ChaKuishi(“Food for Life”) is the Women Social Enterprise project in agriculture and fish farming developed and implemented by the Good Shepherd International Foundation with Bon Pasteur, in the artisanal mining communities of Kolwezi.
Mining exploitation, coupled with land grabbing, internal migrations and a lack of public investment in farming, have made Kolwezi a place where basic food supplies for the poorest are more difficult to find and more expensive to buy than a sack of raw cobalt or copper. This has led to great food insecurity, malnutrition and diseases among the poorest parts of the population living in the mining communities.
Plus, for women and girls earning a living outside the mines is extremely difficult; most of them are illiterate and scarcely employable, at risk of violence and exploitation.
ChaKuishi starting from 2019 has been piloting a social enterprising model that supports women organized in cooperatives to farm and sell quality agricultural products. Women participating in Chakuishi can thus count on a stable and dignified source of income and can send their children to school and improve the diet of their families.
