The children are very grateful to the various companies which continue to make monthly donations of food, which enables them to have a good breakfast to start their school day off right, as well as juice and biscuits for snack. Meat or fish and rice is served to the orphaned children in the evenings. A big thank you to Marsavco who donated a large amount of their excellent products.

 

Here are a few more pics of the children receiving notebooks and pens donated by SOFIA SPRL at the start of the new school year, and of the orphaned children receiving free uniforms, school bag and shoes sponsored by Espoir Congo.

 

Mommies come once a month with their babies for post-natal check-ups. All are so thankful for the good care they receive from Florence and Claudine. It’s always a fun time of chatting and sharing between them all. A new 18-year-old mommy delivered her first baby, both healthy and happy.

We purchased new equipment for the surgery room recently built (more pictures will come later):

1 consultation bed

1 operating table

1 sterile cupboard

1 chariot

2 halogen lamps

1 kit of chirurgical equipment

2 reanimation kits

4 stand up apparatus for transfusion and drips

It’s only a start, as more equipment will need to be added, like more beds etc… which will be covered by next year’s budget, but is enabling us to respond to the immediate need to perform emergency operations and save the lives of many.

 

Consultation bed

 

5       Clean Water Project

While the crowdfunding has been launched and donations have started to trickle in, we continue to actively look for ways to cut down the cost. We are in touch with two local well engineers who will give us a better deal than the official companies. We are also looking for ways to import the solar pumps directly from France which would come out a lot cheaper. Please spread the word and share the following link to help us find more sponsors as the total cost will still be hefty. We believe in a positive outcome though and pray for miracles of supply! https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/clean-water-for-kikimi-village-dr-congo

Fabricius, 24 years old, studies agronomy at the University of Kinshasa. He just entered his 3^rd year. In a family with 8 brothers and one sister, his father working as a nurse in the general hospital for a very low wage, he had been struggling to pay for his studies and his daily food. His family having a plot of land, he’s worked hard to grow vegetables, but has found it difficult to manage both his studies and tilling the land. Thanks to the grant he received from FCF through Espoir Congo, Fabricius was able to purchase more gardening tools, more seeds, and hire a helper, which is now helping him to produce a lot more vegetables and increase his income considerably. “Thank you so much for the help you have given me, says Fabricius, it is making it possible for me to better focus on my studies, and is also benefitting the rest of my family. I am forever grateful to Espoir Congo and FCF. May God bless you, give you a long life, and may you prosper in all that you do.” 

 

A big thank you also to all of you who, through your gifts and prayers, are giving hope to so many and changing their lives for the better. God bless you!

“Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.” — Vincent Van Gogh