Address the root cause: poverty.
Children mine and adults take risks because households have no other income. Build that income, and mining becomes a choice rather than a necessity. This is the pillar that makes the others last.
Why livelihoods are the real fix.
Mine safety and child remediation treat the symptoms of poverty. Economic resilience treats the cause. When a family has savings and a second source of income, sending a child to the mine stops being the only option, and a bad month at the pit stops being a crisis.
Working through the local partner A.F.A. (Alternatives for Actions), the FCA builds three things at once: financial education and group savings, entrepreneurship through training, mentorship and microfinance, and agriculture on the region's underused fertile land.
The flagship vehicle is the Village Savings and Loan Association: small, community-run groups where members save together, lend to each other and build the buffer that makes every other intervention stick.
Building income that does not depend on the pit.
Savings & loan groups
Community-run VSLAs where members save together and access affordable credit, building a financial buffer.
Entrepreneurship
Training, mentorship and microfinance so people can start and grow small businesses.
Agriculture
Putting underused fertile land to work, creating food and income outside mining.
Savings that change the calculation.
When a household is not desperate, children go to school and the mine becomes one option among several. Diversified income is what turns a short-term fix into lasting change.The Fair Cobalt Alliance
Back the income that ends the cycle.
Members and partners fund the savings groups, training and agriculture that give mining communities a real alternative.