Advancing Women's Rights and Gender Equity


Blessed Aid has set up a program named "Gender Protect" intending on:

• Social & economic empowerment with focus in income-generating activities,
• Fight against violence, participation in public life and decision-making,
• Gender Equality,
• Access to schooling and vocational training,
• Access to care and health,
• Capacity building in various thematic such as gender-peace-conflicts, positive masculinity, female leadership, etc...


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Women’s empowerment & Gender equality

Blessed Aid has set up a program named "Gender Protect" intending on:
• Social & economic empowerment with focus in income-generating activities,
• Fight against violence, participation in public life and decision-making,
• Gender Equality,
• Access to schooling and vocational training,
• Access to care and health,
• Capacity building in various thematic such as gender-peace-conflicts, positive masculinity, female leadership, etc...

Health

Although donors are limited for funding in response to the crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo, the current situation is such that Blessed Aid faces continued significant funding needs in its efforts to expand access to services to most people in need, including quality integrated health management. This effort must continue and be strengthened to ensure the availability of quality services for both health.

Nationwide, the functioning health structures are those supported by international organizations. It is with this in mind that Blessed Aid intends to make its modest contribution in partnership with the Ministry of Health and our support is part of the strengthening of the activities of the minimum package of activities and complementary activity of health structures in emergency and post emergency situation.

National standards are used according to the country's health policy and international standards. Our support is focused on the health of mothers and children in particular, and in the event of disaster emergencies, other population groups are also taken into account in our actions. Our approach to health is to provide comprehensive care to vulnerable groups in the community by being part of the health plan of our country the DRC.

In addition to the Ministry of Health, we look forward to working with other partners in health such as the United Nations agencies having health in the areas of intervention like WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA and we also intend to work with the Global Fund for HIV/TB issues, Malaria through the leaders of interventions in the field.

Education

The already fragile education system has suffered significant deterioration during the last three years of the DRC crisis resulting in a loss of access to education, limiting children's learning and personal development opportunities.


Blessed Aid will make its contribution as part of the humanitarian response plan for the recovery of education in the DRC, in three main areas:

Develop and improve in all aspects, early childhood protection and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children, primary and literacy.
Contribute to improving the quality of education in all aspects with a view to excellence so as to obtain recognized and quantifiable learning outcomes for all, particularly with regard to reading, writing and calculation and essential skills in everyday life and the development of transversal axes of education for peace and reconciliation.
Is a lever for a real recovery in the DRC. This sector will not only make adults aware of the importance of their children's education, but it also constitutes a framework for training in peace and reconciliation for better social cohesion. Another aspect of our intervention focuses on supporting the resumption of education for cases of rape or other children in conflict zones and vulnerable groups in the community (widows, orphans, ex-combatants, etc...)
Access for young people to decent employment is a priority in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Blessed Aid joins the efforts made by the Congolese government and its partners but also by other non-state actors such as NGOs, in the framework of the promotion of entrepreneurial education of young people; Train them on how to create and better manage their businesses, but also provide them with coaching to help them start up their activities and get them out of their isolation to allow them to meet economic players.

Food security and livelihoods

Our approach is to contribute to the improvement of food availability as well as the promotion of certain food crops for food self-sufficiency in times of emergency, food conservation, seed and food banks and cash transfers and resources depending on the context in the country and the availability of food. We would like to partner with FAO, WFP, the population and local associations active in the fields of food security (in this case, the definition of the project will depend on the funds available in the area).

Water, Hygiene and Sanitation

Blessed Aid intends to contribute to the availability of drinking water in the community and also to the promotion of good hygiene and sanitation practices in the villages and sites of the displaced; the actions to be proposed are as follows: distribution of NFI kits including materials for the availability of Wash water, construction / rehabilitation of water points (supervision of hygiene committees, sanitized village, etc.) as well that community mobilization on hygiene and sanitation.

Nutrition

Nutrition being a component of primary health care, our intervention approach is part of the national nutrition policy but we also look forward to working in partnership with the agencies of the United Nations system, in particular UNICEF and WFP to therapeutic inputs as well as drugs for routine treatment. In addition to the management of malnutrition (UNTI, UNTA and UNS) and the community approach, in particular awareness-raising on the themes of infant and young child feeding. It should also be noted that Blessed Aid does not have a specific protocol for its interventions, so the guidelines for our intervention may be part of the logic of humanitarian interventions according to the nutrition cluster.

Protection

Support to the government for the needs assessment and analysis for the contextualization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to protection and advocacy. Advocacy for fundraising and local capacity building for better results for children. Our intervention focuses on the following priority areas:

Our approach is to contribute to the return to civilian life through the DDR activities of children in the areas affected by this phenomenon through special supervision in favor of children and communities, in particular through awareness-raising and advocacy for liberation and non-participation of children in armed or inter-community conflicts before taking charge in the CTO and the reintegration of children released from armed forces and groups (ESFGA).
This activity is a priority in all phases of each emergency. Interventions to prevent further separation are also needed. Blessed Aid teams in the field is able to identify a significant number of separated children among the displaced populations. The majority of these children do not hear from their families and those who do have no support to reach them.
The majority of support and protection structures are weakened or non-functional. Children and women especially those who are displaced are the most vulnerable to abuses such as rape, exploitation and child marriage. Blessed Aid plans to improve this response and integrate the care of survivors (SVS) in all health facilities and in order to start reintegration activities for those who are eligible. In addition, initiate activities on advocacy and prevention of child marriage in collaboration with community and opinion leaders.
During emergencies, children are exposed to a variety of extreme conditions, some of which are beyond their ability to cope. In addition to meeting basic needs, it is imperative to consider emotional support related to children's development. Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) is a programmatic approach to child rights focused on the well-being of the child in an emergency.
The essential elements in the context of the establishment of the Child Protection System. In order to facilitate access to basic social services including birth registration for orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC), Blessed Aid relies on the local capacities of the community for the sustainability of activities, particularly the strengthening of community child protection networks (RECOPE), support to competent state institutions for the care of OVC and birth registration.
Understanding the basics of the justice system in the DRC has been a priority in order to identify a number of activities to be implemented to strengthen the justice system in accordance with the legal approach in place. This allows the identification and care of children in conflict with the law (Enfants en Conflits avec la Loi, ECL) as well as their reintegration and advocacy.
For several decades, eastern DRC has faced ongoing conflict between communities. Blessed Aid gets involved in conflict resolution between communities through awareness raising, advocacy with community leaders and other influential people for cohesion and peace building.
In the field of the environment, our approach is centered on the promotion of trees in order to fight against erosion on the roads of agricultural services, and the cultivation of fruit trees but also we sensitize the communities on the protection of the environment. And it is possible to collaborate with the state and private sectors in the environmental sector. Communities will are sensitized, in particular on environmental management and the fight against climate change.

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