ABOUT DRC
DRC is a huge country, the second largest nation in Africa that covers approximately 1/3 the size of the continental US and is home to 71 million people.
UNICEF and other sources say that there are upwards of 4 million, possibly over 5 MILLION orphans in the DR Congo. Of note, UNICEF classifies an orphan as a child who has lost at least one parent; this means that not all of these 5 million children are double orphans (children with no parents). The number of double orphans, children who have lost both mother and father, in DRC is estimated between 800,000 and 1 million, according to UNICEF reports.
photo: AP / Jerome Delay
MORE INFO
- One in seven children in DRC dies before reaching the age of five. Mothers die in childbirth in 13 out of every 1,000 deliveries. (UNICEF)
- Nearly one quarter of children are underweight. Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies are responsible for nearly half of deaths among children under age five. (UNICEF)
- DRC is one of the very poorest nations in the world. According to some sources, it is the poorest, with a per capita GDP of $365. By comparison, the per capita GDP is $3,944.30 in India, $5,164 in Guatemala, $12,843 in Romania, and $49,601 in the U.S. (source)
- Less than half the population of DR Congo have access to clean drinking water.
- Famine, civil war, sexual violence, poverty, and HIV/AIDS have ravaged the country and left many orphans.
photo via AFP/Getty Images
- The Second Congo War is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, killing 5.4 million people since 1998. 90% of those deaths were not in combat, but from preventable diseases “aggravated by displaced populations living in unsanitary and over-crowded conditions that lacked access to shelter, water, food and medicine.” Nearly 50% of those deaths were children under 5. (source)
photo: AP / Karel Prinsloo
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