Thirty Children Out of the Mines and Into School

Asy, who used to work selling food outside the cobalt mines.

Thirty children in Kolwezi, in the heart of the DRC's cobalt mining region, who were working in or around the cobalt mines, are now in school. Funded by the Freedom and Justice Partnership, thanks to every single person who has donated, shared our updates, or believed in what we are trying to do.

Your generosity made this real. £5,000 raised through the kindness of our supporters is providing a full year of education, school supplies, quality teaching, and the nutritional support that will keep these children healthy and learning.

We want to be clear about something. This did not happen because of three trustees. It happened because people gave. People who read our posts, came to our events, heard what we were doing, and reached into their pockets. This is your achievement. We just made sure the money got to where it was needed.

When Carl and Mark walked through the artisanal mines in summer 2024, they saw children everywhere. Carrying, sorting, working in dust and heat. Not one of them in school. They said then that if they could do one concrete thing, this would be it.

One of the children now in school is a girl called Asy. She used to sell doughnuts for 14 hours a day near the mines. She was up at 5 a.m. and in bed by 8 p.m., exhausted. Today she sits in a classroom with a pencil in her hand. She wants to become a doctor.

Our excellent partners on the ground confided something that surprised us: finding support to keep children in school is one of their most persistent challenges. The world talks endlessly about cobalt supply chains. It talks far less about the children caught inside them. Your donations got thirty of those children into classrooms.

Thirty is just the beginning. We are already working on a way for many more children to get out of the mines and into school. Watch this space.

But for now, THANK YOU for helping us to help them.

May Asy's dreams come true. May all of theirs.