Rehabilitation

Our Work

About the Program

The Rehabilitation Project provides holistic care for children who have been abducted by the LRA and have suffered high-levels of trauma. Invisible Children has partnered with local leaders and international rehabilitation experts in northeastern DR Congo to develop the region’s first rehabilitation center for children affected by the LRA. Children receive psychosocial support as they return to their families and reintegrate with their communities.

With limited rehabilitation services available to the growing number of children who have experienced extreme trauma as a result of LRA violence and abduction, the Commision Diocesaine Justice et Paix (CDJP) and Sponsoring Children Uganda identified the need for a rehabilitation center equipped with psychosocial support professionals and with the capacity to handle the influx of traumatized children in northeastern DR Congo. This was a priority to improve community and humanitarian response to the LRA crisis. In partnership with LRA rehabilitation specialist Els De Temmerman Invisible Children has established a community-led program in Dungu that serves communities across Haut Uele with high levels of trauma. Together, Invisible Children, CDJP, and Ms. De Temmerman’s organization, Sponsoring Children, oversees the implementation and operation of the project. Sponsoring Children, developed its expertise while rehabilitating 2,552 children in northern Uganda over a three-year period in the midst of the LRA conflict.

The program and facilities are equipped to serve 150 children at any given time. The program is designed to serve children for six-months before they are reunited with their families. The center’s activities focus on preparing children for successful reintegration into society by seeking to restore their mental health, equipping children to return to school, or, if beyond school age, learning a marketable skill to be used in the workplace. For all participants, a main portion of the activities focuses on teaching children to cope with and understand their trauma. Because of the logistical and security challenges of the region, the program is centered in Dungu town and operates within the current protection strategy of organizations operating in northeastern DR Congo.

Seeking to fill a needed gap in humanitarian services, the DRC Rehabilitation Project incorporates aspects of both community and centralized rehabilitation and operates within the established protection cluster framework, and is run by professionally-trained Congolese rehabilitation specialists.