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Miners at Lwango Cooperative mine, located in the Kalehe territory, 160km north of Bukavu. The People’s Portfolio asked to be taken to a “certified” mine that takes part in ITSCi, a mineral due diligence mechanism. In the Congo, mining is a murky industry. Despite efforts to verify the activities of the mine, we are not able to confirm that it is legitimate.
Students stand against the wall at Mbinga Elementary School, located in Nyabibwe, north of Bukavu, where the largest tin mines in South Kivu –the Kalimbi Tin mines—can be found. The parents of these students work in the mines carved into hillsides just outside the mountain hilltop school. Until recently, many of the children were miners themselves, or working in the industry in some way. Because children are physically unable to do the heavy labor required in the mines, they support their parents by helping to carry heavy baskets of rocks and then breaking them, or by cooking and doing porter jobs around the mines. Without intervention and education, children who work as part of the mining ecosystem inevitably end up as miners. Although several hundred children in Nyabibwe can now attend school, another 2,500 still remain out of school in this region.
The grassroots organization Puente’s “Undocubus” took dozens of undocumented immigrants, who adopted the slogan, “No Papers, No Fear,” from Phoenix, Arizona, to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the summer of 2012.
