maintain livelihoods after UNDP’s initiative is complete.