About us

CEMADEF is a non-profit, community based organization created in 2004 to empower women to fight poverty and to promote lasting peace in their communities.

Brief History

Shortly after the arrival of the international peacekeepers in Ituri, women from different communities met under the leadership of Fanny Ukety to discuss a way to fight poverty and to enhance lasting peace and reconciliation in their communities. We helped them achieve this by providing women with small, micro credits and the vision to implement the loans judiciously. From that meeting, women decided to have an organization of their own that would assist them in this pursuit. CEMADEF then arose as a local initiative that facilitated support for women’s activities in the Ituri region.