2021 Matching Grant Drive

As you consider your year-end giving and your connectedness to our brothers and sisters in Congo, please consider giving to Action Kivu! With our Board & Friends Matching Grant Drive, every dollar you donate is doubled up to $10,500, giving us $21,000 to invest in the Congo Peace School and community projects that are daily making a difference in female equality and equity, trauma healing through therapy, education, play, and the arts, peace-informed traditional education, alternative livelihoods / entrepreneurial training, and combating hunger and climate change through regenerative community farming. Donate today!

*For U.S. donors, the expanded tax benefits allow for deductions up to $600 available for cash donations by non-itemizers. Action Kivu is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization (EIN/tax ID number: 27-3537799). Your donations are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

Please share this with family and friends to help us grow our beloved community and meet our matching grant goal by Dec 31st to keep the Congo Peace School and community projects thriving!

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.

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.

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.

April 2020: Action Kivu's work in response to the pandemic

"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  

So much has changed in such a short time. Have you witnessed it? There is a sense of an awakening, in ourselves and our communities, to the underlying connectedness between all of us, and between humanity and the earth that Wendell Berry references in much of his writing, to the "inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny," as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. describes it.  

Today we continue to connect with the people of Congo, as we make an effort to know the world, in all its corners and quirks and groanings and beauty. Much like our mandates here in the U.S. and around the globe, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government has issued safer-at-home mandates, which closed schools in March, restricting public gatherings to no more than 20 people at a time. 

“The Congo Peace School may be temporarily closed, but the mission and vision behind the school cannot be shut down.”

– Amani Matabaro

Amani and the staff have made immediate changes in operations to meet the crisis, making the most of the resources at hand, utilizing the infrastructure that is in place because of years of your support and investment as the foundation for the life-saving work that needs to be done.

We may be a small organization, but we are vigorous and energized under Amani’s leadership. Amani’s action plan in education and prevention are in line to what UNICEF lists as their approach to combat the spread of Covid-19.

UNICEF response strategy and interventions focuses on the following axes:

1.     Risk communication & community engagement (RCCE);
2.     Improving WASH and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures in health facilities and in the community;
3.     Provision of supplies, medical equipment for case management;
4.     Psychosocial support and continuous access to basic social services;
5.     Social protection interventions to mitigate the socio-economic impact in households and Social sciences analysis.

Amani is already leading the way with his team. The Congo Peace School has become a hub of health and education, not just to feed the most at-risk students with meals served to 20 students at a time, but as a resource center for hand-washing stations made possible by an emergency grant from our partners at Jewish World Watch, as well as the ability to distribute the educational information on the how-to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Thanks to your ongoing support, we continue to invest in the staff of the Congo Peace School, who are now a team of health educators, going out into the community to teach our neighbors preventative actions to take, and are feeding the students who are most at risk of starvation with a meal made from purchased beans and rice as well as the vegetables we are growing on the organic farm at the school. (Pictured below is one enormous head of organic cabbage!) 

It means so much to have this infrastructure in place that made it possible for an immediate pivot to respond swiftly with resources to this public health crisis, and we could not have done it without you.  

Another foundation is the decade of sewing training from your long-term support for Action Kivu that has prepared our community to make masks! The women who graduated the Sewing Workshop are now making the masks you see them wearing here, safely distanced in the Sewing Co-Op in the Community Center as well as in the Congo Peace School auditorium.

The masks are critical, and they are not easily accessible in the region. As Amani reports, he is more concerned about people dying from hunger than from Covid-19 at the moment. The majority of the region’s population are living in poverty, and people must leave their homes each day to find food for that day, to stay alive.

As you'll see in the photo and video below, face masks are a critical component of precaution that is being implemented as the masks are being made. With malnutrition being an immediate risk, the staff was serving the student meals as you see here, but be assured that they are taking every precaution with hand-washing and preparation, and the masks are now being distributed.

More great news as we work today for a better future: we were able to purchase 20 laptops for the Congo Peace School, thanks in part to individual donors and Chocolate for Congo, an annual fundraiser in Portland, Oregon hosted by Never Again Coalition! In groups of 20, the students, seated at a distance from each other, are learning the basics of word processing, the first time they’ve worked on a computer. They too will receive masks to ensure the greatest possible prevention.

The city power in Mumosho is patchy at best, running at odd hours with no guarantees, more usually off than on, so to best run these laptops, and to provide greater security for the campus at night, we've been working to find funding for solar power for the campus. As of the end of April, we are in discussion again with an organization, working on a grant for phasing in the necessary solar power, starting with the computer lab and the two boarding houses, boarding houses that once fully outfitted, will provide sustainable income for the school.  

It's impossible to express the overwhelming gratitude we have for all you've done in building up this foundation in Congo, that it can be used to truly serve the students and community in a time of crisis, while we continue to look forward to when the pandemic is over, and we resume classroom teaching, having created an even greater trust in community-building through showing care, love, and hope in a time of need.

We hope you are well and safe in this difficult time. Take good care of yourself as you are caring for others.

Education, Equality, & Peace: The Congo Peace School and Action Kivu's Adult Education Programs

Education is the thread that ties together everything Action Kivu supports in Congo. The Entrepreneur Training provides education and training for women to launch a small businesses, that ties in to:

The Community Farm, providing both an education in organic farming and regeneration as well as crops to sell for income and for daily meals for the Congo Peace School students, students who are tied to:

An education grounded in peace, nonviolence, and equality, giving the students a sense of agency to act as ambassadors of peace, ready to change the world!

Join the movement today, and partner with the people of Congo.

Action Kivu's Student Educators: Ending the spread of HIV AIDS in eastern Congo

Nurse Jeanine sits with six of the students who are anti-HIV / AIDS educators in their schools and communities, gathered to update us on their progress and the change they've seen from their outreach. With the support of donors to Action Kivu, Jeanine has tested over 1400 people in 2018, and follows up with those who tested positive, offering access to treatment at the clinic where she works. She speaks with hope about the change she has seen from the education and information campaign we started in 2016, when she had to work to convince people to be tested for HIV. Now, she says, men and women seek her out. And some who tested positive have told her that if they had met her earlier in their lives, they would never have been infected.Enter in the student educators. Led by Jeanine, they take their knowledge of prevention and treatment into their schools, teaching their peers and engaging their families and communities. Bisimwa joined Action Kivu's education club in order to not only protect himself from the disease, but to save future generations.Nurse Jeanine also teaches family planning to the communities Action Kivu partners with. Both men and women, who often cannot afford to feed or send to school the children they do have, come to meetings to learn what contraceptives are available and will work for them.The need is great, in the community of over 80,000 people in Mumosho, and if you'd like to help, please consider a one-time gift or monthly donation to support Action Kivu's work in Congo!

• $60 allows Jeanine to test 100 people

• $10 buys one month of cotton balls or a box of gloves

• $60 pays for one month of Jeanine's travel via moto into villages for follow-up visits with people who are HIV positive

• $300 pays for one month of Jeanine's community work and time treating students at the Congo Peace School

Jeanine sends her thanks to everyone who is connected to this program - it is truly saving lives.Read more about All Together Against HIV/AIDS here, and click here to donate to Action Kivu's life-changing work in Congo. Thank you for all you do in partnering with the people of Congo!

Right to Health in Congo: World AIDS Day 2017

Today is World AIDS Day, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 36 million people around the world who are living with AIDS.Newsweek reports, "only half are receiving appropriate treatment, which makes the NGO’s global theme for the 30th World AIDS Day particularly fitting. This year, WHO declared the theme is 'right to health.'' Specifically, the organization hopes to draw attention to the need for universal health coverage."Read more about Action Kivu's work to provide HIV/AIDS healthcare and education, led by the youth of Congo!

JOIN THE MOVEMENT: A MONTHLY DONATION MAKES A LASTING IMPACT IN THE LIVES OF WOMEN AND KIDS IN CONGO, AND ALLOWS ACTION KIVU TO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE!

HIV/AIDS Education in Congo: An Unbreakable Chain of Communication

An update from Amani on the HIV/AIDS education, testing, and prevention project you support through your partnership with Action Kivu:

This month we jointly organized an anti HIV/AIDS campaign with our school kids with SOS SIDA, a Congolese organization focusing on HIV/AIDS. They brought hundreds of graphic pamphlets with key messages on how to prevent HIV/AIDS.The purpose of doing this with SOS SIDA is to create safe spaces where youth come together and talk about sex and reproductive health-related topics. As part of our All Together Against HIV/AIDS youth education, the students take the messages back to their schools and spread the word amongst other school children, and also pass on the messages to others at the community level. It becomes an unbreakable chain of communication.These girls in the photo are my heroes as they want to go out and change our world!

Amani_6 girls_HIV education

Learn more how your donation is saving lives: To Protect One Protects Many: Action Kivu's HIV/AIDS Education & Testing [Photos]

Join the movement today - every dollar makes a difference, and a monthly donation helps us plan ahead for this and all our transformational projects.

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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