Dear Members and Friends,
We hope you’ve all had a good return after the summer. For our partners in the field there was no summer break. As you’ll see below, it was one of the busiest seasons we have had.
1° Syria: coming home to nothing
On 27 August, senior UN officials told the Security Council that Syria has reached a turning point. There are real signs of recovery, but the humanitarian needs remain enormous.
More than 5.5 million people are still displaced within the country, 833,000 of them in over 1,200 camps. Since December 2024, nearly two million internally displaced people and more than 1.7 million refugees have gone home. But going home is not the end of the story. For many families it is the start of a new struggle: houses destroyed or damaged, schools and hospitals still to be rebuilt, unreliable water supplies and very few ways to earn a living.
Ghanem’s family is one of many still living with the aftermath of war and displacement. They struggle to find decent housing and never know whether there will be work from one day to the next.
Every month, the Vivere team provides nutritional supplements for 45 babies whose families are trying to rebuild their lives. Fifteen new babies joined the programme in July, and another fifteen in August.
2° Democratic Republic of the Congo
As we warned in our February newsletter, the Trump administration’s sudden, sweeping cuts to almost every US humanitarian aid programme are having ever more devastating consequences around the world. More lives are being lost, armed conflicts are intensifying and human rights are in retreat. Swiss broadcaster RTS recently reported that conflict in Africa has risen since US aid was cut off (article in French):
South Kivu: justice returns to Uvira
For almost a year, South Kivu was brought to a standstill by relentless attacks from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. They laid waste to large areas and left thousands of people dead or forced to flee. Our partners there have shown remarkable courage in restarting our work wherever they can.
Thanks to them, the 42nd mobile session of the Uvira Garrison Military Court that we fund was able to sit from 10 to 13 August. Four cases were heard:
- Disobeying orders, extortion and assault
- Murder
- Two charges of taking part in insurrectionary movements
Those convicted received heavy prison sentences. Over the four days, 790 people came to watch the trials. Several told our partners how relieved they were to see justice return after so long a time in which oppression went unpunished.
We are under no illusions. Our project is nowhere near large enough to tackle impunity on the scale that’s needed. On top of the countless crimes committed by M23 and its Rwandan backers, there are those carried out by a whole host of militias across eastern Congo, some of them fighting alongside the national army. As Amnesty International Belgium puts it:
“The DRC authorities often condemn M23’s violence, as they should, but turn a blind eye to comparable violence and human rights abuses by the Wazalendo, including the CMC-FDP. In effect, they are condoning these crimes and shirking their duty to protect civilians and bring Wazalendo fighters to justice. The international community must press the DRC government to stop backing these armed groups immediately.”
The Wazalendo are pro-government militias. You can read Amnesty’s full article here (in French):
Ruzizi Plain and Moyens Plateaux: care for survivors of violence
With our partner ACMEJ, we continue to provide emergency medical care for civilians who have survived violence at the hands of armed men. Very often, they are women. We find each survivor, identify them, and get them as quickly as possible to the nearest health centre or rural hospital. We then pay for all their treatment until they have fully recovered.
Fizi: six young women, three pairs
The two war orphans Vivere has supported since 2025 are about to finish the third and final year of their training as nursing assistants. We cover all their tuition fees, food and accommodation.
They are the third pair of girls we have helped in this way. Each was found in a remote rural area. They had been forced out of school when their parents died and left to scrape a living through hard manual labour, with no real prospects. Today, six young women have a future to look forward to, and a career caring for others.
North Kivu: Rose’s first year of law school
North Kivu is suffering even more than the South under M23’s brutal occupation. Even so, last year we agreed with our local partner, Protection et Solidarité (P.S.), to extend our back-to-school programme there. The programme helps girls who have been orphaned, or who have survived severe violence, to return to education. We take them on one at a time, as funds allow.
One of them, Rose (not her real name), had reached university entrance level. She was absolutely determined to become a lawyer and stand up for people with no one else to defend them. The team at P.S. mentor her closely and know how capable and strong-willed she is, so they asked whether we could fund her law degree. The total cost is US$1,715 (CHF 1,416 / €1,495) a year. Thanks to a generous couple among our donors, we were able to do this.
Rose is now finishing her first year and has not missed her classes. In a detailed progress report, P.S. tells us that:
- She receives ongoing psychosocial support and excellent legal mentoring.
- She takes an active part in the P.S. awareness sessions on the rights of women and survivors of sexual violence.
She is fast becoming a role model of resilience and commitment for other young women.
3° Supporting Ukrainian refugees
Montenegro: Between June and August, 27 adults and 36 children received food aid. They came from Kharkiv, Odesa, Kyiv, Kherson, Rivne, Sievierodonetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Donetsk, Kryvyi Rih, Irpin, Sumy, Mariupol and Zhytomyr.
Svetlana comes from Jytomyr, Ukraine. She is a single mother to two children. At the moment she is going through a very difficult time. She is working part-time as a cleaner in a café, but doesn’t earn enough to cover her rent or to feed her children.
I’m Irina, originally from Brovory. I lived through the occupation. I’m currently living in Montenegro, but it’s difficult to find work.Poland: 29 women and 68 children received food, clothing and/or toiletries. The average cost was just CHF 8.03 (€8.62) per person. They came from Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk.
Thank you for taking the time to read about this work, which at heart is simply about justice. And once again, thank you so much for your support and solidarity. You are what makes all of this possible.
With warmest thanks,
The Vivere Committee
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HOW YOU CAN HELP
Every donation goes directly to the people we serve:
- CHF 8 provides food and essentials for one refugee in Poland.
- CHF 266 pays for full medical care for one survivor of violence in South Kivu.
- CHF 1,416 funds a whole year of university for a young woman like Rose.
Vivere · 7 avenue d’Yverdon · CH-1004 Lausanne · contact@vivere.ch · www.vivere.ch
IBAN CH82 0076 7000 Z099 5652 9
Special mention, Human Rights Prize of the French Republic, 2007
Member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and of Fedevaco
A non-profit association under Article 60 ff. of the Swiss Civil Code. We are politically and religiously independent, and officially recognised as a public-benefit organisation.
Vivere has been run entirely by volunteers since it was founded in 1999. We spend nothing on expensive fundraising or marketing, and have no salaries or rent to pay, so our running costs are under 2%. Keeping things this lean is only possible thanks to your support.