(Dis)empowering marginalized children? : Local NGOs’ role for social capital in Eastern Congo (DRC).

Sammanfattning: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): one of the richest nations in natural resources; one of the poorest in human rights. In the past decades, DRC has undergone two civil wars, alongside with a history of exploitive colonization. In North Kivu Province, DRC’s most volatile province, non-government organizations (NGOs) take leading roles to provide welfare for marginalized groups, such as orphans, children involved in armed conflicts or living on the streets. This case study aims to describe how two local NGOs operate in order to explore the ways they are making use of social capital to empower marginalized children in North Kivu Province. I chose empowerment and social capital theories combined with a contextualized model of analysis created by the author and based on meaning condensation to analyze the interviews collected from eight workers from NGOs specialized in child welfare. The main findings (1) reinforce that networks between and among NGOs have great potential to impact positively the work on marginalized groups and (2) highlight that volunteer participation and community leaders have vital roles in such organizations.