UNICEF Video
Protecting Orphans in DR Congo
Life is hard for the vast majority of children in DR Congo. For the countrys orphans, who make up roughly 15 per cent of the under-18 population, life can be even harder.
Chantal, now 10, lost her father in 2001. His death left her mother without the means to raise Chantal and her siblings. Her young life was reduced to a base struggle for survival.
But things improved for Chantal and her siblings in 2003, when volunteer Taty Dilu Dia Kanda, going door to door in his neighborhood, identified the children as orphans who were at risk. Mr. Kanda was working with a new Orphans and Vulnerable Children Project initiated by UNICEF and Caritas, the development arm of the Catholic church.
