“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” ― Anne Frank
We hope that this busy holiday season you've had time to spend some slow hours embracing the darker winter days, lighting candles in the celebration of Hanukkah, Christmas, or soon, Kwanzaa.
As we celebrated the winter solstice and now look to lengthening days of light in the northern hemisphere, it's a good time to pause to reflect on what this year has gifted us. Living near the equator, our Congolese partners in South Kivu, DRC don't experience the change of light and length in their days, but they have seen great change in the community of Mumosho because of your commitment to equality and peace through education and entrepreneur training.
From Amani, our founding director and visionary leader:
With the support of you, our sustaining monthly donors, our partnership with Jewish World Watch, and the Guardian Donors through the Dillon Henry Foundation, we opened the second year of the Congo Peace School on the 3rd of September, 2019 to 280 students in primary classes 1-4 and secondary 1-3, with 44 preschool students in two different classes thanks to the Pedagogical Institute of Los Angeles, making a total of 324 students at the school.
Amani with some of the elementary school students.
We began the year with a one-week training for both the returning staff and newly hired staff. Focusing on the pillars of the Congo Peace School and what makes the project more than just a school, the training approach is participatory and seeks to ensure the teachers and the school support staff grasp clear practical knowledge on the following topics which are at the same time the pillars of the Congo Peace School, based on the philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.
The Congo Peace School teachers and staff engage in the journey to become practitioners of equality, respect, justice, grace, courage, caring, appreciation, simplicity, humility, and integrity, to name just a few. We covered the 64 ways to practice active nonviolence and the approach and methodology was to learn from one another. The first-year staff took the opportunity to teach new staff what they learned last year and this was one of the most exciting parts of the training.
One of the staff shared her experiences: Shukuru Bahizire said, "I am blessed to be part of the Congo Peace School family. This is the first time I am exposed to the content of nonviolence, transformational leadership, entrepreneurship and mental health in school settings. I am happy to learn and practice, I like the training approach [in which] we are discussing issues, we are given the opportunity to talk and speak our mind. However I realize it will take us time to really live a nonviolent life but if we succeed, our school will become a great source of inspiration to the others and it will spread and change is possible."
Shukuru Bahizire
As we raise funds and look for grants to develop the a community farm and animal husbandry program at the school, in order to supplement our school meals program with sustainably grown food, Amani began the project with a nursery filled with cabbages, red onions, carrots, and cucumber. As it’s community permaculture, the plants will be taken from the nurseries to be distributed among community members, with some to be grown on the school farm. In three months, we will be able to harvest if the rains don’t destroy the plants. The harvest depends on how the rains are, but we are expecting more than 500kg of cabbages on the school farm. (That translates to approximately 1,100 lbs of cabbage.)
In the above photo, agronomist Mukengere is teaching permaculture to community members near the Congo Peace School.
We are grateful for your work and support of this community in Mumosho, and Amani's visionary leadership and personal sacrifice. It is a model for the world of working in community to care for each other and meet the needs of individuals as a whole.
In the spring of 2019, 42 more women started small businesses, thanks to our family of donors who provided a year of free education for girls and women to learn the skill and trade of sewing, and to Pour Les Femmes for the grant to graduate the students with a machine and the tools necessary to launch their businesses and co-ops. You are part of changing lives and creating greater equality, education, and peace in Congo!
How can you continue to help us grow and deepen this life-changing work?
Create a personal post on social media and tag @actionkivu, sharing the impact of Amani’s work and message. Check out our blog for stories to share or re-post stories from our Instagram / Facebook feeds.
Make a year-end gift! https://www.actionkivu.org/donate
Share with others how a donation to Action Kivu will support a powerful vision for peace, connection, and equality by sharing our website: https://www.actionkivu.org/
Become a sustaining member with a monthly donation via https://www.patreon.com/congopeaceschool or https://www.actionkivu.org/. and receive monthly updates from Congo!
We are grateful for the candle you've lit with your commitment to peace and equality. Thank you. Wishing you the happiest of holidays!