"As a successful entrepreneur, I want to help ensure that young people, wherever they are in the world, have opportunities they can seize, giving everyone the prospect of progress and a better life."
interview en article by Marc Van de Velde
interview en article by Marc Van de Velde
This initiative started under the influence of Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo, a family friend. During a conversation, he pointed out the issue of street children in Kinshasa. Ten years ago, we began the first reception center with the help of Louvain Coopération, an NGO partner of OVO, in the city center.
Today, we support four homes, spread across the capital, where these street children are cared for.
The project has two goals: providing psychosocial support to improve the well-being of these often deeply traumatized children, and ensuring education and professional integration so they can meet their basic needs.
Each center has its own focus; for example, the latest center emphasizes digitalization to enhance the children's connection to the job market. Annual support is not only directed toward the children and youth but also toward specialized training for caregivers and strengthening the families into which the children are reintegrated. We now have a similar center in Bukavu.
The project has also been renamed to: "Psychosocial and Socio-professional Support for Street Children and Youth in the DRC."
We are convinced that OVO's active involvement has significantly contributed to achieving these two goals successfully.
The challenges facing Africa are well described in the book *Africa: A Dreamed Future* by Loïc de Cannière. To break free from the cycle of poverty, people in Central Africa need access to jobs. Due to the population increase over the next 30 years, millions of new jobs will be needed each year. That is staggering, but with strong entrepreneurship, a well-trained workforce, and Africa's significant wealth of natural resources, much is possible.
OVO can play an important role in this by:
1. Providing quality education,
2. Offering microloans,
3. Supporting many small businesses.
These three actions can make a tremendous difference.
OVO is an organization where I truly feel at home as an entrepreneur—no complicated structure, short lines of communication, and limited overhead.
In this regard, I think it's fantastic that, as a core member, 100% of your donation is passed on to the selected projects of partner NGOs.
As a business leader, your primary focus is on the company for which you are responsible and on building it successfully year after year. However, in the global world we live in, your involvement should be broader, and you must also pay attention to what can be referred to, in grand terms, as "global social justice" throughout the world.
As a business leader, it is also your responsibility to help ensure that everyone has access to basic needs: safety, education, and food security. I emphasize the word "access." Inequality will continue to exist, but there is a difference between inequality due to missed opportunities and inequality due to a lack of opportunities.
As a successful entrepreneur, I want to help ensure that young people, wherever they are in the world, have opportunities they can seize, giving everyone the prospect of progress and a better life.