Mabawa has its administrative head offices in Lugano Switzerland from which stem all fund-raising efforts and project development based on local needs in Africa.  Its all volunteer European staff provides administrative support as well as any technical expertise needed in the implementation of the projects. In Africa, 2 HQs with paid local managers oversee the various projects.

• In Congo, the ASSECO (Association for the Safeguard of Congolese Children) oversees projects in still war-torn Bukavu of Kivu Lake Region in eastern Congo.  The Bakavu Kadutu project is managed and supervised since 1998 by area resident Leon Gashagaza and was Mabawa’s first endeavor.

 

• In Congo, the Bwegera Project is located on the Burundi/Rwanda/R.D Congo Border near Uvira.  It started as a small but very efficient and promising operation.  It provided for 230 children of school age with logistical support and food to the students and their families for the most part refugees since the the First Congo War (1996-1997).  The village has been subjected to deadly rebel raids in the past years with many of its population fleeing to the Mwaro camp in neighboring Burundi. Of the original 230 children only 34 are left in Bwegera.   They continue to receive financial support, basic needs and education.

• In Burundi, the Mwaro Refugee Camp project was started in 2004 to support the Tutsie Banyamulenge refugees that escaped the ongoing mayhem in the Bwegera Congo region.  164 refugee children and their families benefit from financial support, food and schooling.
• In Rwanda, The Nyamyumba project, the most extensive project to date, is managed and supervised by locals Augustin Kayigamba and Leon Gashagaza.  The unique project has brought together not only orphans, single or childless parents of the Genocide to recreate family and community but it has engaged the entire area population in its economic and social development, and sustainability.  The school has a current student body of over 400 children with increasing numbers from nearby villages.  Various agricultural, waterworks and microcredit projects are also being developed with the goal of establishing self-reliance.