JUVENAT Centre: a concrete contribution for the reintegration of child soldiers and vulnerable young people

The project develops in Dungu, a city of 147 thousand inhabitants located in the Haut Uele region in the north east of the country. In recent years, the inhabitants of Dungu have often been victims of raids by Joseph Kony’s Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, which carries out massacres of innocent civilians, rapes and kidnappings of child soldiers in the region. It is estimated that 30,000 child soldiers have been recruited in this area of ​​the country, and that many are with various paramilitary groups. Most of them are 8 to 15 years old and 40% are girls. The LRA had in its ranks the youngest armed fighter in the world: a 5-year-old boy.

The Augustinians across the World Foundation, together with the Congolese Augustinian friars, after an initial study phase, began the project in February 2020 with the “laying of the first stone”. The new Juvenat residential center assists many children, providing hospitality to around 100 young people and supporting at least 1000 young people a year with its day programme.

In addition to hospitality, the center promotes training courses in tailoring, carpentry, catering, IT and an agricultural company also breeding cattle, pigs and fish. In the company we started breeding bees in 2023 with the production of honey and the manufacture of charcoal briquettes made from vegetable waste. Courses in theater and video-making and the installation of a cinema are planned from 2024.

Furthermore, it guarantees a school and work reintegration service and periods of hospitality in families who have voluntarily made themselves available to welcome these unfortunate young people.

I met Lauren today, seventeen years old, who was a prisoner of the LRA for ten years. He tells me that he would like to become a doctor because, after having caused so much pain, today he would like to help people who are sick. I hugged him and promised him that I would do everything to allow him to achieve his dream.
(Maurizio Misitano, November 2019)