Our story
Because every child is precious. Discover why Maison Elim exists, and what we commit to for every child we will welcome.
The founding statement
I was born into a home where love, protection and opportunity were present. But from a young age, I understood that not every child had this privilege. Around me, I saw children growing up without protection, without security, and sometimes without hope.
At the age of thirteen, a dream began to take shape in my heart: to create a place entirely dedicated to orphans, where the education would be excellent and where children would be treated with dignity. As I grew, I understood that these children needed far more than a classroom. They needed a home — a place to return to when the outside world became cruel.
My country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has carried for many years the wounds of war, poverty and instability. Every year, thousands of children find themselves orphaned, abandoned or rejected. Some are accused of witchcraft. Others are left to fend for themselves on the streets. Too often, they learn to survive before they ever have the chance to live their childhood.
I refuse to accept that their destiny should be determined by the circumstances of their birth or the tragedies they have lived through. I believe that every child has immeasurable worth, deserves to be loved, deserves to grow up with dignity, and deserves the same opportunities as any other child.
This is why Maison Elim exists. Maison Elim is not simply an orphanage. It is a home — a place where the child who arrives wounded can find peace, where the child who has known rejection can discover their worth, where the child can finally begin to be a child again.
We dream of the day when the children who grew up at Maison Elim will in turn become doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, leaders, loving parents and peacebuilders — and that they will return to testify that their story was not defined by their past, but transformed by the love of God.
Every child deserves to be loved.
Poverty or abandonment never diminish a child's worth.
No past should determine the future.
The children of Maison Elim deserve the best we can offer them.
God is the source of our vision and our hope.
The manifesto
We refuse to build our mission on the exposure of children's suffering. No child of Maison Elim will ever be used as a marketing or fundraising tool.
Maison Elim will never be a simple housing facility. Every child must find there a family, stability, a sense of belonging, a feeling of security.
We commit to offering quality facilities, an excellent education, appropriate care, and a beautiful, inspiring environment.
We will limit situations that create unnecessary temporary attachments or repeated separations. Every relationship must contribute to the child's stability and healing.
At Maison Elim, children will have the right to play, to laugh, to learn, to dream and to discover their talents. We want to give them back the childhood that was taken from them.
Our mission is to raise responsible men and women, leaders, builders, loving parents and citizens who will contribute positively to their community.
Our faith will not only be taught, it will be lived — in how we serve, how we lead, how we love and how we treat every child with respect and compassion.
We want to accompany every child toward a stable, fulfilling adult life. Our desire is that no child should ever feel abandoned a second time.
Our promise
