UNICEF's child-protection model against child labour in mining communities: it trains para-social workers (TPS) to identify vulnerable children and refer them to basic social services, and signs social contracts with communities. UNICEF's brochure reports 400 para-social workers trained and accredited by the provincial social-affairs divisions in Haut-Katanga, Lualaba and Haut-Lomami, 36 social contracts since 2022 under which 69,605 children were referred and cared for, and 1,099 children taken out of the artisanal mines of Tshala in Lualaba. Its start is given two ways: the brochure reports results since 2022, while UNICEF's June 2026 release says the model was first piloted in 2023. That release reports 1,015 children removed from mines in 2024 alone, 599 of them re-enrolled in school and 416 placed in vocational programmes. The figures are UNICEF's own and unaudited.
Sources support the description and the individual connections below. Publication and checking dates belong to the evidence: when it was published, and when this Hub last read it.
Reported means the cited source describes the relationship at its evidence date. Historical relationships refer to an earlier period. Announced agreements may not have been implemented. None of these labels confirms that trade continues today.
UNICEF runs the TPS+ model of para-social workers and community social contracts in Lualaba, Haut-Katanga and Haut-Lomami, and builds its Kambove project on it. UNICEF is the only source.
The project builds on UNICEF’s TPS+ model, first piloted in 2023.
L’approche novatrice du Travail Social de Modélisation (TPS + Contrats sociaux) consiste à former un corps de travailleurs para-sociaux (TPS)