EDUCATION

This year, our benefactors enabled us to fund 12 educational projects totaling $106,081. Children and youth in Cameroon, Guatemala, Haiti, Kasayi, Kinshasa, and Dominican Republic benefited. Some typical examples appear below.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Writing from Bakanza, Fr. Michael Ekonzo described a slum area where most families survive as subsistence farmers. Parents can’t afford to adequately feed their children, much less send them to school. Although 300 children are ready to attend kindergarten each year, the nearest school is five miles away, too far for young children to walk. This year, the community built three classrooms for kindergartners. They needed more, but had exhausted their resources.

Thanks to our benefactors and the efforts of the community, which worked together to provide water, food, and labor, three additional classrooms were built over the summer break, ready to welcome another 300 students.

In the Matchung and Mbudi areas, Fr. Rodrigue Nkoy wrote about the need to build a primary school for children living along the Congo River. Known for a type of stone commonly used in construction work, men and children work all day breaking up the stone and selling it for meager sums of money. Children of all ages work here because their parents cannot afford the tuition at schools in other towns. By Fr. Rodrigue’s estimate, they needed six classrooms for 1,000 students. The families donated sand, stone, and labor, and laid the foundation, walls and support beams for the roof. Then the whole project came to a halt for lack of funds. Knowing the families had nothing more to give, Fr. Rodrigue appealed us, and thanks to the support of our friends, the children will soon have a school.

St. Luc’s School in Kanaga, Kasayi, had just 14 classrooms for 3,350 students. To relieve the over crowding, St. Luc’s was divided into two elementary schools—the boys used the classrooms in the morning, and the girls used them in the afternoon. Now eight of the classrooms that were built by concerned parents more than 47 years ago were on the verge of collapse. That meant that the already crowded safe classrooms were further strained with as many as 100 additional students.

In desperation, Fr. Daniel Feys appealed for funds to repair four classrooms to ease the overcrowding. Meanwhile, parents and other parishioners gathered sand and other building materials. Thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, they were able to repair all four classrooms.

VOLUNTEERS RUSH TO COMPLETE NEW CLASSROOMS BEFORE THE START OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

A SCHOOL-AGE CHILD BREAKING UP STONE TO BRING IN A LITTLE FAMILY INCOME.