Back to School! New classrooms & new students at the Congo Peace School - October 2021

The Congo Peace School’s new year began in early October, when we welcomed more teachers and students for two new grades, 6th grade primary and 5th grade secondary, as well as an additional preschool class in the new building, pictured here at the very end of construction! The third preschool class ensures that all the students starting first grade have experienced pedagogy rooted in exploration and curiosity as informed by our preschool partner PILA Global, an experience the first grade teacher had witnessed as a notable difference in the students’ willingness to ask questions and engage with the curriculum.

Reflecting on the start of a new year, the school’s visionary founder Amani Matabaro shared: “Our teaching is for a big goal, teaching against silence, promoting critical thinking and problem solving as opposed to the project by King Léopold II, when in 1883 he said that our children in schools should only trust and believe what they are taught through memorization—we are teaching for nonviolence, peace, freedom, and equality! Our students and teachers are the daughters and sons of liberty in the learning and teaching process.”

The students and staff continue to wear masks indoors, and outside, release some of the fear that the pandemic induces, on top of the region’s systemic poverty and conflict. With physical play and learning, playing games, dancing, and getting their hands dirty with the latest techniques in sustainable, organic farming and respect for the earth and all it provides, the students are living in the knowledge that they are loved, respected, and encouraged!

Watch the video, and trust me, you’ll want to turn the volume up.

And hands-on learning at the farm:

And lots of time to play:

Pictured below is Nancy Baderha, an 8th grader this year. 14 years old, Nancy is very happy to be back to school and reconnect with her friends and teachers. From Amani: We believe all our students are strong, competent, and creative. Nancy is one of our amazing students who loves science and especially math classes. She wants to study and work in bioengineering.

As we near full capacity of students and staff next year (2022 – 2023, when year 5 secondary students will matriculate to their final year 6!) we couldn’t do this without you, our family of generous donors. Thank you for your commitment to greater peace and equality in Congo, and thus, in our world. We are all deeply connected.

As we watch the new building fill with preschool students, a special thank you to Susan Saltz who, in honor of Anita Saltz and the Gary Saltz Foundation, committed to funding the construction of the three new preschool classrooms to host our partner PILA Global’s game-changing preschool program, known as The Nest: Congo. With Harriet Zaretsky’s (Dillon Henry Foundation) additional funding, and Amani and the community’s commitment to build the second floor, the construction was completed, and PILA Global’s Alise and Tom arrived to outfit the rooms, work with the teachers, and the students are flourishing!

As we grow, we must grow our family – please forward this to friends and family who can sign up to give as little as $3 monthly at Patreon or fdonate page.  If you’re able to invest more and would like to make a one-time year end gift, please mail the check to Action Kivu, 4470 W. Sunset Blvd., Suite 160, Los Angeles, CA 90027, or contact me at actionkivu.org to receive bank details for a wire.  $660 dollars covers the cost of tuition, uniforms, supplies, and meals for one student!

May we all learn from these students and take time to play, dance, dig in the dirt to grow good food, and find joy in each day.

In gratitude,

Rebecca Snavely
Executive Director, Action Kivu

Guava Trees & Cornhole: Lessons of Living in Peace with the Earth & One Another

Searching for a quote or interesting fact about the month of August for this update, I looked up the special days of the month: National Potato Day (August 19th, in case you want to add it to your 2022 calendar), Bad Poetry Day (Aug 18th), and what? “World Mosquito Day.”

August 20th is indeed World Mosquito Day, the day that commemorates doctor Sir Ronald Ross's discovery in 1897 that female anopheline mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans.

Oddly enough, this bit of trivia pairs with part of the update from the month of photos and videos and stories our Founding Director Amani Matabaro sent to share with you, our family of supporters, connected to Congo through your giving, your sharing of these stories, your recognition of our interconnectedness.  

Amani shared this video of the guava trees planted at the Congo Peace School, and when you listen, it is a peaceful moment filled with bird-song. “That is part of the reason we plant the trees,” Amani says. “To bring back more birds.” In addition to providing fruit and shade, the trees attract more birds to the area, helping to balance the ecosystem, and to combat the spread of malaria, as the birds eat mosquitos.

Understanding the balance of the natural world and learning how to live nonviolently within it is part of the Congo Peace School’s curriculum.  

It is inspiring to witness the future leaders of our world gaining a deep understanding of how best to live in that world.

Nshobole is a 4th grade elementary school student, starting 5th grade in October. After she finished reading this book, “Our Planet in Danger,” she told Amani: “Cutting down trees and throwing away plastic waste are big threats to our planet.”

The students who attend the Congo Peace School experience many different forms of trauma, from extreme poverty to violence to the fear of the pandemic and the unknown, and at school, they receive support in many different ways: from meals that provide the security of not going hungry, to psychological support from the staff and Amani, who has trained in several different modalities of therapy and healing.

Part of that practice is play, and this past month, the students played what we in the U.S. call cornhole for the first time. Amani says it was wonderful to see them having fun, focusing on the game, laughing and supporting each other.

One of the two preschool classes, supported by our partners at PILA Global, pictured here playing and running on the Congo Peace School’s soccer field.

The new building with three classes on the ground floor to add a third preschool class is almost finished! The roof completed, it is being painted outside and in, and after that dries, the windows and doors will be installed. (Please see our previous update if you missed the news about construction.)

The students continue to learn, inside the classroom and out, because of your partnership. The lessons of stories, of science, of the mathematics of the universe, of growing food, and living in peace with the earth and one another, will change their communities, and ripple into the rest of the world. Thank you for investing in the staff and students at the Congo Peace School!

Photo Credit: Esther Nsapu

Clean Energy & More Classrooms: The Power of Individual Actions when Combined in Community

While we always focus on the journey of the students and staff whose lives are changing because of the Congo Peace School, this month’s update highlights physical, practical changes to the campus itself.

The global pandemic shows us what we have the power to do individually. How many of us started cutting our own hair, baking our own bread, managing online school for kids? (Hopefully not simultaneously.)  

It also highlighted the power our individual actions take on when we bring them together collectively.

The Congo Peace School is a prime example of this power of individuals and collective community action. We've had individuals commit to leaps of growth, and individuals coming together to give monthly or annually to help meet the costs of a school that serves the most vulnerable.

This spring, Susan Saltz, in honor of Anita Saltz and the Gary Saltz Foundation, committed to funding the construction of three new preschool classrooms to host our partner PILA Global’s game-changing preschool program, known as The Nest: Congo. With Harriet Zaretsky’s (Dillon Henry Foundation) additional funding, the construction began this summer!

The two preschool classes of 22 students each (1: ages 4-5 and 2: ages 5-6) were previously housed in two of the main school building’s classrooms, with 22 students from Preschool 2 matriculating into first grade. Within a short amount of time, the first-grade teacher reported a clear difference in the students who had attended the preschool, which provides the pedagogy and tools for exploring curiosity and finding ones creativity and voice. The students from the preschool were more vocal and confident in asking questions, in exploring the subject matter with the teachers.

Photo Credit: PILA Global

With that in mind – our visionary leader Amani Matabaro saw the need for three preschool classes – so that all the 40 new incoming first graders would have benefited from a year of preschool. Having been a patron of the school and PILA Global programs from the beginning, when Susan Saltz learned that the classes needed a new home, as the main school expands this fall 2021 from 9 grades to 11 of its eventual 12, she committed the necessary funds.

We are honored to partner with organizations via grants (a thank you to Jewish World Watch for their most recent grant for this ongoing school year) and the Guardian Program via the Dillon Henry Foundation.

We couldn’t function daily without the ongoing giving of individuals – from $3 / month to $200 / month to annual gifts, you all play a vital role in the life of this community of students and staff, who are already influencing their families and communities, and will continue on as Peace Ambassadors for the nation, and world. 

“A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”
― Nelson Mandela

As the three classrooms neared completion, Amani gathered the community together. The Congo Peace School is a point of pride for Mumosho, and the community feels a shared ownership to protect it, honor its mission, and support it however they can.

Asking their thoughts on the school and its impact on the community as well as their commitment to it, Amani learned that the parents and neighbors wanted to ensure a campus that could grow with the school’s vision – specifically to build three more classrooms as a second level above the new preschool classrooms. With the Congolese curriculum, secondary students declare a major in their last few years in high school, and to accommodate more majors, which will also attract more boarding house students to create more local sustainable funding, more classrooms dedicated to additional majors are needed.

With the community promising labor hours and whatever they could contribute, in addition to Amani’s commitment via a personal loan, and his salary payment from a recent outside job working with Lisa Shannon’s Every Woman Treaty, they were able to find the funds themselves for the second story – and work began, to be finished with the roof, doors, and windows at the end of August.

Our next exciting news: clean energy! The solar panels were installed at the Congo Peace School, thanks to a partnership with GivePower Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to extending the environmental and social benefits of clean, renewable energy around the globe. In partnership with Nuru, a Congolese renewable energy utility, the installation, designed to support these children historically affected by violence, were made possible by Congo Power (founded by Alyssa Newman, an Action Kivu board member), an initiative backed by Google, and by Silfab Solar, which generously donated equipment.

There was a small glitch in the system’s converter that Nuru is currently solving, so the full spectrum of sun-sourced power is not yet being utilized at the school, but they are able to use the power selectively, specifically to host computer classes. Amani notes that the fight against digital illiteracy is a big challenge in many sub-Saharan African schools. Thanks to solar power, and to all of your support, we are fighting for digital literacy with sustainable means!

Photo credit: Esther Nsapu

As Amani noted in conversation in July 2020 with Robin Wright, “[With] solar equipment at the Congo Peace School … this will make a significant difference. It goes a long way with our vision of not harming our environment. If we want to stay nonviolent, nonviolent within ourselves. Nonviolent with our community around us. Non-violent with our environment.

“[Solar power] will enable us to power our computer and conference room and the dorms … this will make a big difference, if we stop using generators that are killing our environment. And 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 … will make a huge and significant difference. It is going to translate our friendship with our environment.”

Not only will the boarding houses have power, allowing the Peace School to enroll students from nearby cities to live and study at this unique school and pay tuition that will offset the costs of local kids whose families cannot afford it, but the power affects the greater community, as the school will be able to offer more trainings and resources.

As we celebrate both the leaps made in new classrooms and new sustainable power, we also look to the needs as we grow the school from 9 grades this year to 11 in 2021 / 2022. Your giving is critical, and we are grateful.

The impact is clear when we see the freedom with which children, still burdened with so much trauma in their community, country, and world, are expressing themselves through dance, play, learning, and art.

Students dancing at the Congo Peace School – filmed by Esther Nsapu

Please share this update with your communities so that we can grow the family of donors as we continue to focus on local sustainability via farm to table meals, paying boarding students, and more.

$3 per month on Patreon pays for 3 backpacks a year. $660 per year or $55 per month covers the tuition costs of a student, including meals, uniforms, masks, and access to the library and computer lab. Click here to set up your monthly gift!

Thank you to our current partners for making this vision a reality!

Power of a Dream: Congo Peace School students reflect on peace practices

Congo celebrated its Independence Day from Belgium on June 30th, and while there were no parties, as the country is still in the throes of the pandemic without access to vaccines, the students at the Congo Peace School continue safely gathering for school, and to reflect on the practical applications of their peace studies, practice computer skills, and learn from the library of books in addition to their classroom lessons. While they honored hard-won independence, the students and staff at the Congo Peace School continue to focus on their interdependence.

Bulangire, photographed by Esther Nsapu

Reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr.'s tenet that the beloved community is the framework for the future,15-year-old Bulangire, a secondary school student, shared, "People are stronger when they go together. There is a saying in our local language: 'One hand never beats the drum, you need two.' I have understood that unity is power."

Justine, photographed by Esther Nsapu

"I have been reflecting on the power of someone's dream," Justine, 14, shared. "I am happy to have been encouraged to believe in the power and beauty of my dream. And now I am excited to be sharing with all of you and everyone the dream of my life!"

Thank you to YOU for sharing in the dream of the students at the Congo Peace School! It is because of your support that their dreams of education, equality, and a peaceful future are becoming reality.

The school continues to operate during the pandemic with students and staff wearing masks indoors, frequent hand-washing and the staff taking everyone's temperature before entering the campus. Due to an October start in 2020, our school year is extended through September 2021, and we need to continue to grow our beloved community of supporters!

Please forward this email to others to invite them to join the movement for peace and equality through education. The very laptop or phone you use to do so is connected to Congo: a majority of the minerals necessary to make them (tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold) are mined in Congo, but the people see very little of that wealth.

Your gift invests not only in the minds and dreams of the students at the Congo Peace School, but in their bodies as well; the school meals are sometimes the only food the students eat all week. The peace curriculum includes teaching the students sustainable farming, caring for the earth while growing healthy food to feed the community!

Photo credit: Esther Nsapu

Photo credit: Esther Nsapu

A Practical Way to Teach Patience: April at the Congo Peace School [2021]

From preparing for exams to tending onion nurseries, the students at the Congo Peace School learned hands-on about the value of patience, care, and hope this past month. We heard from three of them for our April update! 

Arsene, April 2021

"I am always happy to be here at the Congo Peace School, my home, my new hope, my beloved community. This past month I focused on preparing for my exams, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have this lovely space to get an education. Working on the farm preparing the nurseries for red onions was great this month, it’s amazing to learn to put seeds in the soil and watch them become plants, grow and become food or money. I learned patience and courage and the care it requires to make sure they grow.” – Arsene, 4th grade secondary

Arsene, 2015

Shortly after Cate Haight and I founded Action Kivu in the U.S. in 2010, we traveled together to Congo, and Arsene was one of the children we met, over a decade ago. His father murdered near a gold mine, Arsene was brought into Action Kivu’s family through Amani’s loving network of support for education assistance and job training. That initial welcoming embrace planted the seeds for Arsene to be part of the first cohort of the Congo Peace School.
 

I met up with Arsene again in July 2018, when I visited as the Congo Peace School was under construction, and again in September 2018, after Arsene had newly begun his education there. Over the course of those months, I asked him twice about his definition of nonviolence, a core principle of the school.

Before Arsene began classes at the Congo Peace School, 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 hear this school will be a blessing. Maybe I will graduate and become president.”

Arsene, July 2018

From September, 2018: Now a student at the Congo Peace School, Arsene defines nonviolence as "a way leading to peace, love, and equality." His understanding of peace has already deepened: "I think nonviolence is needed everywhere, with my classmates and at home with my mom and siblings. At this school, we have people who care deeply about us, they give us food, school uniforms, pens. The teachers do not beat us, they do not shout at us, the school principal and teachers encourage us to read books. We feel very safe in this school."

It’s fitting that regenerative, sustainable farming is a foundation that feeds into the Congo Peace School and community. Your partnership in giving is water that creates the fertile soil for children like Arsene to flourish!

Francine, April 2021

When Francine's father died, her family was unable to afford to send her to school, and she was forced to drop out. Two years later, she was able to resume her education thanks to our Congo Peace School supporters, and at 18, she is now in 4th grade of secondary school. When Amani asked what she had learned during the month of April, first Francine laughed and laughed, then paused and smiled: “This month of April I spent much of my time reading my notes to prepare for exams, they are going on and I am hoping for the best. I also enjoyed time on the farm working on different activities. I most liked transplanting the onions from the nurseries to the farm to start preparing them for growth. All it requires is attention and care on a constant basis. I learned care and patience!”

Musezanciko, April 2021

“The month of April we focused on two things: preparing for our semester exams and working on the farm to connect with our nature and soil," Musezanciko, an 18 year old student in 4th grade secondary. "This is our second week of the exams and they are going well, while the crops at the school farm we worked on are also growing well. When you learn to plant something, you need to be patient and hopeful. Learning to grow plants as we are doing at the Congo Peace School connects us with the soil and what we eat and this means a lot for me, to understand that we have the power to grow healthy crops using the animal manure in the compost.“

Thank you for your commitment to the students, staff, and community of the Congo Peace School!

Please join us in a fun, entertaining game night to benefit the school on Saturday, May 15th. Details & RSVP here, and please invite friends and family!

Save the date! Action Kivu Presents NIGHT OF FUN & GAMES to benefit the Congo Peace School

Save the Date! Action Kivu Presents NIGHT OF FUN & GAMES: Join us for a live game show party with fun and original challenges played over Zoom! Hosted by Brett Jackson of Live Action Attractions, the award-winning creators of live action games, interactive shows and playable places for Apple, Disney, Google and Two Bit Circus.

Family friendly show, all ages welcome! Proceeds benefit the Congo Peace School in DRC. Mark your calendar and RSVP now!

Online 5|15|2021 — 5pm Pacific | 8pm Eastern

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!

Amani on the lessons of 2020, our global family, and hope for the future

In the midst of anxiety about the state of our country, and our world, there is no greater person to speak to than Amani Matabaro, our visionary leader whose dream of the Congo Peace School continues to take root and flourish because of you. Having lived through the ongoing violence in eastern Congo, Amani’s authenticity and vulnerability about his own fears and the reality of the moment stand alongside his steadfast vision for the future.  Amani's hope is infectious. Catch a bit of it in the video below.

Speaking to Amani for this new year’s update from the Congo Peace School, he shared how your friendship with the people of Congo, over the years, and in particular during the crisis of the Coronavirus pandemic, has impacted not only their lives, but his own way of seeing the world.

“This pandemic has taught us so many lessons. As humankind, in our lifetime, we have seen that people we don't need to meet to consider ourselves friends, or family.” 

Watch a brief video from our conversation as Amani processes a bit of what 2020 was like, “seeing the me in you,” and why he has hope for the new year:

The students continue to celebrate being back in school, and Amani asked 9th grade student Munguakonkwa Borauzima, what is her new year’s resolution?

Amani sent the following message to our family and friends:

We continue to be thankful for the many blessings in our community and life changing programs that your support has been making possible.

2020 was a year of loss and blessing, deep concern and deep gratitude, reflection, and action.

While the past 10 months have been very challenging, we are thankful to have you as faithful companions and supporters during this hard time. 

The Congo Peace school has continued being more than just a school because of your support. Children with severe malnutrition are gradually getting healthier and pursuing their education because of your support.

Because of your support, we are teaching a new generation to stand against hatred, learn tolerance and seek justice. And that is peace!

While we stand up and keep committing to action that will further justice and peace in the DR Congo, we are grateful for all of you who journey with us on this path.  

-       Amani Matabaro

Please share with a friend you think might want to join you in this movement for peace and equality through education! For a sustaining donation of $60 / month, you give the gift of hope and education to one of the Congo Peace School students, and allow Amani and the school staff to continue in their mission of education rooted in peace and nonviolence. (If you aren’t able to commit to that amount, consider forming a Peace School Pod of friends / family who each give $10 or $15 per month to total $60!)

We are connected in so many ways, both obvious and unseen. In this CNN article about predicting and preventing future pandemics, we are reminded not only of how close our connection is with Congo, but also how critical the way we live with the earth is to our collective health. This teaching is embedded in the Congo Peace School curriculum, as the students learn about composting and regenerative farming as well as recycling, using plastic waste to create new materials, such as these blocks that will be used at the Congo Peace School for pathways.

From the CNN piece entitled Hunting for Disease X: “Experts say the rising number of emerging viruses is largely the result of ecological destruction and wildlife trade.

“As their natural habitats disappear, animals like rats, bats, and insects survive where larger animals get wiped out. They're able to live alongside human beings and are frequently suspected of being the vectors that can carry new diseases to humans.

Scientists have linked past Ebola outbreaks to heavy human incursion into the rainforest. In one 2017 study, researchers used satellite data to determine that 25 of the 27 Ebola outbreaks located along the limits of the rainforest biome in Central and West Africa between 2001 and 2014 began in places that had experienced deforestation about two years prior. They added that zoonotic Ebola outbreaks appeared in areas where human population density was high and where the virus has favorable conditions, but that the relative importance of forest loss is partially independent of these factors.

“In the first 14 years of the 21st century, an area larger than the size of Bangladesh was felled in the Congo River basin rainforest.

“The United Nations has warned that if the current deforestation and population growth trends continue, the country's rainforest may have completely disappeared by the end of the century. As that happens, animals and the viruses they carry will collide with people in new and often disastrous ways.

“It doesn't have to be this way…”

It doesn't have to be this way. We are coming together to show that, and your friendship with the people of Congo is a critical part of the solution.

Thank you for being part of our global family,

Rebecca
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Rebecca Snavely
Executive Director, Action Kivu

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