Strengthening Livelihood Strategies of Vulnerable Women in the DR Congo

Kanigula Mubagwa of the Panzi Foundation in DR Congo will test whether providing resources that simultaneously improve nutrition, income, and social status can help women and girls getting out of prostitution in the cities of DR Congo successfully reintegrate into more rural societies. Prostitutes and their families suffer from high levels of poverty and malnutrition. Individual strategies to support them often provide only temporary solutions. To address this, they will combine a variety of tested interventions including providing agricultural training, nutritional education, and access to crops and equipment, and engage men and prominent local people to transform social norms. They will recruit ex-prostitutes from Salvation Army Centers to evaluate their approach for improving participants' knowledge and skills in agriculture, nutrition and health, and for promoting gender equality in their communities.