To ensure the empowerment and the self sufficiency of women by reducing the vulnerability of its recipients.Tracy’s Heart Foundation "THF/DRC" provides development programs as a response to the problems of the population in its intervention area; they are the following programs :
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FOOD SECURITY PROGRAM
The majority of the Congolese population in the Eastern part of DRC is in general impoverished after so many years of war and insecurity. There was destruction of the basic socio-economic infrastructures and as a consequence it lowered agricultural and animal production, lowered marketing and lowered the standard of living. This created an inaccessibility of population to goods and essential basic services, in particular food-nutrition. It resulted in a significant number of malnutrition cases in certain areas due to the problem of access to land for planting and the insufficiency of nutritional education.
The major part of the population lives in a state of insecurity or food insufficiency.
The small number of peasant farmers, stockbreeders and fishermen have a low producing capacity, caused by several reasons,
in particular :
- Ignorance or the inadequacy of information,
- Lack of training on suitable and modern techniques,
- Lack of necessary material,
- The lack of infrastructures for conservation, storage, and marketing
of agricultural and fish products,
- Lack of and the insufficiency of the means of transport of the
products from the centers of production to the landlocked places,
- Impracticability of the agricultural roads of service in certain corners
of the country,
- The presence of certain plants and domestic animal diseases causes
a fall in production of animal products and agricultural.
With the aim of fighting against food insecurity various projects were conceived in the agricultural field. These include live stock breeding, fishing, transformation, conservation, storage and marketing of agriculture and fish products in order to insure food security within the population.
2. COMMUNITY HEALTH PROGRAM
The major part of the Congolese population have an inaccessibility to quality health care and other basic social services, especially for the population living in poor conditions in densely population areas of the city or in remote villages. Tracy’s Heart Foundation is working towards insuring easy access to quality health care and other social services related to health through various initiated projects.
3. PROGRAM FOR ARTISANAL SOCIOL CRAFT/HANDICRAFT AND INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
Because of all the war situations in DRC unemployment increased. There is an increase in the number and categories of vulnerable people, especially orphans, ex-child soldiers, widows, unmarried girls who have given birth, young girl sex workers, procurers of sex workers, and the idle young people without employment. All these categories of people require assistance.
This program comes at the right moment to fight against youth delinquency, and to insure the preparation of these categories of vulnerable people in trades through various projects.
4. ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM AND DURABLE DEVELOPMENT
There has been a continuous degradation of the environment due to ignorance and/or lack of information of the population on environmental problems. There is no understanding of the effects of climate change and how to adapt to climate change as it occurs.
With the progressive deforestation observed in several places of the DRC carried out by the population in search of survival (tree felling for firewood, manufacture of charcoal); this program of environmental education is one of the ways to slow down this attack on the forests. Through projects of population sensitizing to management and protection of natural resources by activities of afforestation, the sensitizing of the women to the techniques of improved hearths called Lorena…
5. ADULT ILLITERACY ELIMINATION PROGRAM
Considering the illiteracy observed especially among women in DRC, mainly in the rural areas, this program is initiated with the aim of teaching illiterate women and girls in centers of illiteracy elimination. This teaching also includes handicraft training such as basket making which increases functional abilities. Also included is the sensitizing of families (parents) to the schooling of their children school assistance to the destitute families in order to reduce illiteracy gradually.
6. VIOLENCE AND DISCRIMINATIONS BASED ON GENDER: GENDER PROMOTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION
With the aim of fighting all kinds of abuse, rapes and violence against women and children in term of human rights protection, this program is set up in order to fight against all the forms of violence to preserve human rights.
Finally, with conflicts being inherent to human life in DR Congo, as part of this program we do what we can to promote cohabitation and peaceful resolution of these conflicts, without forgetting actions in favor of the most vulnerable.
It is through these programs that the activities of the organization Tracy's Heart Foundation are articulated.