In 2023, the CODESPA Foundation won one of the two awards in the 27th edition of the Natura Prize, with the project “Social Reintegration of Children and Young People, Former Child Soldiers, in Detention Centers in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo”.

Every year, Natura organizes the Natura Prize, a competition that supports social or environmental projects proposed by non-governmental organizations, associations, or foundations. This award represents recognition and a show of admiration for all those people and projects that work daily to generate a positive impact somewhere in the world. Since 1994, it has supported more than 80 projects, which Natura employees choose from among the finalist proposals.

The project presented by the CODESPA Foundation in 2023 aims to provide reintegration and social opportunities for 150 children, between the ages of 7 and 17, who are held in Juvenile Detention Centers (EGEE: Établissement d’Éducation et de Garde d’Enfants) in the city of Goma. Their incarceration is primarily due to their past as former child soldiers, which has made them, at the same time, victims and perpetrators of numerous cases of violence.

Through this project, CODESPA and Don Bosco Ngangi, the local partner with whom we carry out the project, aim to re-educate these detained children and prepare them for peaceful coexistence and reintegration into society. In addition, they are offered the opportunity to receive training so they can access employment, become self-sufficient upon release from the detention center, and be able to reintegrate into society.

In the video below, Josué Kambale Mali, one of the beneficiaries of this intervention, explains to Natura employees what having this opportunity has meant to him and why he believes the CODESPA project should be a winner of the Natura Awards.