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.

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.

$100 toward 1 laptop for the Congo Peace School

Join us in providing laptops for students at the Congo Peace School! A local electronics supplier in South Kivu was so impressed with Amani Matabaro's vision of peace and equality realized through education and community, that they will sell us gently used laptops at a discounted price.

Most of the students have never seen a computer, and learning computer skills and word processing will give them a boost in education and the platform for economic equality.

With your $100 gift, you will receive a picture of a student using this new tool and showing off what they’ve learned!

Donate here and be sure to include the best email address for us to send you a photo once the laptops are purchased and the students have begun learning how to use them.

Learn more about the Congo Peace School here: https://www.actionkivu.org/peace-school

Determined to Learn: Anouarite's Story

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.

Rosalie: Congo Peace School's Ambassador for Peace Speaks about Nonviolence

Today's inspiration from Rosalie, one of the Congo Peace School students: encouraging us all to go out and be courageous in peace & nonviolence! Rosalie dreams of being the president of a peaceful Congo, and she is practicing being an ambassador for peace every day.Please share to let others know about the exciting education grounded in Kingian peace & nonviolence principles at the Congo Peace School. Invest in a more peace-filled future here: actionkivu.org/peace-school.

Rosalie's Thoughts on Nonviolence:

Nonviolence. As for Gandhi, he defines nonviolence as nonparticipation of whatsoever one thinks is badly done, that in his book, all men are brothers. Nonviolence is a real resistance, a tactic and spiritual path which aims to trigger peace. Nonviolence rejects all forms of cowardice and requires courage of its practitioner. It is a matter of loving your opponent and being ready to forgive him/her. We, young girls of the Congo Peace School, the Congo of tomorrow, let’s be committed practitioners of nonviolence and peace ambassadors. Thank you! 

Congo Peace School: Training in trauma-informed care

The Congo Peace School teachers and staff continue to be trained in the tenets of peace & nonviolence. Amani Matabaro, trained at the University of Rhode Island in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s prinicples, leads the sessions, and reports that the teachers and staff are deeply engaged in the training.

One teacher responded: "We are training and educating these children differently. I wish I had had a chance to get educated on these topics when I was [the students'] age. They will not be violent, they are very lucky to grow up understanding what equality, humility, respect, peace, courage, self-worth and especially what healing and forgiveness mean."During the training last week, the faculty practiced the principles of nonviolence and peace through role-playing, learning to identify and respond to the signs of trauma.Some of the examples given to the teachers and staff to understand when students are showing signs of trauma:

· Weeping/crying for no reasons

· Sadness· They may want to stay very close to a grown up person of their choice because they have fears

· They have nightmares

· They want to stay in isolation

· They show signs of delay in physical development

· Their sleep is disturbed

· They rebel· Disobedience

· Wet the bed beyond the age of 6

· Disrupted appetite

· Physical health issues: stomachache, headache

The teachers are trained to respond to trauma in the following ways, and to immediately refer them to the school counselor.

· Showing or expressing affection to the students, affection can help them to heal

· Take them in their arms and talk to them gently

· Be very patient and nice with them

· Help them express themselves in words or drawings and games for those who can

· They need to be comforted, use easy and clear language with them

· Listen and respond to their questions

· Give them space and time to speak about their dreams

· Encourage them to make friends and build their hopes together

If you want to join the movement, a monthly donation of as little as $3 / month helps us plan for the future as we grow from the current four grades to fill the school's classrooms with all 12 grades. Learn more and make a commitment to peace at https://www.patreon.com/congopeaceschool.

Thank you to our Action Kivu family, members around the world who are part of making this vision of peace a reality!

Nonviolence and Peace Put into Practice: Amani and the Congo Peace School

nonviolence training AK logo Tony Mancilla photog Aug 2018

The Congo Peace School opens its doors on Monday, September 3rd! This month, our Founding Director Amani Matabaro trained the teachers and many of the students in some of the practices of nonviolence and peace. We've posted a video and more photos that are accessible when you support the school via our Patreon page for as little as $3 per month! That's less than a morning latte in most places - can you commit to being a Congo Peace School patron today? Each month you will receive an exclusive video update from the school. www.patreon.com/congopeaceschool

Photo credit: Tony Mancilla

Congo Peace School Student Stories 2018

Shadrack Quote July 2018

To Shadrack, the word peace means stability. "Congo needs that," he told us in July, as he thought about what a school based on the principles of peace and nonviolence will mean for him, his country, and the world. Shadrack lives with his grandparents, after his father, a soldier, died when Shadrack was just six years old, and his mother recently passed away from HIV/AIDS.13 year old Shadrack will enter his first class at the Congo Peace School as a secondary student in grade 1. He's excited to learn who his French teacher will be, and continue to study his favorite subject a this new school. "I've heard the term nonviolence," he said, "but I don't really know what it means.""My only dream is to be admitted to this school," said Shadrack."Oh!" Amani paused in translating for Shadrack. "He says, 'I want to be like Amani, to do the work you are doing, to help others.'"

Amani is Action Kivu's Founding Director and the visionary leader behind all we do in Congo, inspiring the community that peace is possible, and it starts within each of us.  https://www.patreon.com/congopeaceschool

Arsene _ CPS student entering grade 2 secondary - 1

When asked what the term "nonviolence" means to him, Arsene replied: "I've only ever heard of violence, not nonviolence. Our teachers tell us about what is happening in the world, and it is all related to violence." I asked Arsene what expectations he has for this new school, based on the principles of peace and nonviolence. "We never know," he said. "I hear this school will be a blessing. Maybe I will graduate and become president."

From our U.S. ED, who is in Congo reporting on our ongoing programs and the Congo Peace School:

Thank you to the newest members of the Action Kivu Congo Peace School Patreon family. Your monthly commitment helps ensure the ongoing education grounded in peace and nonviolence for students like Arsene, who will enter grade 2 of secondary school at the Peace School this September.

Thank you to all our Patreon donors, Guardian Donors, our partner Dillon Henry Foundation, and PLFDreams for making this vision of peace possible, investing in future peace leaders. It starts here.The need is great, if we reach $650 / month on the Patreon page we can pay 2 of our secondary school teachers a living wage. Jim us for as little as $3 per month!

patreon.com/congopeaceschool

"But I have no uniform."

Our U.S. ED reports from Congo: ​Visiting Action Kivu's Literacy Program, I noticed that one student appeared much younger than the others. Asking the age range​ of the group,​ ​I ​learned that Anouarite, pictured here, is 10 years old. After a few students shared their thoughts on equality and community, and Amani and I started to say our goodbyes, Anouarite stood up and addressed​ our Founding Director and leader​ Amani, telling him she is an orphan who has no one to pay for her education, so she joined the Literacy Program, determined to learn how to read and write. Barely four feet tall, she stood strong​ and confident​ and asked if she could attend the Congo Peace School when it opens in September. Amani said yes on the spot, as part of his criteria to select students is to find those most vulnerable, who have no one to look out for their education, as well as to find strong leadership potential, students willing to assert themselves.​ ​As we celebrated her drive and determination to get an education, she interrupted: "But I have no uniform." Amani assured her that the uniform and supplies are part of the school, and she will be well cared for. ​Action Kivu's Sewing Workshop students and alumni will be paid to make the school uniforms for the 160 students will will launch the school this September in grades 1 & 2 primary, and grades 1 & 2 secondary, part of the synergy that is implemented across much of Action Kivu's work on the ground in Congo.

Anouarite CPS first grade quote logo July 2018

Celebrate Anouarite's courage and determination with a monthly commitment to her education and students like her! A pledge of $3 / month ($36 / year) will purchase 3 uniforms for students at the Congo Peace School. Learn more and sign up at our Patreon Page - www.patreon.com/congopeaceschool