Local Partners
The FCA works through a network of local partner organisations that inform and co-design needs-based and impact-driven on-site and off-site programmes.
Forging partnerships
The FCA works through a network of local partner organisations that inform and co-design needs-based and impact-driven on-site and off-site programmes. Every partner undergoes due diligence, ensuring that the organisational purpose aligns with the goals of the FCA, and that the respective teams have the skills and qualifications required to achieve lasting change on the ground. The FCA’s partnership network enables us to: operate more efficiently taking into account local realities and developments; share lessons learned cross-industry, and importantly to get the flow of resources and capital to mining communities.
If your organisation is interested in working with the FCA, please contact us today
Contact UsOur criteria for partner selection
The FCA recognises the opportunity to work with both international well-established organisations that have a strong track record as well as local community-based organisations that are strongly rooted in the mining communities. So much good work is already ongoing in the region. We also recognise the need to strengthen civil society and community-based organisations. We, at the FCA, are committed to building capacity and providing training necessary to support the professionalisation of local organisations to operate in line with international best practices.
With the ambition of being inclusive to locally active organisations seeking financial support, the FCA will publicly communicate eligibility criteria for participation in the FCA programme. This includes community-based organisations (CBOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
These criteria include:
- The organisation’s management passes basic due diligence
- The organisation work in the spirit of FCA’s vision and makes a clear contribution to either:
a) mine site improvements;
b) children’s rights and education;
c) household savings; or
d) fostering entrepreneurship and alternative livelihoods
- The organisation commits to reporting publicly on its FCA-related spending
- The organisation sets and reports against aspirational impact targets in line with the FCA’s impact framework.
Our Partners
Maison Kwetu
Maison Kwetu – ‘Our Home’ in Swahili – was established in 2013, as a not-for-profit organisation with the objective to protect and assist orphans, abandoned and vulnerable children either through reintegration into their family or the provision of alternative care. Maison Kwetu’s children’s home is located in Kanina, a neighbourhood in the western outskirts of Kolwezi. Yet its programme scope reaches various parts of the city, with almost a quarter of Maison Kwetu’s children originating from around theKasulu and Kamilombe mine sites.
As of today, the organisation supports 121 boys ranging between the age of 8 and 17, who arrived at the centre for care between 2013 and 2021. These boys were unable to become re-integrated into their families. Maison Kwetu provides the boys with a safe place to sleep and live, access to primary and secondary education, and leisure time activities. In addition, older boys receive vocational training and some participate in internships to prepare for independent life once turning 18. A professional psychologist assists and trains the supervisors in dealing with cases of aggression and disobedience, and provides psychological care as several of the children have become traumatized during life on the streets.
Originally founded by Reverend Damien Isabell, an American Franciscan monk, Maison Kwetu is supported by a stable team of professionals with extensive experience and degrees in pedagogy, child protection programmes, and child psychology. The team is well structured, with a clear division of tasks and mission statement. Most of the funding is provided by a befriended American Franciscan congregation in the USA. Additionally, the organisation also receives ad hoc donations and in-kind contributions from private local funders amongst which the industrial Kamoto Mining Company (KCC) and sporadically from provincial government authorities.
A.F.A.
Alternatives for Actions (A.F.A.) is a Congolese non-profit and non-governmental organisation founded in 2013, based in the DRC and operating in the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces, including Fungurume, Kolwezi, Kisanfu, Sakania and Lubumbashi.
The organisation has a dedicated multidisciplinary team that brings together the expertise of various professionals ranging from economic development, education, governance, environmental governance, conflict management and health.
Since its inception, A.F.A. has implemented community development projects with visible impact in the area of savings group creation, financial capacity building, entrepreneurship support, agricultural development, protection and research in the mining sector, etc.
A.F.A. has a proven track record in working with communities, industrial mining companies (TFM, ERG Africa,) and (non) governmental organizations (Good Shepherd, World Vision, ACCELLERE and ILO).
The organisation uses the Voluntary Savings and Credit Association (AVEC) strategy. Under the motto “you come in with zero and leave with millions”, AFA sets up savings groups that contribute to socio-economic development and empowerment of communities using locally available resources. Over the past eight years, the organisation has managed to reach nearly 5,000 beneficiaries with more than USD 981,528 in savings mobilised by the communities.
The savings groups are a key factor in A.F.A.’s approach to assisting community development in the region, and assist in their development from within, enabling them to fuel their own development.
CMDS
The Mining Cooperative for Social Development (CMDS) is a cooperative formed bottom-up by artisanal miners from the Kapata community, who work at the Kamilombe mine site. The start of artisanal mining activities at Kamilombe dates back to 2004 when artisanal miners extracted copper and cobalt from the area working on an individual basis (en solo). In 2020, the Minister of Mines prohibited artisanal mining ‘en solo’, and stimulated the establishment of miners’ cooperatives throughout the country, per ministerial decree. In response to this new requirement, CMDS started grouping individual artisanal miners at the Kamilombe site into a mining cooperative in 2011. The cooperative became legalised as a structure in 2017 by obtaining a national ministerial decree.
CMDS is currently headed President Jean Muyer, assisted his management team including Mr Banza and Mr Mandela, who all three belong to the group of artisanal miners who started working at Kamilombe in the early 2000s and who stood at the cradle of the cooperative. CMDS has its head office in the Kapata neighbourhood, in the western outskirts of Kolwezi. The Kamilombe mine site where CMDS works is located on an inactive concession owned by parastatal mining company Société Générale des Carrières et des Mines (GECAMINES). GECAMINES authorized CMDS to work at Kamilombe by providing an Autorisation d’Encadrement des Artisanaux Miniers.
The cooperative operates the Kamilombe mine site on a day-to-day basis, including the registration of mine workers, on-site production enhancement, mineral purchasing and access control. Under the supervision of the Service d’Assistance et d’Encadrement du Small Scale Mining (SAEMAPE), the cooperative implements social risk management addresses the presence of children and pregnant women on-site, and provides basic levels of occupational health and safety trainings at the mine site.
In collaboration with the CMDS, the FCA assists the miners at Kamilombe to further improve working conditions, transparent trading practices and child labour remediation.
