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-Word-Bank, specially with the project "DRC - Gender Based Violence Prevention and Response Project"
-MONUSCO, specially the Gender Affairs section
-Red Cross who already partake in vast humanitarian work throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo working with, and reintegrating child soldiers with they're families as well as protecting them from former militia and armed groups they were part of.
Potentially work with Children from transit and orientation centres.
Alignment with any community projects, an example being 'Save the Children' who state 'We’re calling for schools to become neutral zones, to be free from the presence of violence and be safe and secure places for learning, caring and nurturing.' (Save the Children, 2020)
We selected communities were both International Organizations already have programs against sexual violence, as seen in the map, those places are Ituri (specifically Bunia), Goma and Bukavu.

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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, child soldiers are being used by rebel forces to fight against government actions. It is estimated that there are over 3000 children in the Eastern and Central regions that are associated with armed groups.
One of the reasons for employing child soldiers is that “they are viewed as expendable, replaceable” – and they are cheap to maintain. Children’s and adolescents’ identities are still being formed, meaning that they can be more easily influenced and controlled, since they are dependent on protection and guidance.
In the DRC, children as young as six are routinely recruited by militias and it is estimated that 8-16-year-old children make up 60% of combatants in the region). These children are mostly young boys and are not only used to fight, but also as slave workers and sex-slaves. Female child soldiers are also recruited and confront various issues such as rape and sexual exploitation during their service. It is estimated that approximately 40% of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are girls. Despite the high estimate, the numbers of girls are extremely low in reintegration programs, and most former girl soldiers in eastern DRC remain without any support (Mlambo, 2019).

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- AFRICAN ARTISTS FOR DEVELOPMENT fundation

African Artists for Development (AAD) is a foundation that has a deep conviction that the commitment of contemporary African artists to development projects is one of the best ways to ensure a better future for the African continent. The objectives of AAD projects are to stimulate sustainable economic and social development, increase well-being, improve living standards and provoke changes in thinking patterns with reduced budgets.

The foundation already has artistic projects in the city of Bukavu, Congo, a potential place to develop the project.

The foundation's endowment fund is a committed private initiative independent of political, diplomatic or religious influence. This is a key point to develop a reintegration project, in this way neutral actors are used and the interference of actors immersed in the conflict is prevented.

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Former child soldiers join the rest of the community in creating a mural. This project will specify in working with female former child soldiers.
Reintegration with the community breaking down the barriers and connotations associated with sexual assault experienced in association with being a vulnerable child in an armed group.
A School is the ideal place for the mural.
Potentially introduce a 'role model'.
Stages:
1. Teaching kids painting skills, let them get familiar with the materials they will work with in the future.
2.  Space for sharing stories, feelings and aspirations. Brainstorming ideas for the mural and choosing a finalist.  Stories could be shared trough drawings.
3. Distributing roles and tasks in the mural.
4. Creation process were the kids can paint and have advise from local artists.
5. Inauguration and presentation of the mural to the community.

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- Segregation between former girl child soldiers and their communities.
-Girls and woman are usually rejected from their communities when they are victims of sexual abuse. There is a strong stigmatization towards women who have been raped, since they cease to be prospects of good wives and mothers. (Nobel Women´s Initiative, 2014)
-Segregation arises from a cultural stigma, that turns abused girls into symbols of shame.
- Long-lasting armed conflict between the government and armed gorups.
- Lack of Statal prescence in most of the territory.
-Voluntary recruitment (push/pull factors): push factors such as the on-going conflict in the east of the country causes the displacement of families and children which make them more vulnerable to recruitment by armed forces and armed groups. Pull factors encourage them to join the fighting forces. Push factors can include repression, discrimination, poverty, lack of education and employment - due to previous/ongoing conflict. Pull factors include seeking security in fighting forces, provision of food, a sense of belonging and ideology or group identity, as well as economic reasons such as gaining profit.
- Other factors such as lack of resources for education makes it difficult for former child soldiers, orphans, and street children to access education and lead a normal life. The high cost of attending school also makes it difficult for pupils or students to go to school and all these problems open the window for recruitment of child soldiers (Haer, 2019).

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Girl child soldiers and armed groups

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Girls often aspire to complete their education. Many of them even join the armed groups looking for money to pay school.
Girls want to reintegrate socially to their communities. Many families wont let their children interact with girls who have been raped.
Many girls fear rejection to a point that they prefer to continue in the armed groups with their "husbands". They know that if they go back to the community the chances of starting a family are low if not nonexistent.
The scenery is grim, girls are afraid of living again this kind of treatment, knowing that they have no one to  turn to if they are raped again. If they tell the government police forces, there´s a possibility they are sexually assaulted again.

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Art as a means to facilitate the integration of women into their communities

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Art as a means to facilitate the integration of women into their communities

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One of our main assumptions is that art projects can work as trauma texts.

Children's war memoirs embodied in trauma texts offer a way to reclaim children's agency, recognizing that while they undoubtedly need protection and support, they also have a well-developed understanding of conflict and solutions for peace.

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- Potential for victimisation to arise. Women are often rejected due to sexual assault as a part of the cultural of the DRC. Bringing victims of sexual assault together with those who reject them increases the propensity for them to be singled out and discriminated.
- Potential for the children's former armed groups to return to the communities to reclaim the children and get them to rejoin the militias. This could restrict the success of the project due to possible disruption.
- There is also the possibility of communities not understanding and thus accepting the hardships and suffering of the former female child soldiers. Attacking the stigmatisation is the key to the projects success.
- Possibility of the entire community being subject to discrimination by those outside of it. A mural in the heart of the community could signal, to others unaware of the work of the project, that the particular community is accepting of child soldiers, which as we know, is unacceptable in Congolese culture.

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- Gives girls a place and a means in which they can express their war experiences, their thoughts, dreams, dreams, or the things that represent them and help them tell their story and what they have been through.

Social Integration: Former child soldiers can learn how to return to their communities safely, meanwhile avoiding being reenlisted.

-Creative skills: Children are given the opportunity to learn new creative and artistic skills when creating a mural.

-Expression: Children have a new way of expressing themselves other than through talking to others. They can turn their negative feelings in to something beautiful and creative, and hopefully shift their views on their trauma.

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-Relationship building: The Key collaborators can build relationships in new communities and help offer support in the future.

-Role models: Girls can be given the opportunity to meet people that they can look up to and aspire to be like- helping to prevent them becoming reinstated. They can learn not to feel ashamed of what has happened to them, and express that to other people.

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-Change gender-based roles that attribute a women´s worth only based on their sexual condition, and instead recognize the power and talents they have to offer. This is an objective that takes time since intends to change cultural conceptions that are ingrained in communities.
-Quality of Life: The lives of those taking part in the project will be improved. Their mental health would be enhanced. Those children in the project will be able to influence others around them to prevent them from being instated in to rebel groups.

- Contribute and serve as an example of how art or cultural projects can contribute to the reintegration processes of children in the world.

- Raise awareness in the community regarding the complexity of the girls' experiences in the conflict, thus achieving greater acceptance of girls in their home communities

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(Matambura, 2017. Child Soldiers Recruitment and Use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: An Ethical Perspective.)

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Target group: Former girl child soldiers

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Target group: Former girl child soldiers

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Specific problem: Sexual violence that girl child soldiers specially suffer during the conflict creates stigmatization and makes the process of reintegration harder in their communities.
Rape is used often as a weapon of war, were forces of all sides rape women from villages that are suspected to support the enemy. Therefore girls become a symbol of shame and are forced out from their families.
The culture also plays an important role. Girls and woman are usually rejected from their communities when they are victims of sexual abuse. There is a strong stigmatization towards women who have been raped, while they cease to be prospects of good wives and mothers, stigmatization that especially affects girl soldiers who constantly suffer this type of problems and stigmas that affect their reintegration processes to civil life.

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Sexual violence that girl child soldiers specially suffer during the conflict creates stigmatization and makes the process of reintegration harder in their communities. 

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Creation of a mural by former girl child soldiers in their community that empowers women and breaks down negative connotations associated with them.

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-Haer, Roos. (2019). Children and armed conflict: looking at the future and learning from the past, Third World Quarterly, 40:1, 74-91, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2018.1552131

-Mlambo, Victor H. (2019).  Armed Conflict and the Increasing Use of Child Soldiers in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan: Implications for Regional Security. Journal of Public Affairs, 19:e1896. DOI: 10.1002/pa.1896

-Nobel Women´s Initiative. (2014, February 14). Context: Sexual Violence in Congo. Retrieved from Women of Congo Speak Out: https://nobelwomensinitiative.org/context-sexual-violence-in-congo

- Berents, H. (2019). “This is my story”: Children's war memoirs and challenging protectionist discourses. International Review of the Red Cross, 101(911), 459-479