PEDER

(Programme diocésain d'Encadrement des Enfants des Rues)

PEDER is the leading organisation working with street children in Bukavu. The organisation was set up in 1989. Sister Francesca Valente (Coordinator) and Thomas d’Aquin Rubambura Mituga (Assistant Coordinator) are responsible for the implementation of the project – they are assisted by 38 full time staff members and 20 part time volunteers. PEDER runs four centres spread throughout the city.

Contact with the children is initiated in the streets and public places where they live. PEDER’s youth workers gradually familiarise children with the project and, if they wish, come to their centres. The street outreach work is based around listening points (wooden shacks) in strategic locations in the centre of Bukavu.

PEDER’s “Transit, listening and orientation centre” is open 24/7 offering shelter, medical care and counselling. It also offers a place of safety where children can wash their clothes and play.

80 children on average spend the night at this centre and new children arrive every day.

PEDER also runs three “Recovery” Centres for street children which currently support 600 boys and 30 girls between 0 and 18. These Centres aim to provide structured nurture and development for the children. At all the centres, children can shower and wash their clothes, and a nurse provides healthcare. Each PEDER youth worker is responsible for a certain number of children and keeps track of their progress and behaviour.

Basic non formal education takes place at the centres every week day. This covers reading, writing, arithmetic, measurements of size, French etc. Children showing academic potential and who wish to attend school are directed towards the educational curriculum. For school-aged children who are not able to attend school, PEDER works to reintroduce a formal educational curriculum.

Young people over school age may receive vocational training in textiles, knitting, embroidery and joinery. PEDER also places young people in apprenticeships, e.g. dress making, car mechanics, welding and fitting, shoe manufacture, electrics, soap making etc. This training enables children to acquire technical skills in their selected vocation, and, at the same time, gain hands-on experience of the realities of the professional world. These children also receive regular follow-up visits from a PEDER youth worker.

PEDER is innovative in their work to improve the professional and economic conditions of street children in the workplace. It provides support to the Associations for Working Children and Youth in Bukavu (AEJT/BUKAVU) which consists of a diverse range of trades. The Associations are for young people who have graduated from their vocational training programme or children who, for various reasons, do not wish to leave the streets. They hold weekly meetings to discuss their problems and consider possible solutions. Access to “micro-credit” is provided to support their income-generating activities.

PEDER builds on the resourcefulness of street children instilled during their daily fight for survival. The youth workers believe that a productive trade or income-generating activity is the pathway to professional integration for young people who are over school age and receiving no support in their immediate social environment.  “Work” is at the centre of their lives and constitutes their only exit point in their fight for survival. Vocational training, apprenticeships, trade association support, and regular contact with children have enabled PEDER to tackle the daily struggle of children and working youth, and the hardships they undergo to ensure their own welfare.

Children's stories from PEDER

Girl, 12 years old
I am the sixth child of my family and we are eleven in all. My parents are porters in the city port. We struggle to make a living. To meet the basic needs of the family, my brothers and I have to do minor jobs on the street. Nobody in my family has been to school. I was looking after a small business with the little money Dad had given me. Unfortunately, one day I lost all the money I had. I panicked thinking that my parents would never forgive me for this mistake, so I left not knowing where to go. 

Thus I found myself in the street. A woman brought me home for me to look after her children. It was not easy. I woke up at 5 am and went to sleep at 11pm. I decided to leave the family after two months without being paid and after being bullied. A police officer who deals with child protection at night picked me up and the following day took me to a PEDER Centre where I was offered accommodation.

In the beginning, I didn’t give my real address. But one day, I finally told the truth. Thus PEDER began to look for my family and started the mediation. My parents thought I was dead. When they greeted the leader of PEDER, they were flooded with joy to hear that I was still alive. They agreed unconditionally to take me back in the family. Currently, I leave my family with my little brother to attend a literacy class at the PEDER Centre near my home. I have started the second level of literacy. I intend one day to become a seamstress to help my parents.

Without the support of PEDER, I wouldn’t be able to read or write or even have the hope to learn a trade.


Boy, 18 years old
I was born in a village near the town of Bukavu in a very poor family. My father is a polygamist and has never cared about his children. In total, he has fifteen. Each of his wives are responsible for their offspring. I used to spend all my time in a slaughterhouse in the city picking up the waste until I was encouraged by one of PEDER street workers to go to their Literacy class. Sometimes I would spend the night.

I also learned cutting and sewing at the PEDER centre. Currently, with the machine I received from PEDER, I have opened a small workshop.  I now provide to the needs of my family and get my little brothers to study.

PEDER has helped me become a useful man in the society.

Read about Savina’s visit to DRC in 2009 when we began working with PEDER.