In the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of children living on the streets are subjected to completely unacceptable conditions. Louvain Coopération is running two projects, in Kinshasa and Bukavu, to try to rescue as many of them as possible from the hell of street life. Last year, we helped more than a thousand children. Here is the story of Daniel, one of them.
5 "There was violence in my village, near Virunga National Park (eastern DRC). Everyone was afraid and fleeing. It was chaos. I was still small and lost my parents in the crowd." This is Daniel's story. This terrible episode left him alone and he had no choice but to live on the streets with other children. He lived there for three years. During the day, he collected scrap metal and sold it to get a little money to eat. At night, he slept outside, under market stalls for protection. He survived this way until he walked through the door of the Don Bosco centre, a partner of Louvain Coopération in Bukavu. There, he was cared for, fed and housed. After much searching, the educators found his father, who was living in a refugee camp in Kenya. Today, Daniel is 19 years old and is training to be a mechanic so that he can build a new future for himself.