About our work in Kasai province
Kasai province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced periods of conflict since 2016 that have displaced thousands of people and disrupted essential services.
In 2016, tensions between militia groups and the government sparked violence across Kasai province, which extended to wider, ongoing conflict in the state and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
Currently Christian Aid are working with the World Food Programme (WFP) to support 138,714 vulnerable people with food and nutritional security in Kasai, Kwilu and Kwango provinces.
Supporting Marie and her family
Marie, 68, from Kasai province, cares for her two grandsons. She received cash assistance over four monthly payments as part of our cash distribution programme.
Of the challenges she and her family have been facing, Marie said: 'We have experienced very difficult times. Finding food is difficult, but also clothes and other basic needs.
We eat with difficulty, my grandsons were driven out of school because they were lacking clothing, our hut was washed away by the rain, and it is difficult to get treatment when we get sick. Above all, the uncertainty of the future is our big worry.
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Shifting the power to the people
Now able to buy clothes for the family and a goat, Marie says this is the first time she has received cash support like this.
Cash distribution in challenging contexts such as Kasai province gives people like Marie the dignity and control to buy the things they need most. It shifts the power from agencies to people themselves.
We're supporting vulnerable people like Marie, including people who have been displaced, returnees from Angola, and resident populations affected by food insecurity in the region.
This assistance gave me hope to survive again. Without it I may already be dead due to the suffering that I have gone through with my two grandsons. Thanks to this I can eat well, have hot tea with milk, and buy a piece of meat or fish.