KIDS and SCHOOL
The kids at Community Charity School (CCS) in Goma put their best foot forward for the beginning of the new school year.
On-going violence made for a somewhat shaky start, but these students are clapping to show that they are ready to go!
One very exciting new class will be learning to use one of the two new solar-powered computers. The kids are fascinated.
Above a girl pours over her screen while 2 boys look on, below the boys have the computer and girls wait their turn. The part-time instructor will also teach the CCS teachers, and everyone benefits!
Houses for Flood Victims
Climate change is wreaking havoc in Congo. Rainy and dry seasons are no longer predictable, which makes farming very difficult. Torrential rains produce floods; people die, homes are washed away, others lose all their meager belongings in the floods even if they still have a roof. About a year ago, 143 families in villages near Uvira, Kivu, lost their homes. They took refuge in churches & schools, any place with a roof. Crowding and cold, lack of food and clean water, along with poor sanitation, meant much illness.
Forty families are long-term members of CENEDI, our Kivu partner. (Many women are survivors of rape.) CENEDI asked for help for rebuilding. The villagers provided labor, we provided funding for the metal roofing, nails, doors and windows, etc., they could not make for themselves. Fund-a-Need donations at the gala were the start, then Princeton United Methodist made this their project… and supported 20 houses! THANK YOU, PUMC!!
The women went out to find stones, and carried them on their heads to construct the foundations; with men and youth they made bricks and built walls.
Then it was time to bring the roofing from Uvira (the nearest city) by water, carry it from up to the site, and put it on the houses. Finally windows and doors.
The community chose 20 of the most vulnerable (elderly widows, young mothers and babies) to have new homes!!!
We hope that in the new year more families may be able to build and move into real homes like this.
But right now cholera is sweeping through this region. Many, especially those still in make-shift shelters, are ill, though we help as we can.
Trials and Great Generosity
Congo’s national elections will be held in December, and the unrest has been increasing in many locales as candidates jockey for position. For decades the Kivu has been an undeclared war-zone, with victims of rape and orphans in desperate need. One woman who has been taking in babies and unwed mothers, elderly widows and orphans in Goma since 1997 is Maman Jeanne, a friend of Maman Monique.
Despite inflation and the severe suffering in Kinshasa, where food insecurity has been complicated by violence around FEBA’s farm, Maman Monique and friends have donated their own and collected other clothing, and made baby clothes, school uniforms and dresses to send off to Goma for Maman Jeanne.
Postage is expensive, but they want to share with those who have even less, so six stuffed bags were sent off in mid-Oct. They also sent money for food - the best meal the children have had in many months.
But in the recent fighting a bomb landed very near the orphanage… should they evacuate? but where can they go? Nowhere is safe…
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