In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Solidarity Center fights against child labor and for decent wages for teachers, miners, and other workers through the empowerment of communities and worker organizations.
Despite democratic elections in 2006, workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo face extreme challenges. Renewed conflict in the northeastern part of the country has displaced 250,000 people. While a living wage is at least $300 per month, the average Congolese worker earns less than a dollar a day. Even teachers earn only $40 per month and are rarely paid on time, and strikes of teachers and healthcare professionals have become common. Police, military, and civil servants, who also must wait months for a paycheck, often extort income from citizens on the street. Private employers limit or close operations to keep up with the competition.
At least 80 percent of Congolese workers struggle in the informal economy. The recent plummet of mineral prices on the global market has led to mass layoffs in the formal mining sector, driving thousands to informal artisan mines where healthcare and safety measures are absent and debt bondage, child labor, and other human rights violations are rife. In areas of relative political stability, mining companies clash daily with artisan miners whose only means of survival is to dig illegally on mining concessions. Children whose parents cannot afford school fees also work in the dirty, dangerous mines.
A progressive series of decentralization laws gives shared administrative and political power to the national government and 26 provincial governments (including 15 newly designated ones). The new structure grants each province the power to levy taxes, craft development projects, and control customs taxes. Moreover, 40 percent of national revenues that provinces raise inside their borders are guaranteed to return to the provinces. Although decentralization is aimed at bringing state authority closer to the people being governed and sharing the nation’s revenue more equitably, many observers feel that to ensure success, it must be an open and transparent process, accompanied by intensive capacity-building and training programs, stringent financial management systems, sufficient resources to deliver social services, and rigorous anti-corruption measures.
Giving Girls a Chance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Solidarity Center is helping eradicate child labor by removing girls from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and enrolling them in vocational training courses.
Combating Exploitative Child Labor through Education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An energetic headmistress and her school are at the center of a Solidarity Center program aimed at giving former child miners in the DRC the education they deserve and helping teachers earn a living wage.
Year-End Gift from U.S. Students Sends 65 Congolese Children to School. Thanks to a generous gift from students in Westchester County, NY, 65 children in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be able to attend school for a full year.
Reaching Out to Artisan Miners in the DRC. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mining is the top growth industry. Two million workers have become artisan miners for diamonds, gold, and other precious metals, risking their lives for the $5 a day that they earn to support their families.
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