A home for street children

Maison Msaada

Centre for the care and recovery of street children and other vulnerable children.

contributors

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Our children

Arrival of Angelo and Darock in the evening with the children from Kamituga after a tiring journey through mud and rain

Bonanné in the flour store (he had helped carry the sacks)

Registration of children at school

Darock with Justin and Neema. The look on Justin’s face has changed so much, he never smiled when he arrived

Filomena e Sarah

12 and 8 years old, they lived in Kamituga with an elderly and sick grandmother. The mother died of an illness attributed to witchcraft, the father in a mining accident due to a tunnel collapse.

Justin

Esther

8 years old, she lived in Mwenga with a mother who was paralysed in one leg. The two older sisters became pregnant at 14. The eldest left her daughter (now 5 years old) with her mother and went to look for work in the mines. The other has yet to give birth and is helping her sick mother. She wanted to come with us.

Mbilizi

14 years old, his mother died of poisoning when he was 3 years old, his father died of illness, he lived in Mwenga with a grandmother who went mad after her 16-year-old son was killed. He had stopped studying after his grandmother was widowed. When he arrived here he was very withdrawn, but in a few weeks he has opened up a lot and is always smiling, although the memory of his parents makes him cry sometimes when he is alone.

Bauduin

14 years old, we rescued him from the Kamituga orphanage, a small centre run by a local couple where some orphaned children are taken in, but where the quality of care is very low due to lack of means, organisation and staff training. The mother had died from ‘ sorcellerie’, the father had lost his life in the mines. For a living, he went to the forest to help a man in coal production work, and at night he often slept on the road, on the market stalls, in Kamituga, until he was taken into the orphanage. He was reported to us for an epilepsy that had never been treated. He looked sad and malnourished when we first saw him. He still had no seizures, but we immediately started treatment for extrapulmonary tuberculosis. After a few weeks, he improved a lot and regained a few kilos, but the treatment is long. He is a very intelligent child and is promising to do very well at school. he cares a lot about studying. He is a sweet and very quiet child who has easily integrated, he also loves school very much.

Kika

12 (?) years old, he doesn’t know his age. He was found by chance during a visit to the gold mines around Kamituga, where he helped to sift the sand and carry loads. At night he slept on the street. He wanted to follow us immediately. He was abandoned by his mother, who left with his younger brothers and another man, and by his father, who sought another woman. His mother also worked in the mines as a ‘twengeze’ (the name given to the women who break stones all day to find gold dust). At first he was very confused, he seemed to have lost all sense of time, but after a month his story became more coherent. He loves writing, drawing, painting and theatre. His drawings are full of life and colour, depicting flowers, plants and animals. He is a very changeable child, incapable of reflection. One morning, after six months at Maison Msaada, he decided to follow Daniel and return to Kamituga. We are still awaiting his return.

Bonannée

14 and a half years old. He lived on the street for many years, after the death of his parents, both of whom were murdered. His mother was a prostitute. It wasn’t easy to get him used to a regular life, but he also loved going to school and was proud of his small progress, as well as being proud when he was able to help us with some of the heavier work, being a very strong boy. Thanks also to the affection we gave him, he stayed at Maison Msaada for six months, until he decided, in his impulsiveness, to follow Daniel and return to Kamituga. We are convinced that it was his intention to return to the centre, but he was probably hindered by the rapid deterioration of the situation, with the arrival of armed groups. We still hope to be able to find him and train him in a trade, as he is a very skilful child with his hands.

Fabrice

11 years old. He lived in Kamituga with a tubercular grandmother. His mother had died many years before from ‘sorcelleria’, his father from typhoid fever. He had only been able to attend one year of school, but he was very keen to study. He is a sweet and very quiet child, who has easily integrated, he also loves school very much.

Christian

After spending about five months at Maison Msaada, he decided to go back to living on the street in Kamituga. He had difficulty accepting the basic rules of community life. He was a very impulsive child, unable to reflect on the consequences of his actions. We would like to look for him, but the road to Kamituga is not safe at the moment due to the instability that has arisen throughout the east of the country since the end of January 2025. We will also need to offer him vocational training to encourage him to stay with us: for this reason we are counting on the opening of a carpentry centre once the situation is more stable.

Neema

11 years old. Found at the age of 2 months along a river and entrusted to a woman who had already taken in other orphans. She began to have behavioural problems at an early age, fits of aggression and agitation. It had not been possible to school her, perhaps also because of a slight cognitive deficit. She was treated with powerful anti-psychotics to control her seizures. She spent her days wandering around the neighbourhoods of Kamituga. She no longer takes any medication with us, and although it was hard at first because she was very impulsive and often hit the little ones, she is now well integrated, and does her best to help with the housework and looking after Justin and Onorine

Baraka

11 years old, weighing 16 kg and measuring 104 cm. He came on foot from Kabogi, a village about 70 km from Mwenga, with the woman who took him in after the death of his mother, who was already ill when he was a child and was widowed at an early age. He is very reserved and arrived more than a month after the others, but he is happy to be here and to be able to study

Chance

7 years old. Both parents worked in the Lugushwa mines where they contracted a fatal disease. The other 7 children were distributed among various relatives, Chance being left with an elderly, sick aunt. She sometimes cries at the memory of her mother, but is easily distracted by activities with the other children.

Justine, Justin, Julie

Three little siblings, aged approximately 12, 10 and 7, lived alone in a shack in Kamituga, following the death of their parents. Their father had already abandoned them after the death of their mother. Justine spent all day at the market trying to scrape together some money in exchange for some services. In the evenings she cooked for her little brother and sister. Julie went out to fetch water, the rest of the time she stayed at home cleaning, washing, changing Justin, an autistic and epileptic child with a developmental delay, who never went out. Justin did extraordinary things in just one month with us, thanks to the affection and attention of so many people around him.

Samuel

12 years old. He lived in Kamituga with a sick grandmother, who had worked in the mines. His mother had died of AIDS, his father had been found hanged. His older siblings had already ended up on the street, he had already had to drop out of school for three years. He also has a great desire to study and is very good at drawing. He feels at home with us.

Daniel

13 years old. His father is in the military, his mother left with another man and he found himself on the street. His friends, Bonanne and Christian, brought him to us. He is an exuberant and joyful child. After spending more than five months at Maison Msaada, one morning before dawn he decided to return to Kamituga. He was very proud of his progress at school: in a short time he had learnt to write, he was the first to leave the house in the morning, sometimes without even eating, for fear of being late. He had stolen some chalk left in the classroom by the teacher, together with three of our other children. The matter was discovered and he couldn’t bear the humiliation suffered in front of the more than 60 children in his class, and convinced Bonanne and Kika, his companions from life on the street, to follow him. Unfortunately, unlike him, the other two have no one to look for, while he still has the chance to look for his mother, who may have stayed in Kamituga. Like almost all street children, they are also very fickle and impulsive. Our hope is to be able to get them back and include them in the carpentry workshop, once the political situation allows us not only to move around, but also to carry out new projects. However, there is fear that he and the other three children who have returned to living on the street could be recruited into the militias, in this moment of disorder in which various armed groups are circulating.

Heritier

11 years. Found with Christian and Bonanné. He was afraid to leave the street, but his friends went to find him and bring him to the centre. His parents had both left, abandoning him, his mother possibly in prostitution, his father with the military. He loves music.

Onorine

4 (5?) years. She was abandoned soon after birth by her young mother, who left her with her paternal grandmother, to go and work in the mines of Lugushwa, where she died about a year later. The father died possibly of tuberculosis; he also worked in the mines. After two years, the child was placed in the care of an aunt who was ill, but worked as a ‘twengeze’ when she could and whose husband had tuberculosis. She has been hospitalised many times due to malnutrition. She is a tiny, exuberant child with great vitality, very independent; she has adapted from day one to her new life with the other children, without ever complaining, and loves to be surrounded by lots of attention!

Rejina

She is 14 years old. She lost her mother at an early age and lived with her grandmother in Kamituga, while her older brothers left to work in the mines. Her father, who also worked in the mines, died several years after her mother from an illness attributed to witchcraft. When her grandmother decided to leave on foot to reach a remote region (the territory of Shabunda), the child, no longer being able to afford to pay the rent of the hut, went to live with a friend of her mother’s and began to work in the mines. When she had saved up enough money to pay for the journey, she went to Bukavu in search of relatives, but she never found them. She remained on the road for a month, until the police found her and took her to the Ekabana centre, a shelter for street girls, from where she was sent to Mwenga because she was originally from that area. She had only attended the first three years of primary school and is now very happy to go to school.

Our collaborators

Ilaria Moneta - co-founder

Darock Mukobelwa - co-founder

Angelo - educator, teacher

Farigi - the tailor

Mamie - cook and educator

Joseph - guardian, gardener, assistant in education

Wabiwa - cook and educator

Jules Lwesso - son of the local community chef, supporter and facilitator of the project

Moïse - guardian and all-around handyman

Our priorities

In the center for street children and vulnerable women that we are establishing, as in other centers that we plan to establish or support in the future, our priorities are:

Education

Literacy and education with special emphasis given to the arts (music, dance, fine arts…) and training in crafts, agriculture and trades useful in local society. Our children will initially attend public schools but will receive other educational offerings at the center, which will gradually involve the local community as well.

Environment / Forest

Children will be educated to respect the environment and nature; we will try in every activity to reduce the environmental impact and plastic consumption as much as possible. We will initiate partnerships with local associations already involved in environmental and forest defense (uncontrolled mineral extraction and deforestation in the Mwenga area have raised concerns in the local community…)

grow your own food

The available land around the house will be cultivated to produce staple foods for the local diet (cassava, peanuts, corn, beans, sweet potatoes…) but also we would like to introduce various vegetables, since it is fertile soil, to enrich the children’s diet and enhance and diversify agricultural production, thus also creating an example for the local people, who are used to neglecting the land in search of other resources. We also want to plant fruit trees such as mangoes, avocados, bananas, and orange trees, to depend on the city as little as possible

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Our Partners & Sponsors

Maria Cristina Moneta e Paolo Bandecchi
Silvestra Mariniello
Francesco Moneta
Lydia Pescollderung
Silvia Castagna e Andrea Quarello
Mirella Pin e Mahmoud Kassem
e molti altri…

Carmen Mustile
John Talarico
Enrica Falbo
Amiya Grazia Tripodina
union lido mare
Vittorio Moneta

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Thank you all partners and sponsors

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