Solidarité Sans Frontières

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

Democratic Republic of Congo

Number of survivors served in a year

500+

Languages

French

Groups most commonly served

Indigenous peoples, communities, or nations Members of the LGBTQIA+ community Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Rural communities Sex workers Women

Type of organization

Nonprofit or non-governmental organization (NGO)

Program model(s)

Community-based financial initiatives Survivor-centered income generation Systemic change through strategic partnerships Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

solidaritesansfrontiereasbl@gmail.com

Address

142, E.P Lumumba, Ville de Bukavu, Province du Sud-Kivu, République démocratique du Congo

Service Area(s)

South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Successes and Impact

“My life has improved thanks to the support of Solidarité Sans Frontières.”¹ —Survivor supported by the organization

Achieving economic independence through community-based training and small business formation

Solidarité Sans Frontières understands that entrepreneurship doesn’t need to be a solo act. Alongside community partners, the organization offers skills training and joint business opportunities, and over 2,000 survivors have been supported in the first two years of this project. A staff member explains the value of providing multiple options for survivors: “Not everyone can become a business owner, so offering women training is a valuable means of fostering economic independence.”

One successful initiative involved a group of survivors who were struggling to establish independent businesses. The organization brought them together to collectively manage a hen house, raise chickens, and sell eggs and chicks. Combined with a start-up grant, this opportunity offered a low-risk, sustainable path to economic independence—providing survivors with the chance to pursue entrepreneurship while benefiting from both the stability of a team structure and the security of initial financial support.

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“We want to create mechanisms that provide psychological and economic support, so that [survivors] can be independent.”

About the Program

One of the organization’s main programs supports survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) aged 16 to 75 in urban and rural areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The organization’s approach addresses multiple forms of GBV—including sexual, economic, physical, psychological, and socio-cultural forms of violence—and focuses on building survivors’ economic stability. Solidarité Sans Frontières takes into account the needs of ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples who live in the area and also seeks to improve wider working conditions for women, particularly in mining communities.

Program Development and Key Strategies

The organization identified the following strategies as crucial to the success of their program:

Survivor-led solidarity credit union groups
Tailored approaches to vocational skills training
Economic advocacy and partnership with local leaders and businesses
A stigma-aware approach to community building and awareness raising
Addressing social and cultural norms that impact women’s rights

Survivor-led solidarity credit union groups

Solidarity credit unions, also known as village savings and loan associations (VSLA), provide survivors with small loans to specifically invest in entrepreneurship and encourage saving. While Solidarité Sans Frontières provides initial mentoring and start-up support, survivors lead the administration and ongoing accountability of the money.

The organization explains: “This program works well because of regular meetings and economic solidarity among members. Regular repayments and open discussions in focus groups [peer discussion groups] contribute to its success. Beneficiaries have additional income and take on [new] initiatives.”

Tailored approaches to vocational skills training

Vocational training strengthens financial programs

Solidarité Sans Frontières consistently iterates their approach based on feedback from survivors and program outcomes. At first, the organization used to offer survivors need-based loans, but they discovered that training survivors prior to providing funds helped them utilize and repay the funds more easily. Now, the process begins with an individual consultation that can help survivors identify the best pathway forward based on their specific context and unique situation.

Options for vocational training include sectors that have traditionally been monopolized by men, with remarkable success: “[We] placed 15-20 women in a training program for mechanics and driving. Currently, three of them work for international humanitarian organizations as drivers, and one more works in another international organization.”

Additional resources for small businesses support success and sustainability

The organization’s programming goes beyond mere training and also includes start-up funds and materials: “Once a woman is able to produce something, create something, she can benefit from a small business start-up kit. After the training, we provide them with an interest-free loan of $100 or $200. Then, we bring them together in an economic interest group.² They will then be able to produce soaps [for example], sell them, and meet their needs long-term.”

Economic advocacy and partnership with local leaders and businesses

Engaging diverse stakeholders to combat violence and generate economic opportunities for survivors

In addition to focusing on individual support, the organization engages directly with leaders across sectors and levels of influence to change systems that perpetuate economic harm. This includes working with various stakeholders, including religious leaders, government representatives, and local business figures, especially those involved in the operation of local mining sites, where women and children are often exploited.

These high-level dialogues create concrete opportunities for survivors, such as job placements in the construction industry: “Indeed, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are not many companies, but I nevertheless advocate to builders [masons] and engineers, for example, to hire [survivors] so that they can secure their daily livelihood. When women work in such roles as laborers, they receive payment, enabling them to access both sustenance and support.”

Fighting for better working conditions

The organization’s advocacy extends to combating exploitation in the workplace. Staff regularly meet with mining company executives and government representatives to advocate for improved working conditions, fair pay, and worker protections.

Solidarité Sans Frontières shared a recent example where staff met with a manager of one of the mining sites to talk about “the abuses being committed at their site.” Thanks to this meeting, they were able to secure an additional meeting with several activists and the provincial governor to talk about “blood minerals” and “the presence of pregnant women or minors in the mining sites [and] in the supply chains.”³

The organization states: “We would like this technical department [within the mining company] to not only recognize these women but to also ensure that they are placed in better conditions, receive fair pay, and are treated better overall.” These meetings bring workers’ realities to decision-makers, and the continued interest in this topic signals growing momentum toward improving the conditions of pregnant women and children working in the mines.

A stigma-aware approach to community building and awareness raising

Conscious of the potential risks of stigmatization if survivors are identified within their communities, Solidarité Sans Frontières avoids mass advertising, such as radio stations or social media. Instead, they believe that discreet outreach work prioritizes the privacy and dignity of survivors and encourages sharing through word of mouth, especially since most of the survivors they work with have limited access to smartphones or radios. The organization notes: “We don’t want everyone to know that she is a [survivor]. We want to give [them] hope and earn their trust. Her name is not ‘survivor,’ her name is not ‘victim,’ she is a person with a right to a private life. We don’t want to expose them.”

The organization thus mainly advertises in person, visiting schools and churches to share about the program. This word-of-mouth approach also helps to create confidential referral networks: “[Program participants] tend to share their experiences with other women who are still suffering from trauma and stress. So there are positive testimonials from survivors, and the messages spread by word-of-mouth.” This personalized approach has proven to be highly effective, allowing Solidarité Sans Frontières to expand their reach and support hundreds of survivors per year.

Addressing social and cultural norms that impact women’s rights

While recognizing the value of certain traditional practices, Solidarité Sans Frontières takes on social norms that limit women’s economic autonomy in rural communities. The organization is taking practical steps to transform social norms in their context by:

Running awareness-raising campaigns to make all women aware of their rights.
Educating male leaders on positive masculinity and international frameworks related to human rights.
Sharing survivor testimonials with mining companies to demonstrate the impact they can make through positive change.
Holding dialogues with religious leaders and representatives of religious denominations to demonstrate that all individuals have human rights in society and show how equal rights are enshrined in both legal instruments and in sacred texts, especially for gendered patterns of inheritance and household economics.
Lobbying to end the practice of child marriage, which considerably limits girls’ economic futures.

Survivor Leadership

“In the context of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, no woman can say that she has never been a victim of violence, whether that be domestic, economic, psychological, physical, or social exclusion. [Survivors occupy roles] at the highest level of our [organization’s] leadership.”

Survivors participate in the governance and functioning of Solidarité Sans Frontières at multiple levels. By using a trauma-informed and survivor-centered approach, survivor voices are placed at the center of several decision-making processes. For example, at the programmatic level, survivor feedback collected during regular meetings and focus group discussions directly shapes program adaptations.

At the organizational level, survivors who are members of Solidarité Sans Frontières provide guidance and recommendations during the organization’s general assemblies, where key decisions are made about strategy and priorities. Solidarité Sans Frontières notes that survivors appreciate the holistic efforts made to share their experiences and recommendations safely within the organization.

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

Solidarité Sans Frontières works in conflict and post-conflict zones where many formal systems now have limited functioning, which can also impact the implementation of legal protections.⁴ As a result, communities may rely more on customary norms and practices that often disadvantage women, especially in rural contexts. With the arrival of mining and other companies in rural communities, women often suffer additional layers of economic harm.

The organization identifies the following key factors that have shaped how survivors, especially women, experience economic harm in their region.

Decisions around household finances are often made by men
Women workers are exposed to violence and labor exploitation, especially within the mining industry

Decisions around household finances are often made by men

According to Solidarité Sans Frontières, communities in the eastern DRC often consider a male spouse to be the head of the household, which has significant implications for the rural economy. While women play vital roles in the economy and household, engaging in agriculture, animal husbandry, and small-scale trade or even mining, it is traditionally men who control the earnings and decide how to allocate them.

The organization notes that, “Rural women do all the farm work, they harvest and go to the market, and bring back all the money to their husbands. The husband manages these sums. What often happens is that the husband sometimes takes this money to fund other projects without his wife’s consent. Women in rural areas are the lifeblood of the economy and the household, but when it comes to sharing income from farming, there is this discrimination.”

Women workers are exposed to violence and labor exploitation, especially within the mining industry

The DRC’s economy is heavily dependent on mining, with more than 70% of the world’s cobalt production taking place in the country.⁵ With more than 80% of the country’s population either unemployed or underemployed,⁶ millions of people end up depending on “artisanal mining” to earn an income.⁷ This largely unregulated practice exposes workers to toxic substances, disease, injury, workplace abuse, and even death.⁸ Men, women, and children in rural areas often take up “artisanal mining,” as options for formal employment are extremely limited.

Rural women who seek work outside the home, including at mining sites, often encounter new forms of economic harm and discrimination. Solidarité Sans Frontières documents this structural exploitation, providing as an example the fact that women are paid “maybe $1 or $2 dollars for maybe 50 kilos of stone that they are going to manually crush,” which is a common informal job that women can find in rural areas. The organization also highlights that high-level managers at mining sites sexually exploit and abuse women who work in the mines and are often paid very low salaries.⁹

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
An economic interest group is a legal entity that falls in between a corporation and a nonprofit. It allows businesses, including sole proprietors, to pool resources and skills when they have common interests and want to develop a shared economic activity while still retaining their independence. A common example is when small-scale farmers form an economic interest group to pool their purchases of inputs like seeds and fertilizer, share expensive equipment, or facilitate the bulk sale of their products. “Economic Interest Group (EIG): What you need to know,” Service-Public.fr, December 19, 2023, https://entreprendre.service-public.fr/vosdroits/F37404 ; Alexandre N’Guessan, “Création d’un GIE au Sénégal : Ce que vous devez absolument savoir [Creation of an EIG in Senegal: What you need to know],” Legafrik, October 1, 2024, https://blog.legafrik.com/fr/cr%C3%A9ation-dun-gie-au-s%C3%A9n%C3%A9gal-ce-que-vous-devez-absolument-savoir.
“Blood minerals” is a term used to describe mineral resources extracted in conflict zones, where their extraction contributes to financing armed groups, violence, human rights violations, and war crimes (Bernadette Vivuya, “In the east of the DRC, a war is financed by blood minerals,” Prospect Magazine, January 30, 2024, https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/foreign-correspondence/64646/in-the-east-of-the-drc-a-war-is-financed-by-blood-minerals).
Devon Cone and Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, “Ensuring Women’s Protection Amid Rising Conflict in Eastern DRC (Washington, DC: Refugees International, 2024), https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-briefs/ensuring-womens-protection-amid-rising-conflict-in-eastern-drc.
Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, Making Mining Safe and Fair: Artisanal cobalt extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2020), 3, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Making_Mining_Safe_2020.pdf.
Baumann-Pauly, Making Mining Safe and Fair, 5.
“Artisanal mining” is a dangerous mining practice where miners use hand tools or even their bare hands to extract minerals (U.S. Department of Labor, Forced Labor in Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, 2023), https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/DRC-FL-Cobalt-Report-508.pdf).
U.S. Department of Labor, Forced Labor in Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This worrying trend has been extensively documented (Caren Grown, “How mining affects women in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” World Economic Forum, September 23, 2015, https://www.weforum.org/stories/2015/09/how-mining-affects-women-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo).