Our Story

In my home village, the injustice was quiet but deeply rooted: fewer than 1% of the girls I grew up with were able to complete primary education. By their teenage years—often before turning 17—they were already considered women, burdened with responsibilities and robbed of their dreams.

At the time, I didn’t have the language to call it injustice. But as I grew older, I came to recognize this as a symptom of deeper systemic violence—a complex web of gender inequality, harmful traditions, and structural exclusion.

In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict has persisted for over two decades, this injustice is compounded. Armed groups continue to tear apart communities, using sexual violence as a weapon of war, with women and girls bearing the greatest burden.

Women Concern (WOCO) was born from this reality in 2016. It is our response to the injustices experienced by women and girls—not only in times of war, but through the ongoing legacy of patriarchy embedded in our traditions, laws, and systems of governance.

We exist to dismantle the barriers that exclude women and girls from fully participating in society—economically, socially, culturally, and politically. WOCO is a movement to restore dignity to women, the very foundation of humanity. We believe that the future of our country depends on the full inclusion and empowerment of women and girls.