1   Back to School

A big thank you to Mrs Neema and her friends for her donation of school bags and uniforms and to Mrs Sunita for her donation of the beautiful neckties and snacks.

As usual, the children are so happy to come back to school. The teachers often compose songs to motivate the students, who love to sing and danse.

Teaching the importance of cleanliness and personal hygiene starts early, with the younger grades. This is also done in song and danse. The song says to always be clean from head to toe in order to stay healthy.

All these children live in the bush, near the capital city of Kinshasa, in extremely precarious conditions, without water or electricity, in little shacks made of corrugated sheets. It is of utmost importance to teach them cleanliness in spite of their difficult living conditions (our school is well equipped with toilets, showers and a solar well where the parents can come and fetch clean water), and we expect them to come to school wearing a clean uniform, hair combed and shoes on their feet.

The Congolese people place a great emphasis on cleanliness and being well dressed, and we’ve always been amazed how elegant they always are, seeing the precarity of their living conditions. What a beautiful example!

A big thank you also to the RAF foundation for their very generous annual donation of notebooks.

Come and take part of this math class, taught by our new middle school teacher, who also teaches biology and chemistry.

2   Micro-Enterprise : Manufacture of School Uniforms

The school logo is now being printed on the school uniforms which have been manufactured by our tailoring class. Then they will be distributed to the students. The motto of our school: “Discipline, Work, Success”.

Our director’s vision is to offer this service to other schools in order to bring in some income for the running of the project.

3   Women Empowerment : Mabonzo’s Story

Mabonzo was born in a very poor family. Her father passed away and her mother is struggling to make ends meet. She joined our school 5 years ago and applied herself wholeheartedly to study. She loves fashion design so chose tailoring as her vocational training. Last year, she was on top of her class. Her ambition is to become a famous fashion designer. We wish her great success and to be able to realize her dream after she graduates from High School.

We encourage all the girls to follow her example and do all we can to help them pull out of poverty.

4   Agricutural Project

Thanks to LiftUp, Fabrice’s project is bearing fruit. He is about to sign a contract with the House of Agriculture and has started to teach the basics of agriculture to the young people he is training.

Back in July, Espoir Congo had helped Fabrice to purchase the fertilizer he needed for his 2 acres of watermelon plantations. The harvest was phenomenal: 3,78 tons of watermelons!

5   Forum in Vannes

As in previous years, our association had the opportunity to have a stand at the Forum in Vannes, in Britany, and present our project, which is now been fully run by our Congolese partners, SABEC. This forum received 12,000 visitors this year.