Jens
Building the last classrooms in Mabala - a community project
Our school in Mabala will soon be independent from us! We have already built eight classrooms, but the school needs a total of six classrooms for the agricultural section and six classrooms for the veterinary section. So, we needed four more! With gratitude and vision, the parents of the students took initiative once again and organized the production of thousands of new bricks. The funding of the roof, windows, doors, and cement for the walls, floors and patio came from ADH and ERA CONGO, a company operating in forest conservation in the area. It’s the same company which supported the planting of our school’s palm trees last year.
20th Anniversary of Active Direct Help
ADH celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It has been an exciting journey that took us from Guinea in the year 2000 (photo 1), at the time when Lenka was working in Nigeria (photo 2), through Zambia in 2001 (photo 3), to Cameroon in 2002/2003 (photo 4), and then to the DR Congo, starting in mid-2003 (photo 5), shortly after the big war there. Due to health reasons, we had to spend more than one year in South Africa in 2005/2006 (photo 6), after which we returned to Congo in 2007 (photo 7).
In 2011, we shifted the focus of our work to the countryside where the need is much bigger than in the city. From 2011-2016 we built and supported our first school in the interior in Mushapo (photos 8-11). During this time, more than 2000 pupils (photo 12 & 13) received free education in our school, unheard of in Congo at that time.
In 2017, the province Kasai, where our school is located, experienced violence because of national and international forces who were interested in the mineral resources there. Most of our teachers and pupils had to flee with their families to Tshikapa where they had to start a new life from nothing. Since then our school director Pierre and his team of teachers teach our pupils in a rented school building in the afternoon (photo 14) while the pupils from the Tshokwe tribe, which remained in Mushapo, continue their schooling in our school there (photo 15).
In 2017, we pioneered a new school project, this time in Mabala in the Mai Ndombe region (photos 16 & 17). Presently 276 students attend this secondary school, called ITAV ADH Mabala (Agro-Veterinary school), from the 7th to the 9th grade and receive free education. The school started in 2018 and is open to children of the local Bantu (majority) and Pygmy (minority, marginalized) tribes. In the 9th grade, 26 students receive agricultural and 20 receive veterinary training. School director Philemon works with 15 teachers, required by the Ministry of Education for this type of school.
To help support the school, we started an agricultural project with a few chickens and rabbits (photos 18 - 21) as well as a small tree nursery where we recently added 1100 palm nuts (photo 22) for a palm oil plantation, which should cover 7 hectares of our 40 hectares property. The organization PIREDD, which gave the palm nuts, will support the maintenance of the plantation by giving $100 per month for 16 months. The production of the trees will belong to the school.
For more details or our activities, you can see reports of the last 20 years here on our website. Photo 23 shows the location of our projects.
All this has been a string of miracles as we are working fulltime as volunteers. Usually we arrive at the airport of a new country with very limited finances, many times not knowing anybody there. We make friends, research the biggest need and do our best to fill it. After some time we see the good results from our labors. We are extremely thankful for our faithful team members, friends and supporters which made these achievements possible.
We had our share of setbacks and obstacles, but like in childbirth, who wants to talk about the hardships and birth pangs a mother has to endure to reach the moment when she gratefully holds the baby in her arms. Anything worth in life is a struggle. Working in Africa brings with it so many unimaginable challenges that it is a miracle when something is finally achieved. This takes the direct intervention of God to whom we would like to give our biggest thanks.
Let us each keep doing our part to change a part of the world – love being our motivation and the most important ingredient in all this. We hope to be able to be a continued blessing to whoever needs our help and to be an influence of good to the people we meet.
Thank you for your important contribution to our work. We wish you all the best in your private life and work,
With many heartfelt greetings,
Wolfgang, Lenka and Team
Copyright © 2020 Text: Wolfgang Schmidt; Picture: Aktive Direkt Hilfe e. V.
                      
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When you don't feel like celebrating
When you don't feel like celebrating
What if Christmas is here and you're just not in the mood? You might be worried about the future, feeling sad, or have gone through a great loss? It should be the happiest time of the year, but you just don't feel like it. ... It's okay. You don't have to try to fix your pain, sadness or loss quickly, you can't anyway.
I don't think even the shepherds watching the sheep on that first Christmas felt anything special, it was just another ordinary cold night in Bethlehem. Their town was crowded with visitors who were there for the census, which just reminded them of Roman rule. Nothing looked particularly hopeful.
Suddenly, angels filled the sky with the message that there was no need to worry; the Savior would be born in their city that night. That changed everything, and suddenly there was hope!
If you are not feeling up to all the festivities of this holiday, try to focus on the Hope that this season brings. Jesus has come and through him redemption for all the wrong we have ever done. We no longer have to be separated from God, Jesus is the link between God and us! For such contemplation, we don't need decorations and gifts, we can celebrate in our hearts.
Jesus is with us wherever we are, at Christmas and every other day of the year, and He loves us immensely!
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New Year’s Prayers and Resolutions
At the start of a new year, many people look forward with a mix of excitement and apprehension to what lies ahead for them, their families and friends, and the world at large. It is comforting to know that whatever the future holds and whatever problems or difficulties we may face, God wants to help us overcome them.
It is not easy to live in today's world and not be swept up in the "waves" of worry and distress, but it is possible. The secret is in cultivating the habit of not looking at the "waves" but at the One who loves us and will always take care of us. He has promised that He is with us always, through thick and thin, and that nothing can separate us from His loving care. (Hebrews 13:5; Romans 8:37-39).
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The Year Ahead
May God make your year a happy one!
Not by protecting you from all the sorrows and pains,
but by making you strong enough to handle them as they come;
Not by making your way easier,
but by making you resilient to walk any path;
Not by ridding you of difficulties,
but by removing fear from your heart;
Not by giving you uninterrupted sunny days,
but by making your face shine even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
but by showing you when people need you most,
and by giving you the strength to be there for them.
I wish you God's love, peace, hope and joy for the year ahead! –
Copyright © 2022 Aktive Direkt Hilfe e. V.