6 out of 10 children do not reach their 5th birthday.
The World Health Organization

Children in Congo

The war has claimed the lives of nearly 2 million children.  Child death rates in the eastern Congo are astronomical.

• Children are targets of violence.  Often, children are tortured and murdered in militia attacks. They are also abducted and forced into sexual slavery or to become child soldiers.

• The vast majority of child deaths are preventable, not due to direct violence. Starvation and curable disease, direct repercussions of the war, continue to take the highest toll on children.

The women sponsored through Run for Congo Women last year had an average of six children.  Many of these kids were orphans the mother had taken in, despite her family's desperate financial situation.

With a mother's participation in Women for Women's program, she gains self sufficiency and the ability to support her children.  Her kids get enough to eat.  If they are sick, she can afford medical care.  She even has enough to pay their school fees. Simply put, with infant mortality rates as high as they are in the eastern Congo, when a woman is sponsored, it very well may save many children's lives.

That's a great way to spend $27 a month!

For more information, read For Congo's Mothers, Unceasing Loss.