March at the Congo Peace School: Unbroken Web of Life

“Helped are those who love the entire cosmos rather than their own tiny country, city, or farm, for to them will be shown the unbroken web of life and the meaning of infinity.” ― Alice Walker (excerpt from The Gospel According to Shug)

This unbroken web of life reveals itself as we connect with the communities in Congo. We needed all of March's 31 days for everything that transpired at the Congo Peace School!

• UNDER CONSTRUCTION

We’re excited to share the news that we are adding another building to the campus to house the pre-school classes, including a new class, making three classes of young children who will be provided the space and encouragement to foster play and curiosity.

Thanks to our CPS partner Dillon Henry Foundation’s Harriet Zaretsky for a generous gift, and her relationship with Susan Saltz, Anita Saltz and the Gary Saltz Foundation, we were granted the funding to build the three-classroom building, with an additional space for the school counselor to meet with students privately. Our pre-school partner PILA Global has committed to outfitting the third classroom and raising the funds for the teachers in addition to the current two classes!

Previously, with two pre-school classes of age 4/5 and 5/6 year olds, those 22 older students would graduate into the first grade, joined by 18 students who had not been in the program our partner PILA Global calls The Nest (the CPS Nests being a part of their worldwide education outreach).

The primary school’s first grade teacher reported that there is a significant difference in the students who experienced pre-school: greater capacity for curiosity, asking questions with more confidence than their peers.

Thus, moving forward, with one 4/5 year old class, and two 5/6 year old classes, the first grade class will consist of students who have all benefited from this unique pre-school program.

(Photo courtesy PILAGLOBAL.ORG)

• BOOKS

Books for Congo, the non-profit that launched the Congo Peace School and Community Library, donated 1900 more books, expanding the library to over 3,000 that surround the computer lab tables.

The students plan to start a book club of sorts, a monthly Club of Readers who come together to share what they read, whether a novel or scientific study, and what they learned from it. We look forward to sharing some of those reviews with all of you.

Amani shared that watching the students unload and explore the books was a healing day for him. He and the staff are looking to see how reading contributes to empathy, one of the pillars of the Congo Peace School.

• PLAY

Also hanging in the auditorium are checkerboards for the students to play on during breaks and after school.

• FARM

The CPS Community Farm welcomed a new member, a beautiful pregnant cow.  As we’ve noted in previous posts, the Community Farm provides both an educational space and professional platform for women and students to learn and put into practice organic, aquaponic techniques and animal husbandry, and the cows, along with providing milk for the malnourished students, also provide poop for the compost.

• WOMEN MAKING HISTORY MONTH

In March, we celebrated Women's History Month, but in Congo, we celebrate women making history every day. Action Kivu has worked with Nurse Jeanine over the years, through hiring her for the HIV/AIDS testing and education that she continues to do, to staffing her as the CPS nurse to care for the students (seen here in her office at the school).

For women’s history month, Nurse Jeanine shared, “The Congo peace school is a model to teach about equality between men and women. We need to focus on this new generation giving education to all the children and Congo peace school is preaching by example: 52% girls and 48% boys.”

• HUMANITARIAN

And last but certainly not least, we celebrate that Amani Matabaro, our Founding Director and the visionary behind the Congo Peace School, was selected as one of 35 participants (from 300 applicants) to take the National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership. From the site: “Concern Worldwide, in consortium with International Medical Corps (IMC) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and with technical support from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health developed the National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership (NNPHL). The program, funded by the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and launched in 2016, offers dynamic and relevant training opportunities that help learners build their skills, knowledge, and confidence to take on leadership responsibilities in humanitarian organizations in order to improve the delivery of services to those in need of humanitarian assistance.”

Amani shares that this training built upon his 2010 HELP (Health Emergencies in Large Populations) training from Johns Hopkins University, and was an incredible month of reading and connecting with the trainers and other participants for intensive learning and sharing. The only Congolese participant, Amani says some of the key takeaways for him, that he will now use in leadership training in the community and with CPS staff:

The difference between authority and leadership:
Authority gives direction - Go do it.
Leadership points to a problem and says - Let’s do it.

Amani looks forward to continuing to mobilize people, to lead with a trauma lens, and practice “the more you observe, the better you understand.” It fits with his training and practice from the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, to always be empathetic, nonjudgmental.

It is education for life, healing, and resilience, said Amani. He shared, “I like the sentence, ‘When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.’”

The Democratic Republic of Congo is often looked at as beyond hope – a place of violence against women, of warring militias. While (as in many places) there are many deep-rooted problems that stem from violence, from colonization to exploitation, Congo is a country of visionaries, of artists, of peace-builders, of hope.

Through your contribution in support of education rooted in peace and equality, you are changing the way the world looks at Congo.

Thank you for your giving and connection to the people of Congo, and please share these stories that inspire you that we are in an unbroken web of life.

The impact of one word: February update from the Congo Peace School (and farm)

We're excited to share an update from February at the Congo Peace School. This month, we focused on what the students have learned about one of the core tenets of the school's philosophy.

“Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things... But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.” ― Helen Keller, Optimism

At the Congo Peace School, an 8-letter word fell into the hands, the minds, the lives of the students, staff, and teachers. A word that, based on what some of the students share with us below, caused their hearts to open to new ways of living. That word? EQUALITY.

Equality is the basis of Amani Matabaro's vision for his community-led work in Congo. It is the basis in ensuring the same number of girls (or more) attend the school as do boys. It is the foundation in training the teachers and staff that the Congo Peace School is different from other schools in the region: teachers engage with their students as equals; there is no corporal punishment, as there is in other schools. Students engage with each other as equals, sharing ideas, doing games and practices to physically learn what it is to stand eye to eye, to walk in their classmates' shoes.

And as we learned from these students this February, the idea of equality is taking hold, and changing not only their own lives, but their families and communities. As Busime summed it up: Equality means peace!

Busime Mushiayuma is 16 years old and a 4th grade secondary school student. Asked about the word, she responded: "Equality is something I had never been told before I came to the Congo Peace School. It’s here where I heard for the first time that all human beings are equal and free. It always makes me feel happy to be in the same school where we, the girls and boys, are equal. I wish all the community was educated this way. Equality for me means no discrimination between boys and girls, men and women. If the leaders of our country understand and apply equality, things will be alright! Equality means peace!"

Mushagalusa Mushamuka: "I am 14 years old, and I am a second grade student in secondary school. The Congo Peace School was the first place I heard about the importance of the word equality, it's just the only way to make everyone's rights respected. Equality means people are equal, that's as important as the Gospel they preach every Sunday."

Mutalegwa Kasesa: "I am 18 years old and I am a third grade student in secondary level. Being 18 and only in third grade secondary means I was the victim of discrimination: I should be graduating from secondary school by now, but for no other reason than me being a girl, I was not given the same chance as my brothers. Equality must be applied in all aspects of our lives."

"Equality is an important word for me, it's living by respecting the other, it's always taking the time to put yourself in the place of the other. And if everyone lives by practicing equality, the world will be peaceful. I like equality at school, at home, and in the community but many people still need to understand." -Ashuza Buhendwa, 16 years old, 3rd grade of secondary school.

Nkombera Cigarhilirwa is in 2nd grade of secondary school. "Equality is not about the age, size or height, it's about looking at one another the same way you'd want people to look at you. Equality for me also means the respect of the rights of others. We need to live equality here at school, at home and in our everyday life. Many things need to change in our society before we confirm equality has been put into practice. I have come to understand and know that what men do, women can do as well. Discrimination has to stop and that's equality."

We also welcomed a new calf to the organic Community Farm this February! Pictured here nursing from his mama, as he grows, grazing in the field and eating grass, he plays an important part in the community farm. (Hint: cow poop!)

The Community Farm provides both an educational space and professional platform for women and students to learn and put into practice organic, aquaponic techniques and animal husbandry.

Compost & Regeneration: With cows, pigs, goats, rabbits, and three fish ponds, Action Kivu's visionary leader Amani and agronomist Mukengere utilize some of the latest techniques in aquaponics, composting the waste from the animals to feed the fish.

Aquaponics: The nutrient rich water from the tilapia ponds is used to water the crops.

Harvest & Sustainability: At harvest, the crops feed the women's families, are sold at the market for income, and help the Congo Peace School provide organic, healthy meals to the students there.

*The students and staff continue to wear masks, wash hands, and follow all the protocols to avoid transmission of the Coronavirus - the Mumosho region continues to stay outbreak free, and they continue to be vigilant.*

Thank you for your commitment to this transformational work. We are all connected, and what lifts up and provides greater equality and justice for the people of Congo creates a more equal, just world for us all.

Invest in greater equality here!

Recyc Trike + Rice Harvest + Students Share: Nonviolence and Caring for the Earth

“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.”  ― Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House

As I spoke with Amani this week to learn the latest that was happening in his corner of Congo, our discussion about the regenerative, sustainable cycle of every project he oversees led to him sharing how the Congo Peace School students are understanding their place in the greater web of humanity, and how their actions matter, and how we are all connected.

"The earth is everything," Nancy Baderha responded when asked what she has learned at the Congo Peace School about caring for the planet. "Everything we eat comes from there. There is so much erosion washing homes out in Bukavu, in Uvira, every time it rains because of plastic waste everywhere. We must get rid of plastic waste and plant trees, and that will bring the birds and bees back. If our earth is healthy, we will be healthy too, as well as the people around the world." –Nancy Baderha, 13 years old, 7th grade Peace Ambassador

"I am very happy to be learning that no matter where I am, I need to protect the planet's environment. I never knew that planting trees brings back the birds. Before coming to the Congo Peace School, I never knew how dangerous plastic waste is, I am determined not to litter my school and community with plastic waste." –Destin Bahati, 14 years old, 7th grade Peace Ambassador

"If nothing is done in Congo, people in Australia, people in India are going to be affected. And our children are understanding this. We are all in this, and it has to be a struggle, a global struggle." This minute-long video is a glimpse of the inspiration and education one receives when sharing time with Amani. 

Amani also shared that ABFEC was selected to receive a grant from FHI 360, providing this recycle tricycle and other tools for a youth-led recycling program. Led by Action Kivu’s organic agronomist, Mukengere, this shows just one more way that the people and projects that you support through your gifts are the leaders of their community!

We are also excited to share that the rice harvest took place this month. You might recall that planting rice was the community’s answer to the problem of overly wet land at the farm. Part of the rice harvest will supplement the Congo Peace School meal plan, helping to make it more sustainable and local! Part of the harvest goes to reinvest in the agriculture as well as pay the workers.

Amani shared these photos and the report: “Nothing is lost: we grow rice to feed the students after husking it with a mill, the rice bran is used to feed the pigs and the grass to feed the cows. You can see a very high sense of community involvement.”

As we continue to explore and know the world and what is good for it, and thus for us, we recognize our deep connection to it and to each other. Without your commitment and support, we couldn't be connected in such a way to the people of Congo and students at the Congo Peace School, young Peace Ambassadors who are now educating their families and communities, creating a growing circle of people practicing peace, nonviolence, and equality.

We are grateful for our major gifts donors, our Congo Peace School partner the Dillon Henry Foundation, our pre school Nest partner PILA, and our monthly sustaining donors! None of this would be possible without you - you are making a lasting difference in the world.

If you’re inspired to join this movement and commit to a monthly gift, please consider $60 / month - this covers the cost of one student attending the Congo Peace School for one year, including school uniforms, daily meals, staff trained in a unique nonviolence curriculum and approach, and access to a school library and computer lab as well as agricultural training. If you can’t commit to $60 / month or a one-time $700 gift, start a Peace School Pod with other friends! Four people giving $15 / month or six people donating $10 / month and your pod has sent a student to this special school, and invested in a brighter future for us all! Sign up here.

Thank you for being a part of this journey for greater peace and equality through education with us!

Rebecca Snavely
Executive Director, Action Kivu

Giving Tuesday: Photos to post, gratitude to give

This Giving Tuesday, we're focusing our attention on gratitude and growth! We are grateful for you, our Action Kivu family across the globe, and for our partner Pour Les Femmes, Robin Wright's and Karen Fowler's fashion brand that focuses people's attention on our connection to Congo.

Please join Pour Les Femmes and Action Kivu this Giving Tuesday (Dec 1), as we invite you to:

1. Donate $5 or more ($15 = 1 Congo Peace School uniform, and provides work for Action Kivu's Sewing Workshop alumni) actionkivu.org

2. Email or post on social media a list of 5 things you are grateful for

3. Tag 5 other people to do the same!

With your action in posting and sharing on Giving Tuesday, we will grow our family on this day, as newcomers learn how their gifts to Action Kivu invest in education and sustainable peace through the power of the people of Congo.

Please share these photos, and post along with your video or list of what you're grateful for on Giving Tuesday! Tag @actionkivu and @pourlesfemmesofficial in social media posts.

If you're looking to make your year-end donation, please consider a $60 / month sustaining gift or $700 one-time donation to cover the costs of one student attending the Congo Peace School, with supplies, meals, an education rooted in the principles of nonviolence, access to a library of books, a computer lab, agricultural training, as well as a school nurse and counselor.

Gratitude, Peace School, and Preschool in Congo

This month in the U.S. with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, many of us focus our attention on gratitude. In a tumultuous year with so much uncertainty and grief, gratitude can seem difficult, but is often the very thing to help us heal and process.

In this update from the Congo Peace School, we’re holding gratitude for you, our partners in this exciting adventure, the teachers at the preschool, and the Pedagogical Institute of Los Angeles (PILA), our partner who created and support The Nest at the Congo Peace School, the two preschool classes and classrooms that better prepare students to enter first grade. There are very few preschool classes in eastern Congo, and none that are stocked with the tools, experiences, and play items that the PILA team outfitted these classrooms with when they traveled to Congo in May of 2019. The Nest classrooms also provide three teachers per class, so the 22 and 26 children in each classroom receive plenty of attention.

Photo Credit: PILA, 2019

As we noted in the last update, children model the behavior they see in adults, so it is critical that the teachers and staff at the Congo Peace School have been well-trained in and ingested the principles of peace and nonviolence, so that they are a guiding example for the students.

Meet Barhalibirhu Mutongo Theresite, whose story offers the hope of perseverance and dedication.

A local to Mumosho (home of the Congo Peace School), Barhalibirhu moved away in secondary school, to live with her cousin who was able to pay her school fees. One year before she was to graduate, however, Barhalibirhu, having moved to Bukavu, ran out of money for school, and married instead of graduating.

"After several years of participation in women’s empowerment sessions, I decided to go back to school to complete my secondary school education," Barhalibirhu says. "It was not easy but I had the encouragement of my husband and my children. Since childhood I always felt the passion to work with children. In addition, I did not want to remain a parasite, economically speaking. I wanted to get a job, but fulfilling my dream was not an easy task. I am married and the mother of 11 children, 5 daughters and 6 sons, and I am blessed to be the grandmother of several grandchildren.

"I felt I had a call to work with children, I love children and I feel blessed to be a preschool teacher at the CongoPeace School. I feel I am a mother for our 22 beautiful amazing children we have.

"From teaching and facilitating the learning process for children since September of 2019, I’ve learned that children are amazing creators when you look at what they are accomplishing at the end of every day. I have understood that every child can succeed if they’re encouraged, loved, and given a chance. And from the trainings I learned so much and many things at a time: that children should not be asked to memorize theories and facts but let them grow their spirit of curiosity, take initiative. They solve problems, ask questions, tell stories, explain what they have built. They build extraordinary things like railway stations, houses, fences on their own, tell intelligent and wildly imaginative stories. Children have high levels of creative storytelling.

“There have been tremendous changes at different levels in the children’s everyday lives. Their sense of imagination, freedom, creativity, curiosity, is going up and up every single day. Children are taking leadership, they are no longer shy!"

Photo Credit: PILA, 2019

In other news, a baby girl calf was born at the Congo Peace School farm! Learn how the animals are a part of the sustainable, organic teaching farm at the Action Kivu site.

Your investment in the Congo Peace School has a ripple effect into the community: the student uniforms and cloth masks are made by women who were trained in Action Kivu’s Entrepreneurial Program, giving work to those who will then invest in the future of their children and the greater community!

COVID-19 update, from our visionary leader and partner Amani Matabaro: "The Congo Peace School (CPS) fully reopened on the 12th of October. It has been a great joy for the student population and the entire CPS beloved community. The COVID-19 protocol in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and especially in school settings is, theoretically, that everybody must wear a mask, have their temperatures taken before entering school, wash their hands with soap or chlorinated water, and if there is a suspicious case with high temperature or showing other COVID-19 symptoms, that student or staff member should be isolated in a separate room until medical staff determines what the issue is. Unlike so many schools in Congo, there is running water at the Congo Peace School and students are able to wash their hands. We have two thermo flashes to take temperatures every single school day morning."

It’s a process to adapt to this new world. As you and I might forget our masks when we go out to walk the dog and have to hurry home or create a makeshift one from a scarf, so do some of the students forget their masks at home, and Action Kivu is wiring further funding to purchase more cloth masks that the school can keep on hand for those who forget. Amani reports that after the first two weeks, it is becoming a habit to pack their masks along with school books!

Amani shares that Mabikane Lydie, the school principal for the elementary school, reports that sometimes younger children forget to wash their hands and someone needs to be careful to make sure they really do every time they arrive at the school and after using the bathroom. There is need of constant follow up with the kids to make sure they keep using their masks. At the secondary school level, students are highly aware of the danger of the pandemic and they wear their masks, wash their hands and wait in line until their temperatures are taken at the gate every morning. The CPS staff and teachers are all happy to report that our school remains a COVID-19 free space from the reopening day up to now! Our school nurse has been very careful in following how the situation is unfolding, and is in close contact with a local health clinic in case anything happens.

The school has significantly reduced the number of attendees in the cafeteria and students need to wait to take their meals in small numbers. Priority is given to preschool students, then the elementary students, and lastly the secondary school students. The pandemic is new and dangerous and everyone is being careful in changing behavior to protect themselves and others.

Speaking to different students today, Amani shares upon returning from the school, they report that the pandemic has changed and affected how they live daily: no more handshaking, no hugs, not getting close to one another, not hanging in groups, this is very bad.

We all look forward to getting through this, together. Thank you for your amazing partnership in this!

If you want to join the movement for peace and equality through education, please set up a recurring donation! $60 per month pays for one student to attend the Congo Peace School for one year, complete with books, uniforms, masks, meals, access to a counselor and a nurse, a computer lab and a library! If you can afford $10 / month, find 5 other friends to give at the $10 / month level to create a CPS pod! Sign up at ActionKivu.org/donate or Patreon.com/congopeaceschool.

Math + Masks: Back to School [Congo Peace School]

We opened the doors to Year Three of the Congo Peace School (CPS) on Monday, Oct 12th, with nine grades: 1-5 primary and 1-4 secondary with 40 students per class, totaling 360 students. With the 48 students in the two preschool classes we welcomed 408 students this year! After the government delayed school openings due to the pandemic, our staff did a great deal of work to ensure that each student has clean masks, that the hand-washing stations are in place, and the space is provided for students to socially distance. These are provisions most of the schools in the region are not able to offer, and we can only do so because of your partnership.

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." ― James Baldwin

We realize that sharing the stories of the students is exciting, but it's also important to introduce you to the elders, the teachers and staff, who are the models for the students to observe as students and staff practice together the tenets of peace, nonviolence, and equality.

Meet Cikuru Buhendwa, our new (and first) English teacher! At 35 years old, Cikuru is the father of three, one daughter and two sons. He joins the Congo Peace School family this year with nine years of experience and a degree in English Language Teaching Methodology. When asked why he chose this profession, Cikuru shared, “I’d like to share my experience by contributing to educate Congolese children and youth.”

Congo’s language of education is French, but Amani and the teaching staff are aware of the importance of the students learning English to communicate and be influential in our interconnected world. We’re excited to hear how the students respond to the English courses in the coming months!

Our Community and Congo Peace School Farms continue to flourish and provide not only an education to the students and community in regenerative, organic farming and animal husbandry, but also to provide income. All of the projects that Amani oversees with community leadership also create greater connection in the region, engaging others to join the vision of what Martin Luther King Jr. described as our beloved community.

Xavier and Baba, local fishermen in Mumosho, are two of the experts who helped guide the fishing ponds (that benefit from the compost from the crops and animal feces). Last week, they harvested the three ponds, and caught around 124 kgs (270 lbs) of fish! The fish will be sold in the local market in Mumosho, and part of the profit will go towards buying food for the chickens that will provide eggs for the school meal program, while another part will pay the construction workers who are finalizing the brick fence at Congo Peace School, providing an extra level of security for the students.

Keep an eye on Action Kivu's social media (@actionkivu) for more photos and updates, and this email for the next update, featuring the pre-school students in the classrooms prepared and stocked with amazing learning tools from our partners at The Pedagogical Institute of Los Angeles.

Amani reports that the students were overjoyed to be reunited at their beloved school. We are overjoyed that because of the growing beloved community who supports this important work, we are able to re-open safely and securely.

In gratitude,

Rebecca Snavely
Executive Director, Action Kivu

The Possibility and Power of Nonviolence in our Environment

“If we want a better world, we have to make it ourselves.” – Alice Walker

It is only possible to make that better world together, with you! We are already able to see the growth of seeds planted from the power of our collective effort to invest in peace and equality through education.

With Amani’s vision leading the way, that education encompasses formal training inside the classroom and out, from students’ heads bent over books and notepads to their bodies bent over fertile farmland while learning organic growing techniques to feed themselves and the community, while protecting the land. Peace and nonviolence are not only a part of our interpersonal actions, but how we relate to everything in our world, including how we power our days.

Speaking of power – we have exciting news! The Congo Peace School is getting a 10kW solar installation in the coming months that will power our computer learning lab and the dorms (two boarding houses that will eventually serve as a source of sustainable income for the school). The system will replace costly and carbon emitting diesel, representing another element of a peaceful future for the students of the Congo Peace School.

Amani sees the possibilities and power of nonviolence in every aspect of life. As he noted in his conversation with Robin Wright for Action Kivu’s 10-year anniversary celebration, “the generator is costing us money to kill our environment. It is like violence, violence costs money to destroy the world. Yes, it is like hatred, it costs money to destroy what is around us. So the solar system that we are expected to get is not to make a huge and significant difference. It is going to translate our friendship with our environment.”

Watch that clip here! 

The solar installation donation was made possible as part of Congo Power, an alliance founded by Google with nonprofit partners RESOLVE and GivePower. The solar modules were donated by Silfab, and the system will be installed by the Congolese solar company Nuru.

Amani reports that August was a very busy month, as the extra-long break from school is coming to an end, and the Congo Peace School is gearing up for year three with extra public health protocols to start school in mid-September with grades 1 – 5 primary and grades 1-4 secondary. The boarding house bathrooms will be finished in one week, now that a brick wall has been finished to provide extra security for their eventual residents. Amani and the staff from year two have been training the new teachers on the principles of a curriculum rooted in Martin Luther King’s tenets of peace and nonviolence.

Faraja, a 16 year old student who, thanks to Jewish World Watch’s grant for year two, transferred last fall to the Congo Peace School from a local school in Mumosho, shared what the school and curriculum means in her life:

"When I heard that I would be transferring to the Congo Peace School, I immediately expected a big difference and change in my life. The first day I came to the school, I liked how students are treated equally, with respect. We were given an orientation and I was so happy to hear we are all equal. I really like the bathrooms with running water, which is not the case in all the other schools in the area, the Congo Peace School is the only school with these facilities.

“We are served a light breakfast and lunch at school each and every school day. At the Congo Peace School, students are not beaten by their teachers, and when you have problems, the school nurse takes care of you and there is always someone to talk to who listens to you when you need support. For me, the school is unique and after a year, it has completely changed my life, even though we had interrupted classes because of the pandemic.”

Amani reports that the experiment of growing rice on the community farm is doing well and will be harvested in December, at which point we will know how much of it will help offset the costs for the daily meals. He also shared the harvest of delicious strawberries.

As we witness growth from the fields of food to the expansion of the students’ hopes and understanding of the power they have as ambassadors of peace, we thank you for your partnership. We couldn’t do this without you! And others: please share with your community to help us grow ours. Thank you for being a part of this movement to create a better, more just world.

Regaining a Kind of Paradise: July 2020 update from Action Kivu

“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay “The Danger of the Single Story,” she writes: “The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her Southern relatives who had moved to the North. She introduced them to a book about the Southern life that they had left behind: ‘They sat around, reading the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained.’

“I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.” (from Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing)

You may have heard that the story of Congo is difficult to sum up in a few sentences, paragraphs, or even books, and thus the challenge when trying to grow our Action Kivu family with an elevator pitch of why someone should turn their attention to the people and stories of Congo. Reading this excerpt about rejecting the single story rings true, especially when I think about the stories the people of Congo allow us to share in, to spend a moment in their lives, gaining deeper empathy and connection.

This past month, Amani asked some of the students at the Congo Peace School to share what life has been like for them in July, what they've learned. What book have they read that they liked or would recommend others to read, and why?

Kaliwe Lubunga shared: "I'm 13, and a student in the 2nd grade of secondary at the Congo Peace School. This pandemic has made us lose time which we will never recover in our lives, but praise God we are still healthy without knowing what will happen and when the pandemic will end. July has been a disappointing month for me. I was hoping the pandemic would end before July 2nd, which was the last day of school. But unfortunately, we did not resume the full school system. My dream is the end of the pandemic and to resume school activities.

“But we are lucky being at the Congo Peace School, the only school where we are given an opportunity to read books, learn computer skills, and eat a meal. Right now I'm reading a book about Napoleon Bonaparte as an emperor. I'm learning how he ruled, but I hate wars. I can strongly recommend other people read this book because it is clear about the history of Napoleon. I like learning how his empire attempted to spread religious tolerance."

Munguakonkwa Borauzima is also in the 2nd grade secondary school. At 17 years old, she is older than most students in her class, because she had to drop out for three years due to lack of financial support. "This month of July I learned how to type using a computer, creating a document and saving it in a file. I am so happy and my dream is becoming a reality. I am reading a book about French writing and reading, it is a book with French subjects for 3rd grade in secondary and I am kind of getting ready for 3rd grade, but this pandemic is a huge obstacle. I am already behind and the pandemic is making things worse because it is not ending. People who want to learn French, I can recommend this book! I like our school and community library."

The news from late July is that the DRC government has decided to open schools in the fall. The Congo Peace School is better situated than almost any in the region to do so in a safe way: with running water and large classrooms with limited numbers of students, they will socially distance, and continue the ongoing health education about hand washing. The school will install additional hand washing stations at the gate’s entrance, and we are purchasing several ThermoFlash thermometers to take each student’s temperature before starting the day. In addition, we have included two masks per student into the year’s budget, so that while one mask is being washed, each student has a clean mask to wear. (If you would like to give above and beyond your current gift to provide for these needs, the masks are $1.50 a piece, with a need of 720 for the current student body.)

The story of the regenerative farm continues to grow! Amani’s friend from his Rotary club had visited the Congo Peace School, and was so impressed by the curriculum and the vision, he promised to gift a cow to the community farm, that has grown from the marsh farm with fishing ponds, pigs and farmland that Action Kivu has supported over the years to include the farm at the Congo Peace School. Working with volunteers, Amani and the community built a beautiful cow barn next to the school’s soccer field. Community members gathered for a clean-up day, making sure there was no litter or plastic in the grass where the cows would graze.

When the time came for the cow to move in, Amani had a surprise – his brother and one other person learned about the gift of the cow, and offered their own gifts. The barn and field nearby is now home to three gorgeous bovines, two of which are pregnant, so in five to six months we will welcome two calves to the family as well!

The cows fit into the regeneration cycle of everything we are doing, Amani reports. Their manure will contribute a great deal in our organic fertilizer wing through compost. The cows will produce milk to provide nutrients for the students who join our school's beloved community with severe malnutrition. The manure of the cows is also very helpful inside the fishing ponds as it helps the water grow rich in nutrients and that water helps irrigate the rice we are growing and other crops around. The school is in addition envisioning to sell milk for sustainability.

(DRC is now the second largest hunger crisis in the world after Yemen. Hunger and conflict fuel one another, with armed conflict and widespread displacement prevailing for the past 25 years and multiple other crises compounding DRC’s humanitarian challenges. Countrywide, 5 million people have fled their homes and lost their means of livelihood. The number of severely food-insecure people stands at 15.6, making access to food a daily struggle for a significant part of the Congolese population. An estimated 3.4 million children are acutely malnourished. - World Food Programme)

Another goal is to teach the student population how the cow is part of who and what we are. We already have local staff including a vet and he will take care of the cows medically whenever needed while our local team will tend the cows while they graze, feeding the cow with the grasses we have been planting, different varieties planted on the edges of the soccer field, not only to feed the cow but also to protect the field against erosion.

The urine of the cows will be used as “beer and wine” for the fish down in the marsh farm. Apparently the fish show enthusiasm in water treated with cow pee. (Filed under “things I never expected to learn when starting a non-profit to partner with communities in Congo.”) The urine is also used as a natural pest control.

The rice referenced above was a response to flooding at the marsh farm, and will contribute to making our Congo Peace School meal program more affordable and sustainable.

Amani reports from Congo: "Masumbuko Cifuruta is a local Congolese expert in growing rice. Born in 1961, he spent much of his life in neighboring Rwanda in a district known for a long history in cultivating rice. Masumbuko is married and the father of eight children. In his twenties he went to Rwanda but came back home during the Rwandan genocide. Masumbuko was very happy to see ABFEC (Amani’s local organization that Action Kivu supports) introducing rice into our integrated farming approach, he came to us and said, 'I am experienced in rice growing and would like to share my experience.' Musumbuki is an inspiration, he will not stand by watching but wants to do something to make a difference in his community. We believe in local solutions to the local problems in Congo!"

The rice harvest is expected at the end of September.

The graduates of the Sewing Workshop are able to earn income from the providing of masks for the community, and soon to sew the uniforms for the Congo Peace School students. 

We’ve shared Francine’s story, from her participation in International Women’s Day:

 to here, seen sewing masks for her community:

 The women who graduated from our Sewing Workshop continue to work together (often with a baby in tow) to earn income as well as serve the community.

We are grateful that you are sharing in the multi-layered stories of community in Congo. Please help us grow our reach, and thus our impact on the ground – share these stories with a friend or colleague, and why it strikes a chord in your own story.

In gratitude,

Rebecca Snavely

Executive Director, Action Kivu

Constructing the Present: June in Congo Update from Action Kivu

“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.)

May 2020: Places of Peace in the Midst of the Pandemic

We could not post an update from the month of May in Congo without acknowledging the global uprising against racism we are engaged in.

From Amani Matabaro, our North Star and Founding Director of Action Kivu:

Real hope is seen in action, and we’re grateful to share good news: we are celebrating 10 Years of Action this July 11th, Action Kivu’s 10th Anniversary! Please register today for a Zoom celebration with a Q&A between Amani and actor / activist Robin Wright.

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues its spread throughout Congo, it is particularly problematic in eastern Congo where our projects are, due to the lack of infrastructure. Amani reports that testing is almost non-existent, as samples have to travel to Kinshasa, DRC’s capital, 2000 kilometers from Bukavu, South Kivu.

In what feels like an ever-frightening world, the Congo Peace School is a beacon of light and hope, thanks to your partnership and investment. The students continue to learn in small groups, honoring social distancing, wearing masks, and practicing prevention in handwashing before entering the school’s auditorium that houses the computer lab and library, and to eat meals in the cafeteria. For many students, this is the only food they will get as the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the local economy.

You may have read the U.N. report today that “about 1,300 civilians have been killed in separate conflicts involving armed groups and government forces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past eight months, with the violence forcing more than half a million people from their homes, the United Nations has said.”

This violence has not affected the region around the Congo Peace School which remains peaceful, but it cannot help but affect every person at the level of fear for basic safety and human rights. This, on top of everything else, is why your partnership with the people of eastern Congo means so much, and provides real pathways in peace-based education, provision of food, and a group of leaders trained in nonviolence and trauma-informed community building.

In these students’ stories, we see how the fear of the uncertainty of the pandemic and critical concern around malnutrition and violence lives side by side with hope because of the school’s programs: 

“This pandemic is a devil and an enemy of everyone,” Aminata shared. “It has completely changed my everyday life, schedules and everything. Our school no longer opens early in the morning at 7:30. We have reading sessions and computer skills in small groups since we cannot gather in groups of more than 20 people. I am missing my school and community lifestyle so much, I wish the school could be re-opened completely. I don’t want to be selfish, I want the rest of my school mates to also access computer skills, share our meals with everyone like the time before the pandemic.

“My auntie and grandmother, with whom I live because I am an orphan, cannot run their small business as they used to do before the pandemic, their little trade was the only source of income we were relying on to get food and clothing in addition to what we get from the Congo Peace School. Everything has completely changed, no more money for my aunt to do her business of selling cooking oil because when the borders between Rwanda and DRC were closed because of the pandemic, she spent her capital of $50 on our basic needs as she could not continue crossing the closed borders. 

“We go to the Congo Peace School for reading, to learn computer skills, and to get a meal. I am badly missing my life before the pandemic. The only new hope I have is because of the education I am getting from the Congo Peace School, I hope my life changes one day." -Aminata

"Life for me during the pandemic is a total nightmare. I never imagined something like this would happen to the world. I am so very afraid when I hear the damages and deaths this pandemic is causing in the world. Our country already had so many other problems and this pandemic comes to paralyze everything. Hunger has become a big issue because of this pandemic. Everything has closed: no church, no school, but I am so lucky to be a student at the Congo Peace School with a unique vision. As you can see, we are learning computer skills in small groups, we have access to books in our school library, we have access to food, which is not the case, I imagine, for other schools in the country.

“Learning computer skills had been a dream which became reality for me and my schoolmates. It means so much and it is something new in my life, I never imagined I would be so lucky to access, to touch a computer in my life but the Congo Peace School makes it a reality for me. We are learning how a computer works, its hard parts and its soft system. Now I know the functions of the keys, I can start a computer, create a file, type a document, and file it. Accessing a computer makes me feel very proud of myself and my school. I will use computer skills as a tool of work and when we have access to internet at school, I will send emails to people." -Samuel

In our work for food security for the students and the community, we have great news to share! Amani reports that “we had an ongoing problem of excess water on part of the Community Farm. Our approach is that every problem has a regenerative, local solution.”

Thus – they planted rice fields! (In the distance of the second photo posted here, you can see the pig sty, that is part of the cycle of regenerative farming through composting at the Community Farm.)

 It is impossible to state how meaningful and life-changing your contribution to this movement of peace and equality through education is.
We truly are in this together.