Young people’s potentialities are a crucial element for the improvement of the quality of their own life and the life of others. The present initiative focuses on raising the conscience of 15 unemployed young people about better health. This contributes to the preparation for life in remote regions.
About You
About You
About Your Project
Organization Name
DẼMOS KRATIA
Organization Website
Organization Country
Congo (Kinshasa), MA, Kindu
Country where this project is creating social impact
Congo (Kinshasa), MA, Kindu
Select the stage that best applies to your project
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
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Your Solution
Project Name
Raising the Conscience of Youth: New Approaches to Preparation for Life in Remote Regions
Elevator Pitch: Share a concise summary. This will be the introductory text about this pitch that viewers will see.
Young people’s potentialities are a crucial element for the improvement of the quality of their own life and the life of others. The present initiative focuses on raising the conscience of 15 unemployed young people about better health. This contributes to the preparation for life in remote regions.
Problem: What problem does your solution address?
In Kitangi, a remote village of about 3.5oo inhabitants located in Maniema Province in the East of DR Congo, the population drinks unsafe water from the river. This explains many cases of cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever and other intestinal diseases found in Kitangi. Simultaneously, the prevalence of malnutrition, malaria and yellow fever continue to be a challenge in the village, with all its personal, economic and social consequences.
Solution: What is the proposed solution?
To reduce the dangers to health in Kitangi, the solution is to train unemployed young people in different methods of killing disease germs, and at the same time, to train them in protection from insects, in nutrition and agriculture. This solution espouses a model that emphasizes the raising of people’s conscience enabling them to acquire a sensible and positive attitude as well as habitual carefulness. This has proven the potential for the preparation for life through the desire of people to accept, in order, physical examination, correction of physical abnormalities, immunization, and education in hygiene.
Founding Story: Share a story about the “Aha!” moment that led you to get started and/or to see the potential for this to succeed.
I, Wabula Pierre, have believed that, just as special qualifications are needed for life in remote regions, so special preparations are obviously desirable. I have seen that if those in remote regions actually do a thorough physical examination, their acceptance of three other measures will be guaranteed. These are: physical abnormalities correction discovered by the doctor; immunization; and education in hygiene, including better feeding, repair of houses and income-generation. These have the potential to improve life in a sustainable manner. Compelled to make a difference, I founded Dẽmos Kratia in 2012.
Select Sector(s): To which of Unilever's categories of sustainability does your solution apply?
Sanitation and Hygiene, Nutrition, Water, Sustainable Agriculture, Smallholder Farmers, Supply Chain Micro-entrepreneurs.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Measurable Impact
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how your solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
My duty is to give unemployed young people occupations related to better health by training them in how to make people aware of their own physical state, get people to correct their physical abnormalities, make people immune to certain diseases, and familiarize people with hygienic measures. I largely teach by group discussion using occasionally visuals showing trainees what might be done for man’s welfare. During the discussions, the trainees bring out their problems, of which I suggest possible explanations and remedies. This model’s activities include check-up, health service, immunization, water, hygiene, sanitation, income-generation (in agriculture), and housing.
Audience: Who have you identified as your customers/recipients and why? How will you get your solution to them or engage them in your initiative?
The final beneficiaries of this solution are 3.500 inhabitants of Kitangi, a village where infectious diseases are common. The target groups are 15 out-of-school young people aged 15-24 years, who were chosen to be active agents of preparation for life. These formed a "Club for Life" where they receive a thorough training for certain basic tasks for better health.
Impact: What is the impact of the work to date and expected impact in the future?
At the end of the first educational session, 90% of Kitangi’s inhabitants had their check-ups with the doctor. From January 15, 2013 to present-date, 12 cases of hernia have been brought to the surgeon. After that, 100% of the under-five have received their vaccination against polio. As for education in hygiene, 95 latrines were built on self-help lines; 14 rubbish pits were dug; the use of mosquito nets is effective; and the boiling of drinking water is effective. The activities like nutrition, income-generation (in agriculture) and housing are waiting for a budget in order to be executed in the future.
Growth, Finance & Leadership
Marketplace: Who else is addressing this problem and how does the proposed solution differ from these approaches?
There are other organizations---Ministry of Health, UNICEF---working on many aspects of the health of young people in DR Congo. But no one is working to give young people confidence in themselves and to render them diligent in the same manner as us. We recognize that, sometimes people’s conscience need to be stimulated to bring people from a previous inert status of inaction to a new level of active participation in their development. That’s why this solution is different.
Scaling the Solution: How do you intend to scale your activities over the next two years (e.g., reach new markets, diversify solutions, etc.)? What will make this possible?
The rubbish-strewn surroundings of the house caused diseases in Kitangi, but once houses became cleaner the villagers were proud of improvement and village households rivaled one another in cleanliness. Again, households rivaled one another in boiling drinking water, in constructing latrines, and in immunization. Rivalry, in other words, has its value in provoking human effort and in spreading this solution to other villages. So, if fifteen trained young people, each train a group of ten villagers every year, the initial fifteen will train 15.000 people inside Kitangi and outside it in the next two years.
Financial Sustainability: What is your business model to ensure financial sustainability?
A demonstrated capacity of changing insanitary habits and of providing safe drinking water during this first stage of this solution shows that young people have the potential to improve also diet and family income during the second stage of this solution. Hence, it is reasonable to deduce that appropriate tools and skills given to conscientious young people can have a good chance of producing them a sufficient income.
Experience: Please provide examples of any previous entrepreneurial initiatives you have pioneered.
Let us now try to answer the question as to whether I have developed a capacity for effective entrepreneurial work. I should like to tell you that I am proud to be rendering my efficient services as founder and as president of Dẽmos Kratia. Here is an organization that has attained the highest level in mentoring youth clubs. That’s my entrepreneurial experience.