Children, Education & Health.

The number of children in school is falling. More than 4.4 million children (nearly half the school-age population) are not in school because they can’t afford it or because there just isn’t one available. Although primary education is meant to be free, parents still have to pay quarterly fees that many can’t afford.

There are more than four million orphans in the country. Child labour is common, with more than a quarter of children aged between five and 14 working in mines and other industries. 1 in 5 children die before they are 5 years old and nearly half of these die because they don’t get enough food. Less than half of the people in DRC have safe water to drink.

Most people in DRC can’t afford much healthcare and hospitals are in a really bad state. A lot of them need to charge people for treatment as they don’t get any money from the government. People in DRC die of treatable illnesses because they don’t have the right medicine or supplies.