Hortance Kufuku, from the DRC, is President of the Association des Collecteurs de Déchets du Congo-Kinshasa (ARCK) which has been in operation since 2008. Her educational background is in business sciences. The Association has members working in different locations and are grouped according to their sectors of activity: such as plastic, scrap metal and household waste. The Association supports workers through training and awareness of women’s empowerment in the mobile sector. As an elected member of the IAWP Exco, Hortance aims to support fellow waste pickers by championing training and raising awareness on women empowerment and gender-based violence against women in the informal sector, knowledge exchange by creating opportunities for workers to share their experiences with other workers across the regions, supporting in creating visibility for workers in the informal sector and mobilising financial resources.
