Breaking the cycle of violence

Education rooted in equality and peace: the Congo Peace School is a one-of-a-kind preschool, primary and secondary school that provides quality education integrated with nonviolence principles derived from the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, based on the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Located in Mumosho, an area of villages just over 20 kilometers from Bukavu in South Kivu, the school serves vulnerable children and orphans, preparing them for constructive, peaceful leadership to influence the future of their nation, and our world.

The Congo Peace School Advantage

The school’s target population includes orphaned and abandoned youth, those living in extreme poverty, and former victims of child labor, with equal numbers of boys and girls enrolled each year, to ensure the male population intrinsically understands equality. Students are selected based on need, not on performance, and after experiencing the holistic community-based model of trauma-informed care, dedicated teachers, and daily meals, the students out-perform their peers in surrounding schools on the national exams required to matriculate from 6th grade primary to secondary school, and to graduate 12th grade.

The school’s policies, curriculum, and campus include:

• providing the standard Congolese school curriculum: reading, writing, mathematics, science, and arts

• class sizes that are limited to 40 — versus the typical 75-80 — providing better one-on-one attention

• a solar-powered computer lab training students on word processing and internet skills

• providing childhood trauma identification and support through trained staff and a counselor

• regenerative farming training and food security education

• preschool at the Congo Peace School: “The Nest” comprises three preschool classes supported and funded by Nest Global and provides for Congolese children the opportunities to develop their own positive voices with which they can eventually shape a just and civil nation

• teaching nonviolent dispute resolution

• providing two nutritious meals per day for children who often don’t have enough to eat at home

• access to a library of over 3,000 books

• team sports with a soccer field and basketball court

• clean water, flush toilets and sinks to prevent spread of communicable diseases, free uniforms and school supplies, and feminine hygiene products for female students.

Read our updates here, and download the Congo Peace School deck/booklet and one-sheet for more information, stories, and photos, and to learn how you can invest in this groundbreaking school.

In partnership with The Dillon Henry Foundation, with major support over the years from Bill & Annie Macomber, the DHF Guardian Donors, Jewish World Watch, the Judy Ann Bork Charitable Trust, Nest Global, Pour Les Femmes, and all of Action Kivu’s family of donors.