Street Hope

IN THE LEMBA district of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), children living on the streets have no access to basic social services – no clean water, no health care, no safe place to shelter. The harsh conditions of street life lead many of them, especially girls, into prostitution, theft, and drug use. The children – above all the very small and the weak – are victims of exploitation and every kind of abuse: physical, psychological, and moral. “They are subject to the law of the strongest,” says Fr. Cédric Lokange, SdC, economist of the Guanellian mission in Kinshasa. “The violence and abuse they suffer cause them to lose all hope in the future.”

The scale of the problem is difficult to overstate. The only census ever conducted of street children in Kinshasa – carried out by UNICEF in collaboration with local organisations in 2006 – counted more than 20,000 children and young people on the city’s streets, of whom around 13,000 were under the age of 18. Girls made up 44 percent of that number. Fewer than 3,000 of the children had access to even the most basic social services.

Since 1996, the Congregation of the Servants of Charity – founded by Saint Luigi Guanella in Como, Italy, in 1908, and known as the Guanellians – has been present in the DRC, with 50 missionaries of three nationalities working across the dioceses of Kinshasa and Boma. Alongside their parish ministry, the Guanellians work in the care and support of street children and of those living with physical or mental disabilities. Through an organization called OSEPER, the Guanellians come into contact with at least 3,500 street children, boys and girls, every year. OSEPER’s motto is direct: “La rue n’éduque pas” (the street does not educate). Mobile care units, reception centers, transitional shelters, and vocational training programs have been established to protect and support these vulnerable children and young people in distress.

Welcome center

The construction of a new welcome center in Lemba, on land belonging to the Guanellian mission, began in 2022. By late 2025, the building was nearing completion. The project proposed to St. Anthony’s Charities consisted of equipping this center to make it a home rather than just a building. Some children were already being accommodated on the ground floor.

“This project aimed to consolidate and extend the achievements of the interventions carried out by the Guanellian missionaries and their collaborators in protecting street children in Kinshasa,” says Fr. Cédric. The center was designed to welcome at least 90 boys between the ages of 6 and 12 – an age group that includes many street children who know nothing other than street life. “It is essential,” continues Fr. Cédric, “that they be protected and cared for.” These are children who have been rejected by their families, abandoned and marginalized by the community. They are children who have “lost trust both in themselves and in others, whom they regard as people to be exploited.”

€30,000 grant

The equipment needed included 70 metal beds, mattresses, bed linen, wardrobes, dining tables and chairs, refrigerators, freezers, and televisions. The total project cost was €35,000, with the Guanellian congregation contributing €5,000 and St. Anthony’s Charities approving a grant of €30,000.

The first instalment arrived in December 2025. Within days, 70 metal beds and 90 mattresses had been purchased – orders that had already been placed. The second instalment followed in January 2026: 90 sets of bed linen, two 600-litre freezers, two 400-litre refrigerators, and two televisions. The final instalment was received on 26 January, and the last items – 90 dining chairs, ten tables, and four cupboards – were procured and delivered.

The project was completed on 24 February 2026. The center, which had already welcomed 45 boys on the ground floor before it was fully furnished, is now equipped to receive at least 90 children at a time. By freeing up capacity at an existing center which caters for older young people above the age of 12, the new facility will benefit at least 120 vulnerable children each year in total.

“This project will not only improve the reception and care conditions for children in difficulty, abandoned in the street,” says Fr. Cédric, “but above all it will allow them to live in a protective and healthy environment, which will give them a new chance to build a future.”

Eric and Alex

Two of the boys at the center gave their own account of what that means. Eric is around 12 and has been on the streets since he was about 8. “We lived – me and my older sister – with my father after his separation from our mother. When our father’s new wife came to live with us, that is when our problems began.” He left the day he stole food for his hungry sister and was caught. “The next day I took my father’s money and found myself on the street.” Educators at an OSEPER water point brought him to the center, where he has lived for nearly two years and returned to school. “Thanks to all those who helped with this beautiful house, I can now sleep alone in my own bed,” he says. When he grows up, he hopes to become a carpenter.

Alex is 10. “Street life is hard,” he says. “I don’t know exactly how long I spent on the streets, but what I lived through was horrible. I was injured several times by older boys with razor blades. But through all of that, God exists. He is good. We hold on through his goodness. By God’s grace I am today at the OSEPER center. Every day, men and women come to visit us and bring us gifts. This touches me deeply. I pray that the Lord may fill me with that same love – that I too may be charitable towards those I meet on my way.”

“I want to thank everyone who contributed – not only to the construction, including the builders, but also to St. Anthony’s Charities and the readers of the Messenger of Saint Anthony for their generosity and support,” concludes Fr. Cédric. “Without you, this would not have been possible.”