“Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.” ― Alice Walker
As we celebrate 10 years of Action for Action Kivu's 10th anniversary this Saturday with Robin Wright live in conversation with our visionary leader Amani Matabaro, we are grateful for the present you all have been constructing with us in partnership with the people of Eastern Congo. (If you haven't already registered, do so here, and invite your friends. It will be an inspiring half hour.)
Hearing the students at the Congo Peace School share their dreams for a new Congo, one that is safe and rooted in equality, witnessing them flourish as they learn new computer skills and crack open new worlds within library books, watching them continue to learn and be fed, mentally, emotionally, and physically - even in the midst of a pandemic, the present we're all constructing looks like the future the children are dreaming. Elysee is 16 years old, in the 3rd grade of secondary school at the Congo Peace School.
"In June, I've needed to combine many things almost every day," she says, "learning some computer skills during our half day school sessions in small groups [limited to 20] because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some days I go to the Congo Peace School and community library and read a book. When I am not at school, I have to go and help my mom with farm work, I have no excuse. I have to help my mom because our father abandoned my mom for no other reason than giving birth to only girls.
"I want people outside Congo to know that my dream is big, and it is about a new Congo, stable and well-governed, safe and with no rape against women. May Congo become a country where equality between men and women is a reality. I am very excited by knowing and discovering day by day that it’s possible to combine agriculture and animal husbandry. The results at Congo Peace School are spectacular - when I look at the size of the squash leaves that are being grown on our school farm, it is so amazing and incredible. I'm also interested in the computer skills lessons, that make our school unique in the area. By the end of June, I felt very stressed and frustrated because of the Covid-19 pandemic cases reported in our health zone and the increase in the numbers of cases around the world is very saddening – I am concerned and worried. I am very tired of the pandemic, I need to go back to school, I miss my school's beloved community."
(Read our earlier updates from May and April to learn how Action Kivu has pivoted in response to the current Covid-19 pandemic. )
Iragi is 13 years old, and in the 2nd Grade of secondary school at the Congo Peace School.
He shares: "June has been a very exciting month for me on one hand because it was my small group's turn at school to learn computer skills, and it was the first time I saw and touched a computer! I am very excited and curious to learn as much as I can. On the other hand my mom was sick but now she’s doing well. The pandemic should end, I wish there was a medicine to cure the Covid-19 pandemic. I have no idea what we would become without the Congo Peace School feeding and educating us. I want people outside Congo to know that our school is our family. I hate hearing in the news that the Covid-19 pandemic cases are increasing everyday in Congo and other countries."
The pandemic affects every student, and comes up in conversation often. Many of the families in the community are struggling to eat each day, and the Congo Peace School continues to provide meals for the most at-risk students, as well as continues to expand the community farm at the school, teaching students how to create a sustainable food source through organic farming and animal husbandry.
In exciting news, a member of the local Rotary Club visited the school, and impressed by the curriculum rooted in peace and nonviolence, as well as the regenerative model where every project feeds into the next (the animal manure used as compost to help grow the vegetables that leave Elysee in awe), donated a dairy cow to the school farm! When she arrives we'll share photos.
Volunteers are building a barn to shelter the cow, which Amani reports, fits into the regeneration cycle of everything we are doing: its manure will contribute to the organic fertilizer wing through compost, the cow will produce milk to help with nutrition of children who join our school's beloved community with severe malnutrition. The Congo Peace School is also envisioning to sell its milk for income to support the sustainability of the school. Another goal is to teach the students how the cow is part of who and what we are. As part of Amani's local nonprofit ABFEC, he has hired a vet to take care of the cow medically whenever needed, while our local team will have tours to feed the cow with the grasses of the type of tripsacum which is advised for a balanced diet for cows. We have been planting different varieties of grasses to feed the cow, planted on the edges of the school's soccer field, not only to feed the cow but also to protect the field against erosion.
Updates from the Community Farm: The rice fields are doing well, a future-thinking response to water-logged land.
We also heard from Mastaki Francine this month, a graduate from our Sewing Workshop three years ago. Her business, like so many, is affected by the pandemic as many community members have no income at the moment.
"I used to get customers almost every day and my sewing workshop was very busy. At the moment I have no customers , I have even decided to relocate my sewing workshop from a rented house to my parents' house. I am praying to see the pandemic end so I resume my business."
As we've noted in the previous months' updates, we were only able to so quickly pivot to a pandemic response because of the years of your investing in Action Kivu's work, establishing the foundations and physical means to support the community. Amani continues to use his training in Kingian peace & nonviolence both with the students and the community. This week, he hosted a training inside the large and well-ventilated auditorium, at which he and another local leader in human rights conducted a two day training, including a call to ask questions of Amani's original teacher, Professor Paul Bueno de Mesquita - who taught Amani at the University of Rhode Island's International Nonviolence Summer Institute.
In the midst of so much pain and uncertainty, Amani continues to create space for learning, for healing, and for a more healthy and just future for his community, and by extension, for us all.
Please remember to register for our Saturday call to hear from Amani directly - you'll receive the link on Friday!
Thank you for the generosity of your partnership that continues to create a more just world that will benefit us all, as we are “tied in a single garment of destiny.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)