Longing for home: A survey by World Vision and other agencies found that more than half the people displaced by fighting in October last year were separated from family members in the chaos of war. By Anna Ridout

“I’d like to go home,” Kakule tells me. “I hear my brothers are alive and are soon to return home.  I haven’t seen my family for two years and I am lonely.”

He is 13 years old and alone since rebels entered his house at night and shot his father, mother and older brother. He ran, as the shooting continued through the village, and found his way to a displacement camp close to Goma.

A survey by World Vision and other agencies at the height of the crisis found that more than half the people displaced by fighting in October last year were separated from family members in the chaos of war.

Separated from family

I met Kakule at World Vision’s child-friendly space – a safe place for children in the camp to play and learn.  He was quiet, but strong. “Whenever I play it helps me forget they killed my father,” he said. “I have good friends here, we play the drums, and football or cards.”

I see the same resilience in Baraka, another 13 year old who lost his parents to the war. “When my daddy died, I ran here,” he said. He has been eating, sleeping and going to school at Don Bosco’s Children's Centre in Goma, for two months.

“I am an orphan, my mother died of malaria when I was nine and my father was killed by rebels. My father was a teacher and my mother a nurse. The rebels took my father into their barracks and killed him,” he tells me.

I feel stupid asking Baraka, brave and subdued, what it felt like to lose his father. “I just cried,” he replied. “What else could I do?”

Centre cares for children

More than 3,000 children live or receive free education at the centre, supported in part by World Vision.  Almost all these children are orphaned or separated from their families. The centre tries to track down children’s families or relatives, caring for the separated children in the meantime.  World Vision supports their work by providing school materials and temporary classrooms.

As conflict continues in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, parents continue to be killed by fighting and children are left alone, largely dependent on aid agencies. Their courage helps them laugh, play and attend school.

Only a fraction of the children who have lost contact with their families in the region find their way to a centre like this, but those who do are supported with training, food and shelter. Organizations such as World Vision work to make sure they are safe and protected, but so many are struggling to come to terms with loss and loneliness.

What else can we do? Keep calling for an end to all fighting and keep urging all sides to protect the most vulnerable.