“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison
How many of us think about the sliding door versions of our lives, what stories we’d be living if we’d taken different paths? Morrison’s words ring deeper than writing one’s own book – they encourage us to write our own story.
But for many people in the world, the barriers to create their own story are insurmountable unless we all come together to break down the blockades of oppression: poverty, access to education and job training, and equal rights in the eyes of society and the law.
Because of your support of the Congo Peace School and its Founding Director Amani Matabaro’s vision of equality and efforts in laying the groundwork with over a decade of job training and sending girls to school through his local Congolese nonprofit, ABFEC, the girls and women at the Congo Peace School are writing their own stories, and they’re inspiring.
As we say goodbye to March and Women’s History Month, we asked Amani to speak to several of the female students and staff at the Peace School to learn more about their history, and the new story they are writing together and the impact of the unfolding story in their community and ours.
LYDIE - Elementary School Principal
Working at the Congo Peace School has completely changed my life and all my perspectives in many ways. The Congo Peace School has made me the person I am today; I feel very proud to be the leader I am today. Some people only hear about women’s leadership, but the Congo Peace School has transformed me and made me the leader I am.
I’m a former participant of the ABFEC Educational Assistance Program. When I was in the third grade of high school (9th grade in our U.S. system), I was going to drop out of school as I had no way to pay school fees, and was lucky to be enrolled in that program which gave me a new hope. I graduated from secondary school because of that support and was lucky enough that my uncle paid my college fees.
A few years after graduating college, I saw the job announcement that the Congo Peace School was opening and hiring a French teacher. I applied and among many applicants, mostly men, I was selected. From that time my self-confidence as a woman started growing.
A year after I started teaching French, there was a need to hire an elementary school principal. I was hesitant about applying but remembering the first experience, and how I was hired as a teacher, I decided to apply, and was hired as the elementary school principal.
In our region, it is not an easy experience to have men under your leadership as a woman. You have to be self-confident, do your work professionally and ensure everything is done correctly, you have male staff from families and communities in which they grew up being told women and men are not equal, and suddenly you work in an environment where you are told the total opposite and you need to teach that to men, students, and the community around the school.
The position I hold is a decision-making one and I have men under my leadership. Working at the Peace School is a practical experience for me to really understand that Equality between men and women is a fundamental right. There is a huge need in terms of social and collective responsibility to educate the community about the changes that need to happen. The Peace School is a great living role model about promoting equality between men and women because it starts with younger children, and they grow up knowing and understanding equality.
My husband is a medical doctor, he respects me and from him I understand how education is key in promoting gender equality at a larger scale. My children will be given the same chance growing up understanding that men and women are all equal. Every day I talk to our female students, encouraging them to stand strong, to focus on education, spread the word, and raise the awareness of the rest of the community. I encourage our female students to believe in themselves and keep standing up to make sure their rights are respected and ensure gender equality is not theory but a reality and a right that we fully enjoy and live every single day. All the girls at the Peace School are so lucky to be in such an environment promoting their rights!
When I see the children here at the Peace School and compare them to those in other schools, I realize there is a big difference and imagine this generation which is going to change our world. Out of 16 schools in the area of Mumosho, only two are led by women and nobody could imagine the leadership of the Congo Peace School elementary level would be given to a woman. The Peace School is a real model of equality in leadership having a female school principal at the elementary level and a man at the secondary level, with a great deal of female staff.
We know that girls in extreme poverty are four times more likely to be exposed to gender-based violence but education is the antidote. I am no longer the person I was before joining the Peace School. Women, girls, we are stronger, we need to be given a chance.
Amani spoke to several of the girls in 5th grade secondary class, known in the U.S. as 11th grade of high school.
DIVINE
Attending the Congo Peace School has been a great experience for me because I imagine it is the best way to live out equality between boys and girls. Every time we need to vote for a spokesperson for students at the Peace School, we must have a good balance, it is a requirement: if the chairperson is a boy, the deputy MUST be a girl and vice versa. This is equality in practice. Each grade has a committee and there is always a girl in the committee. And with my experience here at the Peace School, I have personally understood, I have been convinced that what men can do, women can as well.
And I have been wondering, why not becoming the first woman President of the DRC? It’s not impossible, men have never been able to ensure there is peace in our country, I think it will be a woman who will fix the issues in our country. As a student here at the Peace School, understanding and seeing that we are equal, my resolve is to engage in politics in my country.
You know what! I am always among the top five of my classes while some boys are far behind me. I feel very proud of myself and attending the Peace School is an unforgettable experience in my life, it enables me to redefine my future.
CYNTHIA HAMULI
Attending this school has changed my life. In a society where the perceptions of so many are that men are always superior to women, I know the opposite is true, and I have many examples to prove people wrong. We are all equal when and if we are given a chance. Attending the Peace School increased my self-confidence and it changed my life, I could not play soccer before but now I am part of our Peace School female team. Before coming to the Peace School, I was underestimating the power of women. I am happy to be a student at the Peace School—I am the spokesperson of the Peace School student population.
In the future, I am planning to create my own organization, hire the same number of women and men, our mission will be to fight against gender inequality and advance mental health and well-being. The lack of gender equality is one of the factors that trigger extreme poverty in our region. When I see the number of women and girls who have never been to school for no other reason than their gender, I feel very sad. All children in all families, boys and girls, should be given the same chance to get an education. I was reading and learned that several million girls will never go to school at all! That has to change and my organization will work so hard to change that.
DENISE BORAUZIMA
I was enrolled in the ABFEC Educational Assistance Program when I was 10 years old. I was desperate after my dad passed away in a gold mine. Me and my brother Arsene were able to continue our education through ABFEC’s support until the Peace School was built and we transferred here. My experience attending the Peace School has changed my life. It gives me new hope, and I am working hard every day to do well and graduate. I am dreaming of becoming a nurse, and with my experience attending the Peace School, I know that everything is possible.
I must thank everyone supporting us and the Congo Peace School, a space where the rights of girls are respected. What can I say, I am lucky to be here. I will never accept that children would be discriminated against for no other reason than their gender, I will fight against this. We are all equal and together we can make a big difference impacting our world. Gender based discrimination has to stop in our societies.
I will never forget a speech that was delivered by the Peace School founder, Papa Amani, four years ago at the beginning of a new school year, when he talked about the importance of education for girls. He said, “Girls who receive an education are less likely to marry young and more likely to lead healthy, productive lives. They earn higher incomes, participate in the decisions that most affect them, and build better futures for themselves and their families. Girls' education strengthens economies and reduces inequality.”
That speech that day made me like the Peace School because there was such a focus on girls and their right to education and its benefits. The Peace School is the best!
NZIGIRE PASCALINE
Attending the Congo Peace School is the most remarkable experience I have ever had in my life. Since I was born, I had never heard someone tell me that women and men are equal; the first time was when I started attending the Peace School. When I see how the elementary school principal leads, I feel happy and proud to be in a school where gender equality is at the center. Attending the Peace School has changed my mind and my whole life because I see a big difference between our school and other schools around.
I am dreaming of becoming a lawyer, to be able to support all the many women and girls who are not free to enjoy their rights simply because of they who they are. I want to create a service to carry the voices of women and girls who are facing gender-based discrimination issues every day.
JEANINE RUTAGAYA (4th Grade Elementary School Teacher)
Working at the Peace School for the past four years has been the most interesting time of my life ever; it has changed how I look at myself, at other women around me, and in the world. Before coming to the Peace School, I was working as an elementary school teacher in other schools where I had never been given the opportunity to discover the potential I have as a woman. Our working environment here at the Peace School protects the rights of women. I very much like the water, sanitation and hygiene environment here, it protects women’s privacy as opposed to the situation in other schools.
Working here has changed my life, we are respected and given equal chances. I had never been exposed to information about the issue of gender-based violence before. As a mother of four children, two daughters and two sons, based on our approach here promoting gender equality, my daughters will be given the same chance as my sons, no discrimination will be tolerated. I am proud of myself in my teaching career development. The Peace School is my first experience having a woman as school principal, it means a lot for me, it encourages me, it means, one day I can hold that decision-making position as well.
Before, I had never had any training or education sessions on gender equality and women’s empowerment, but those happen regularly at the Peace School and that has changed my perception about women and their rights. I am committed to stand up and promote gender equality in my family, at school, and in my community.
I know that as teachers we have an important role to play as we are raising and educating a new generation of girls and boys who will change our world.
I am very optimistic about our future as women and when I look at how the Peace School is engaged in promoting gender equality, I feel very encouraged. One question remains which I ask myself constantly: about how to change the paradigm and erase the scars that a negative generational culture has left on our society since we still have people at community levels who look at women as inferior human beings. The huge need is to instill the culture of gender equality as a right.
(All four high school juniors who shared how they're writing their own stories.)
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