20 September 2013, Geneva (ICMC) – Sister Angélique Namaika, braving danger on a daily basis to help people of the Democratic Republic of Congo to start again, uses education and skills training to build lasting peace and stability for the poor, traumatised and forcibly displaced.

The United Nations refugee agency will on 30 September celebrate Sister Angélique’s award of the 2013 Nansen Refugee prize for her work with women in the Congo, condemned as the “rape capital of the world”, as more than 200,000 women have been raped there since the breakout of violence in 1998.

Since 2003, Sister Angélique has helped over 2,000 women and girls who have been forced from their homes and abused by rebel groups fighting for control of the country. Through her Centre for Reintegration and Development, she allows them to recover form the violence and rebuild their lives by learning a trade, starting a small business or going back to school.

Sister Angélique’s work capitalizes on education to foster global citizenship and build peaceful societies after abduction, forced labour, beatings, murder, rape and other human rights abuses have taken place. Education indeed plays vital role fostering global citizenship and building peaceful societies –– which is the United Nations commemorative message for this year’s International Day of Peace on 21 September.

“It is so important that they get training,” said Sister Angélique in a recent interview with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “Because if these women are relying on hand-outs and have no way to earn money, the minute the hand-outs stop they will find themselves in the same poverty as before.”

Snowballing the power of learning

ICMC is convinced of the power of education and awareness raising to help displaced families out of poverty and put them into safe job opportunities that can save their lives, strengthen their economic independence and social welfare.

Among its many activities around the world, ICMC trains home-based female workers in Pakistan to give them access to decent work opportunities and social services and provided vocational training to young Iraqis in Syria before the escalation of the conflict.

In complement, to promote peace, ICMC also works to encourage respect for international standards and conventions and to combat ignorance and prejudices. From Indonesia to Greece, ICMC disseminates information and trains local partner organizations and government institutions to better protect women and children against sexual and gender-based violence, contribute to the better enforcement of migrant labourers’ human rights or speedier treatment of asylum seekers’ claims.

Speaking out at numerous key international conferences and platforms around the world, ICMC staff also advocates greater tolerance for migrants, whom it aims to recast as productive and creative contributors to peace and global development.

-- by Caitlin Hannahan and Lori Brumat

 Photocredit © UNHCR / B. Sokol