Conflict Minerals Campaign
Let the people of Congo (DRC) benefit from their mineral wealth
We are a mainly Quaker group of people some of whom come from DRC and now live in the UK, some of whom live in the DRC, and some of whom are native British. We mainly meet by Zoom. We are concerned about the injustice whereby the people of the DRC are amongst the poorest in the world, despite the fact that the rest of the world is enjoying huge amounts of minerals from the DRC, and a small minority within the DRC have become extremely rich from Congo’s minerals.
Our members in DRC visit mining sites to get to know what is happening there and keep us informed, by producing reports, as well as informally through Zoom meetings, phone calls and emails. They organise meetings of the different groups in the mining areas – representatives of companies, artisanal miners, local authorities, local people, NGOs etc, where they discuss problems and try to resolve them and find a peaceful way forward. They teach the people about their rights, in particular the Mining Code, and what mining companies are required to do to help the local community. They are setting up and supporting local CMC groups in the mining areas. They have radio broadcasts where topics relating to mining are discussed.
Our work in the UK is greatly helped by strong contacts with those in the DRC. We are concerned about the transition to electrical vehicles etc, which will lead to a massive increase in the demand for certain minerals, and try to ensure that the needs of the Congolese people are not forgotten in this transition. We network with other groups working in the field, and respond to parliamentary enquiries etc.
We inform Quakers of our concern for DRC by our presence at Yearly Meeting, articles in The Friend and local newsletters, and Zoom Learning/Discussion Groups. The immediate future of our work in the DRC is currently very unsure following the advances of the militia M23 in the regions where we work. We are currently (Feb. 2025) working with Quaker Congo Partnership to raise money for Quakers in Goma, displaced by violence in their home areas, and living in camps.
Conflict Minerals Campaign is a Quaker Recognised Body.
elizcol@dialstart.net
07969 385080
(last revised February 2025)
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Peacebuilding in East Africa
Britain Yearly Meeting works together with partners in Rwanda, Kenya and Burundi to build a positive, nonviolent grassroots peace movement. Our Turning the Tide (TTT) programme helps local activists to stand up for social justice and peace.
BYM partners with AfriNov, Rwanda Yearly Meeting and Ministry for Peace and Reconciliation under the Cross (MIPAREC).
Together we deliver locally driven projects organised by community-based volunteers and trainers. The approach is adapted from the Quaker nonviolent training programme, Turning the Tide.
Lisa Cumming
Peacebuilding and Nonviolence Manager
lisac@quaker.org.uk
Clare Wood
Head of Peacebuilding Projects
ClareW@quaker.org.uk
https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/international-work/east-africa
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Rwanda
Forward Africa Education Trust
In a world where education is key to unlocking opportunities and shaping futures, partnerships and collaborations can transform young lives. We partner with Rwanda Yearly Meeting, George Fox School in Kigali (and others), and the Rwandan Friends Career Center.
Workshop 2024 Musanze
Together, we promote and facilitate educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in Rwanda. The teenagers we work with are typically orphans, ex-street children or from mother-led families. Our students are motivated to do well in school but coming from poor backgrounds puts them at an immediate disadvantage – they do not have the money to pay school fees or the associated costs. This is where we come in.
Musanze in 2024 saw our fourth Student Workshop which covered peace and conflict resolution, team building and networking skills. The students loved it (and learnt much), so we plan again for 2025 and back to Lake Kivu. Recognising the importance of mentorship in nurturing teenagers, students receive guidance, counselling, and career advice. Mentors serve as role models, inspiring students to build their aspirations on solid foundations and serious research. Setup by two young Rwandan women, the Friends Career Center, is a Quaker social enterprise that assists students in further study, internship, employment, or entrepreneurship opportunities.
Forward Africa Education Trust is a Quaker Recognised Body.
www.forwardafricaeducation.org.uk
steve@forwardafricaeducation.org.uk
(last revised February 2025)
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Rwanda & Eastern DRC
African Great Lakes Peace Trust
AGLPT is the independent British charity which spun off from the (American Quaker) African Great Lakes Initiative. AGLI personnel still advise us, and some of our applicants reach us through them. We raise and distribute small sums of money to peace building projects in East Africa. We have helped fund workshops in Goma (DRC) to start refugees towards coping with their trauma and managing their resentments of the perpetrators. We have done the same for workshops in Rwanda enabling people with disabilities to build self esteem so that they can handle the discrimination they routinely face.
treasurer@africangreatlakespeacetrust.org.uk
www.africangreatlakespeacetrust.org.uk
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Eastern DRC
Quaker Congo Partnership (QCP)
Quaker Congo Partnership UK (QCP) is a partnership between British Quakers and CEEACO, the yearly meeting of Quakers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This is an area which has suffered from years of civil war and as we write (February 2025) is once again in the grip of bands of armed militia. There is poor health including currently malnutrition and malaria, many children especially girls do not stay long at school. There is a lack of infrastructure and there are high levels of sexual violence.
The QCP projects focus on the population of Abeka on the edge of Lake Tanganyika, villages nearby, communities in the middle and high plateau, and in the town of Uvira.
The work of the projects aims to improve health, to build peace and prevent conflictand to enhance skills and capacity of women and young people. The three core projects are:
- Hospital care at the Centre Hopitalier d’Abeka (CHA) and prevention of poor health
- Peace building, education, counselling, training and support within the Centre for Education Peace and Psychological support (CEPAP) including development of youth peace committees and prevention of sexual violence and forced marriage through clubs in schools. Supporting young women to train as teachers and combatting attacks on people assumed to be witches.
- Association of Women’s Integral Development (AWID) which aims to improve women’s livelihood through seed grants, training and teaching of literacy and numeracy. Current projects include agriculture, juice making, tailoring and soap making.
QCP UK funding in 2015 brought clean running water to the hospital and village of Abeka. A follow up project to bring clean water to nearby Mukwezi is currently in progress and going well.
The three-year partnership agreement with CEEACO was renewed in March 2022 and is under review for renewal for the next 3 years. There is an aspiration on both sides that CEEACO can make more funding applications on their own behalf and develop further their project management capacity. We seek to reflect Quaker Africa Interest Group’s effort for making redress for historic injustice and colonialism.
QCP both in UK and in DRC has links with Conflict Minerals Campaign which is working to raise awareness about the issue of local people not benefitting from the potential wealth from the mining of minerals.
QCP is a Quaker Recognised Body
Facebook: Quaker Congo Partnership
(last revised February 2025)
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Consortium of African Great Lakes Region
The Consortium of the Africa Great Lakes Region is a union of 11 Quaker NGOs working in solidarity to support the vulnerable (orphans, widows and widowers, victims of violence, the disabled, the traumatised etc) in DR Congo and Burundi.
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- The Consortium provides educational supplies to children
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- Fighting food insecurity Agricultural Bank Approach
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- Distribution of school supplies
We are currently supporting the education of 124 children at primary, secondary and university level. We also have activities in peace and conflict resolution, food security trauma healing, health and nutrition,. We work in partnership with Friends Peace Team/AGLI and GlobalGiving and collect donations through these two partners
https://www.copgla.org/contact
(last revised February 2025)
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Kenya
Green Olive Trust UK
Green Olive Trust works in partnership with the Kenyan based Green Olive Foundation.
GOT was established in 2014, registered with the Charity Commission in 2016, and has had the support of several Quaker meetings, in particular Lewes in East Sussex, and many other groups and individual donors. GOT was set up to support educational opportunities for disadvantaged young people from ruralKakamega, and continues to do so through a bursary scheme. During recent years we have also channeled funds to a small community primary school to help to improve classrooms, toilets and kitchen facilities and, with the help of a grant from QPSW, supported the establishment of the new“Greenhouse project”, which has provided a base for young farmers to be trained in agricultural methods to counteract the growing impact of climate change in the region.
In 2025 we have agreed with our Kenyan colleagues to focus our fundraising efforts on the bursary scheme. They identify the students most in need of our support. We send funds to cover school fees, and in the case of university students laptops and data bundles and some necessary living expenses where there is no family support available.
Green Olive Trust is a Quaker Recognised Body of Britain Yearly Meeting
Green Olive Trust is a Quaker Recognised body
(last revised February 2025)
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Uganda
Friends Community Development Trust (Uganda)
Friends Community Development Trust (Uganda) is a charity that supports the community in the parish of Butta, Manafwa district, eastern Uganda. We fund the construction of tangible assets owned by and managed by the community, projects which must be sustainable within the community. We are supporters of their ideas, rather than being proposers of them. We have funded the construction of a Secondary School and of a Health Centre. Our website outlines more fully what we have achieved and has contact details.
FCDT is a Quaker Recognised Body.
(last revised February 2025)
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Uganda
The Hope Project (UK)
The Hope Project (UK) works with community development and peace groups, community mediation and legal assistance, adult literacy, nursery education and landmine/UXO issues in Kasese District, Western Uganda. The picture shows a tribal women’s group dramatising their recent history. The British workers are Diana & John Lampen, and our main partners are Rwenzori 
Peace Bridge of Reconciliation and the Ibanda Literacy Schools. The work is supported by Stourbridge Local Quaker Meeting and Central England Area Meeting.
We have recently been supporting a programme to teach women and girls how to make their own efficient and reusable sanitary pads.
Rwenzori Peace Bridge of Reconciliation worked to educate voters in their rights and prevent violence in Kasese District during the 2021 elections. A short account of what they achieved can be found at this link.
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Quaker Africa Interest Group (QAIG) 
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