Hospice des vieillards Saint-Pierre
The Gertler Family Foundation fully renovated the Hospice Saint Pierre’s kitchen, latrines, washrooms and warehouse and provided 16 living units with new beds, bureaus, linens and other furnishings for the residents. The Foundation’s contribution also helped complete construction of new living units, enabling the hospice to care for an additional 12 residents.
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SOS Children Villages, N’Sele, Kinshasa
The Gertler Family Foundation fully supported a home for eleven orphan boys at SOS Children’s Village. The Foundation began its partnership with SOS Village International by sponsoring the construction of one of the Village’s homes and sponsoring a “family” of orphan boys. Every year, the GFF provided funding that covered all aspects of the boy’s lives and pays the salaries for their “mothers,” who care for them a round the clock.
Electricity project — The FRIPT Project
FRIPT PROJECT (FRIPT standing for Increasing the reliability, Rehabilitation and Strengthening of the SNEL Production and Transmission infrastructure):
• KCC provided $450 million financing for this project. The various worksites and work included in this project are making 450 MW available. Dan Gertler’s trusts had a participation of 31% in KCC, meaning that over $130 million were invested by the businessmen.
• The FRIPT is one of the largest public-private partnership projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The Project includes the rehabilitation of infrastructure of the Nzilo power plant as well as that of Inga 2, the full rehabilitation of the West dispatcher, and a strengthening of the direct and alternating current transmission to increase the capacity that can be carried from 500 to 1,000 MW over the 1,700 kilometers between Inga and Kolwezi.
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Kitoko Food Farm 2012 — 2017
”We are committed to building a future in which the DRC can feed itself. Kitoko is just the first step in establishing food security in the DRC.”
Fleurette senior advisor and GFF co-founder, Dan Gertler
Funded by the Fleurette Group in 2012, the Kitoko model is the first of its kind in the DRC to invest in high-tech vegetable and fruit production. It also sought to address the country's chronic food shortages and advance its agriculture and economic development by equipping Congolese with the tools and skills needed to become self-sufficient in food production. Importantly, the Kitoko model is also seeking to demonstrate sustainable commercial farming in the DRC is a commercial reality.
More than 70 percent of the population works in agriculture in the DRC, where only 10 percent of the country's 80 million arable hectares are under production.
The 1,482-acre Kitoko Food Farm, a joint project of the Gertler Family Foundation (GFF) and Fleurette Group, established modern, sustainable farming techniques that help families and communities overcome debilitating food deficits and become self-sufficient. The program provides farmers with practical, hands-on training, seeds, farming tools, irrigation systems, fertilizers, and assistance in getting their crops to market.
Using cutting-edge farming and management techniques and technology, the Kitoko Food Farm – located about 30 miles outside of the capital of Kinshasa – was designed not only to help the DRC combat endemic hunger, but to provide communities with jobs and better lifestyles.
Kitoko model was planned to operate in a cooperative, kibbutz-style system that ensures maximum support and sustainability. Development plans called for construction of a primary school, health clinic and housing for 60 families by 2014. The farm, which employed 100 Congolese, was projected to produce hundreds of tons of peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and other vegetables, supplying local markets with fresh, high-quality produce at prices significantly lower than the cost of imported food from outside the DRC. Kitoko’s employees and managers had plant, grow and harvest using the latest in agricultural technology and farming intelligence, creating the foundation for a new Agriculture Research and Development Center producing vital local knowledge provided to farming ventures throughout the country.
With social, agricultural, educational and financial components, Kitoko was a pioneering pilot project for private investment in international food security efforts in Africa. It is designed to be commercially viable, environmentally sustainable, and easily adaptable to other communities.
