Meet Agisha! 9 years old, Agisha's favorite subject last year at Burhembo Elementary School was math. He walks 45 minutes to school, and then back home, where he lives with his grandparents and two sisters. At home, he helps his grandparents by washing dishes, sweeping the house, and drawing water. "If we have food, I eat," he tells Christian, Action Kivu's Education Assistance Director.Agisha is happy to be in school, as he thinks studies are very important in life. His hero is Amani Matabaro, the visionary leader behind all that Action Kivu does in Congo. He wants people in the U.S. to know that Congo is a big country, with many conflicts.
Agisha is excited to start grade 3 of elementary school this year, pursuing his dream of being a pastor.
When you invest in the job-training, education, food security and health services that Action Kivu provides in Congo, you change the lives of kids like Agisha, giving their families the means to provide food and education that are the fuel for the kids to flourish, mentally, physically, emotionally!
Learn more!Amani's Vision: Together We Will Leave a Legacy of Integrity [Video]To Protect One Protects Many: Action Kivu's HIV/AIDS Education & TestingSewing Workshop Alumnus Francine: Entrepreneur for EqualityAbout CongoClass of 2017 Sewing Workshop Student Bahati on Finding CourageStart with Love: Sewing Student Iragi on Raising Up Good Leaders
Cecile Stops (Foot) Traffic on the Farm: Don't Ignore Me!
Don't ignore me, Cecile called out as our executive director picked her way across the farm in a valley of eastern Congo, speaking to women about their lives, what it means to grow food to feed their families and to sell at the market."This is a new experience," Cecile, a mother of five, said. "To have my own plot of land. To grow and sell vegetables to help my children, to pay for their school fees."
Hear their voices — the women of Congo will not be ignored. They are changing their lives, and the lives of their kids and communities! Invest in the movement today. Make it monthly - every dollar makes a difference and adds UP! $175 / month pays the salary of our agronomist, a university student studying organic farming, and sharing his education with over 80 women in Mumosho.
As a Girl: Furaha's Girl Power Goals for Education
13 years old, Furaha just finished grade 3 of elementary school. She walks about a half hour from school to home, where she lives with her grandparents and her two sisters and three brothers. After school, she helps out at home with the dishes, drawing water, and collecting firewood for cooking when they have food.Furaha loves going to school: “As a girl, I want to be educated and help my family and country.” Like many of her classmates, her passion is for Congo to be a place of peace. Her hero is Amani, our visionary leader and community builder, whose name means peace.When Furaha finishes school, she’d like to be an elementary school principal.
Invest in the future of peace and education through Action Kivu's community-based programs today!
Cikwanine's Power for a Career in Congo: Education
At 16, Cikwanine just completed grade 2 of secondary school. With four more grades to complete, Cikwanine is excited to start back to school this September. It is common for girls to be a few years behind the normal age for a grade in Congo, where sexism and extreme poverty both play parts in keeping girls out of school. Thanks to the support of Action Kivu partners, that's not stopping Cikwanine.Cikwanine wants to be a member of the Parliament, to positively influence the politics of her country.
Invest in a brighter future for Cikwanine and us all! We are all connected. Consider becoming a monthly donor to change the lives of the kids of Congo.
A Boy and His Goat: Walking in Congo
Action Kivu's My Goat is Your Goat program not only gives families an animal that provides income and good standing in the community, it creates paths for conversation and community building between people of different tribes.Read more here!
- A Goat's Good Standing: Creating Community in Congo, one Goat at a Time
- Meet Nshokano and His Goat + How to Tell the Difference Between a Goat and a Sheep
- See the pay-it-forward model in action: Namwezi to Antoinette - My Goat is Your Goat
Sewing Student Riziki Defines The Good Life [Congo]
What is the good life? In Mumosho, Congo, Riziki, a student in Action Kivu’s Sewing Workshop, takes a break from the class to share her story. The front room of the community center is quiet, the sound of the pedaled sewing machines bleeding in from upstairs as the class continues without Riziki. She is 22, and answers questions in Mashi and Swahili, looking at Amani, who translates.
My first day at the Sewing Workshop was a bad day for me, Amani translates Riziki's words into English, then laughs, and in Mashi, quickly rattles off his question – why was it bad? Riziki replies: "I didn’t know anybody." She felt alone. One of seven children, she was forced to quit elementary school in 3rd grade because her family couldn’t afford the school fees (approximately seven U.S. dollars each month), and wasn’t used to the strict tone of the sewing teacher. She sounded rude to Riziki’s untrained ear.Despite a bad first day, she started feeling connected quickly, becoming familiar with her fellow students, learning new skills. Before coming to the Sewing Workshop, she had worked on people’s farms, back-breaking work in Congo that pays around one dollar for a day of labor.Now, she says, I am gaining confidence. Polepole (slowly) I am becoming a strong woman. She is building her clientele: people are bringing me fabric to make them things.Riziki leans back into the armchair, relaxing. I had to quit school because of lack of funds, she says. Pursuing an education was a big wish of mine, but it didn’t happen. I wanted to finish school, to live a good life.What defines the good life? Assuming she will answer as an American might: a house, nice clothes, maybe even a car?Because I am a girl, she says, a good life is to meet my basic needs: soap, shoes, clothes. When I am a mother, married, it will be to feed myself, feed my family. I don’t want to live like my mother lives. A widow, she works on her own farm, and then goes to work on other people’s farms. My brother travels to mining sites, and sends money back to their family.How far are we all from the good life? Those of us whose minds have been trained to equate it with things on one end of the spectrum, and those who have yet to know the pride that comes with feeding their kids on a regular basis, of being able to send them to school in hopes that they, too, will have access to the good life.Learn how your donation to Action Kivu is an investment in creating the good life for girls and women like Riziki, giving them the tools to feed their families, send their children to school, pay for medical care - helping to break the cycle of poverty.
- Celebrating Interdependence: A Sewing Co-Op Created by Marijane, Chanceline, and Martine
- Sewing Workshop Alumnus Francine: Entrepreneur for Equality
- Sewing Workshop Alumnus Mwamini on Sisterhood
- Class of 2017 Sewing Workshop Student Bahati on Finding Courage
- Start with Love: Sewing Student Iragi on Raising Up Good Leaders
Ex-combatants, Pigs, Pedagogy, and Peace
In the midst of the ongoing conflict in Congo, where armed militias continue to terrorize communities, the UN and NGOs continue to work toward peace through the process of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants.According to the UN website, DDR supports ex-combatants to become active participants in the peace process through:
- removing weapons from the hands of combatants;
- taking the combatants out of military structures;
- integrating combatants socially and economically into society.
As we focus on the needs of the oppressed, the women and girls denied an education and most often the victims of sexual and domestic violence, we also see the need to educate and bring into community the men of the villages, especially ex-combatants, to break the cycle of violence and provide pathways to peace.Seeing the need for the ex-combatants to find daily work to feel connected to their neighbors and to be contributing members in their community spurred our visionary leader Amani to find community-based solutions. The answer was pigs. Pigs and pedagogy. Purchasing 7 pigs, Amani hired two ex-combatants to care for the pigs around the clock, ensuring their health and safety. Our agronomist Mukengere helped build the shelter, and trains the men about breeding the animals, and their relationship to the farm, how to grow organic food and raise fish.The goal is to grow our demonstration farm, which is currently home to over 80 women learning the latest organic farming skills as they farm and harvest their own plot of land to include an education for more ex-combatants, to extend pathways to true integration and peace throughout the area. Pigs provide poop for the organic fertilizer for the women to use on our shared farm, as well as help sustain the algae and greens that feed the fish in the ponds on the farm, which are harvested for food and to sell at the market.As the pigs give birth, the men can sell their offspring to earn their own income, creating a cycle of sustainability. This week, we learned that one mama pig gave birth! Welcome to the world six baby piglets. The project is off to a great start.
See photos and learn more about the farm:
- Why Mapendo and Faida share a plot of farmland
- Meet Beatrice Ntankwinja – mother of five, grandmother of one, proud farmer feeding her family
- Seeds of Hope: Planting Cabbage and Peace
Connect to the people of Congo through this life-transforming work here. Every dollar makes a difference, and a monthly donation provides the resources for us to plan for the future - a brighter future for us all!
Bukuze at 12: Student, Peacemaker, Future French Teacher
12 years old, Bukuze is looking forward to her last year in elementary school this fall before she starts high school in 2018. She loves learning French, and doesn't mind the 45 minute walk to school from where she lives with her uncle's family, because she is determined to be a teacher.Bukuze knows about the U.S. because of the good people here who are investing in her education, and wants the people of the U.S. and the world to know that Congo needs peace, not war. 
To Protect One Protects Many: Action Kivu's HIV/AIDS Education & Testing [Photos]
Students line up to have their finger pricked, their blood drawn, and their HIV test taken to a clinic. Nurse Jeanine is matter of fact as she has the high school students role-play the situations that might lead to contracting HIV/AIDS, how to prevent its spread, and what it means to live with the disease. Her notebook and pamphlets use illustrations to reach those who cannot read or write.Jeanine has seen a lot of changes in the two years of Action Kivu's HIV/AIDS education and testing campaign. "At the beginning, people were afraid to be tested. Now, with education, people show up and ask to be tested," she says. The campaign is in its second year, and even churches announce meetings for testing and education. But religion still proves a problem, as the church in Congo does not condone the use of condoms, and yet will excommunicate a pregnant woman who has no husband. Amani, Action Kivu's founding director, speaks up: The answer is to raise awareness, to educate the church leaders as well.All Together Against HIV/AIDS educates the youth in this corner of eastern Congo, who then take their knowledge back to their schools, their families, their churches, to be the educators. "The work makes me happy!" Nurse Jeanine says as she pricks the finger of another student. "To protect one person protects many people."
In just two years, we've tested over 1000 students and community members. One box of 100 test determiners costs $40, one box of lancets costs $40. The challenge is safe transportation to rural areas (Action Kivu does not have a 4x4) and the need is great. To invest in this life-saving work, donate today!
Scroll down through the photos to see the winces, grimaces, and grins of a day of testing and education.
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Nzigire Translated: What Does She Want?
"I am the last born child," Nzigire says. She is shy, and looks at her hands while her words are translated into English. She is only 17, still a young girl, and warms up quickly, gaining confidence as she answers questions about her life. "My mother wanted another girl," she says, explaining her name, "so she named me 'I want.' Nzigire."At 17, Nzigire has only an elementary school education. Her family unable to afford to send her to secondary school, she was excited to join Action Kivu's Sewing Workshop to be able to earn her own income, and begin to plan for her future. The first day was nerve-wracking, she says. "I didn't know anyone, but it felt so good to learn to work the pedal on the machine. In one week, I was making friends."What does Nzigire want? Not only to graduate with a sewing machine to open her own business, but, "I want more people in Congo to lead with the heart of the people she sees through Action Kivu. They have helped so many people."To invest in the future of girls and women like Nzigire, click here!