Annual Report 2017
Schooling of our Mushapo pupils continues in Tshikapa
After we finished the construction work of our Health Center in Mushapo at the beginning of 2017, we found out that major fighting erupted in the province Kasai. Since these troubles spread around the whole province, it was not safe for Wolfgang and Jean to visit our school in Mushapo.
The unrest started because of foreign mining companies wanting to exploit the natural resources in this region. They want to drive away the population so that they can extract the raw materials more easily, just as they do in eastern Congo. In our area, the Tshokwe tribe chased out all other tribes from Mushapo and the surrounding villages. They also looted all our belongings from the camp, the school and the houses of those who had to flee. Our school director Pierre, eight of our 10 teachers and about 80 % of our pupils with their families had to flee to the regional capital, Tshikapa.
By now, there are over one million refugees from the province of Kasai and thousands of people have been killed. The newspaper article “Congo conflict, weak education leave millions out of school” says, “Congo’s central Kasai region has in the past year seen intensified violence that has displaced more than 850,000 children and destroyed more than 900 schools.” Our school was one of them. The UN now warns that 400,000 children under the age of 5 in Kasai are suffering from severe malnutrition.
The good news is that the majority of the families of our children, who had to flee, have regrouped in Tshikapa. We have 369 displaced pupils there: 32 enrolled in other schools in Tshikapa, while 337 are under the supervision of Director Pierre. Upon the request of the parents, Pierre was able to find a school in Tshikapa where he is teaching our children in the afternoon with our eight former teachers and three new teachers who have replaced the two original Tshokwe teachers who remained in Mushapo. We are very grateful for this initiative of the parents and school director Pierre, which helps the children to continue their education despite the terrible local situation, and we are happy, that the idea of our project carries on.
Bricks for Agro-Veterinary School in Mabala
When Wolfgang visited Nioki in March, together with Jean and Joachim from BBK, they bought a 40-hectare piece of land between Nioki and Mabala. After counselling with the local members of BBK, everybody was in favour of building a secondary Agro-Veterinary School so the young adults can earn a living after finishing school rather than be jobless as they are now.
We had also shipped 500 kg of maize seeds to Nioki to give local families a chance to grow food and increase local production. The maize was planted in October when the rainy season started and should be harvested in January.
For the construction of the school building, 30.000 bricks were fabricated on site. Then the bricks were tested if they can be burned by mounting a kiln of 2000 bricks and making fire inside for 24 hours. A week later, the oven was opened, and we learned that the clay consists of too much sand, as half of the bricks were broken during the burning process. Nevertheless, they can still be used for the construction. We will use cement coverings to protect the unburned bricks against the strong rains. The foundation of the building will consist of cement mixed with rocks, as the soil is clay mixed with sandy ground. Every three meters, a column, containing strong bars of iron, will be set up to support the top belt on which the roof will be placed. This way of construction should ensure the strength of the building.
Here are links to this year’s videos about our work in Congo: , a 1-minute video to easily spread the news about our new project and the interview with the Munich TV in the summer (in German).
Since in the coming weeks troubles are expected in Kinshasa, Wolfgang was obliged to postpone his flight there. Let us pray for a peaceful solution to this volatile situation. We are very grateful for everyone who contributed their efforts towards the project this last year. Thank you from our hearts!