Mutuelle Jeunesse Active

Mutuelle Jeunesse Active (MJA) works in South Kivu/Uvira, Congo on many issues, but the central goals of MJA revolve around our hopes of elevating the situation of Congo’s children, so they may play a positive role in establishing a more peaceful and developed Congo which can offer them the opportunities which they have been denied throughout Congo’s often unpredictable and insecure past.

The war which has raged throughout Congo (called “Africa’s World War”) has created an untenable situation for Congolese children. Children and adults alike have been forced to bear rampant violations of human rights on behalf of the various armed groups still active in the country, in particular in North and South Kivu. Government unaccountability and lack of resources continue to plague the country. Forced recruitment of both boys and girls into various armed groups continues, despite international outcries and condemnation. Thus, with each passing year, MJA sees more and more children full of curiosity, potential, intelligence, and astounding determination unable to work to improve their situations and their communities, despite their overwhelming enthusiasm and willingness to do so if given the opportunity.

It is in that context that MJA finds a calling in South Kivu. Our idea is that if we are able to provide increased access to (1) information, (2) community-building activities, (3) formal education, and (4) an atmosphere of openness and cooperative goal-setting, then children in Congo will have opportunities to capitalize on their aforementioned intelligence, curiosity, and enthusiasm in creating a more peaceful Congo. All of MJA’s funding is directed towards these goals, which we are accomplishing through a multi-faceted approach. See our “Projects” link for the most up-to-date information on our current programs, and one’s for which we are currently in the grant-writing process for. Some examples are:
* Uvira Multimedia Center (UMC), our recently-completed project providing first internet access and PC education to much of the Uvira community, and focusing on Uvira’s primary school students, who are being instructed in the use of internet research and news information applications, inline networking tools (nabuur.com) Congolese history and peace-building resource use, and “productivity software” like Microsoft Office.
* Programs in football (3 teams, competing against various other teams in Uvira), using the natural motivation and community building team formation and friendly competition offer.
* Forums for young girls who have children of their own and lack support structures to aid them in providing the basics for their child/children while still taking care of themselves in the Congolese environment, which is notoriously hazardous to women (See “The Greatest Silence”).
* Programs providing school fees and uniforms for orphans, demobilized child-soldiers, and disadvantaged youth who otherwise would not attend school.

So whether it be IT technology or support of human rights, MJA devotes its every resource to children and their elevation, because we firmly believe that it is in the youth that you find the future of a nation, and nowhere is this more true than in the Congo, where we look to the children to lead us away from war and insecurity.