Aktive Direkt Hilfe e.V.

More good news: A while back, Lenka met Pastor Daniel in Prague who is part of the NGO “Feed the Hungry”. He arranged a 40-foot container with fortified rice meal packages, so called „Manna Packs“, from the head organization in the US for Congo. Our job was to find a way to import the container duty-free into the Congo, which is not easy. After several months of preparation, it was possible to import the container customsfree through our longterm partner organization, the ”Scripture Union” in Kinshasa. “Feed the Hungry” in the Czech Republic paid the food and shipping plus another 9000 $ for handling costs, harbour fees and inland transport charges in Congo. The food was distributed to many needy people and institutions, including the COLK orphanage and 500 orphans in Kimbondo where Madlen works so selflessly.

In Prague, Wolfgang participated in an event of the Open Gate School under the TEDx program. (See last speaker on the event website of TEDx). He gave a speech about our work in Congo based on his soon-to-be-completed book and outlined what he believes could bring about the necessary changes in Congo and other parts of the world. You can find the complete TED Talk here as video on YouTube.

After his time in Congo, Wolfgang visited the Gerbach elementary school in Germany and showed the pupils our last video. These children are faithfully supporting our project since many years through their quarterly “Students Café”, with the support of their parents and teachers. It is always a pleasure to show them our appreciation and give them more insight into what they are supporting.

Wolfgang travelled two months in Germany, the last month together with Lenka and Anissa – to visit friends and supporters and for the annual meeting of our association. At the end of July, we had again an interview with Christopher Griebel from the Munich TV. (Interview with Munich TV, L-R: cameraman Kian Vaziri-Elahi; reporter Christopher Griebel; Wolfgang; Dr. Maria Teusch, our supporter and dentist; Anissa and Lenka) All together it was an inspiring and fruitful trip meeting new contacts and connecting deeper with our friends.

The situation in Kasai, the province where our school in Mushapo is located, continues to be overshadowed by terrible reports. It is difficult to describe the exact facts and background of this humanitarian catastrophe, but the following can be said from various newspaper articles (i.e. on Google: “Who’s in Congo’s Mass Graves?”) and from personal reports of our friends and some Congo experts: • Over 1 million people from the province of Kasai have fled, to Angola, into neighboring provinces in Congo etc. • Brutal massacres have been reported by eyewitnesses in some villages. So far 80 mass graves have been found. More than 3,000 people have been killed as a direct result of this conflict. But in this recent article the UN reports: “The actual number of murders is probably much higher than the official figures…” • The terrifying approach of the armed people resembles the one in the East of Congo, with the aim of dispersing the population in order to exploit the resources more easily. Kasai is known for its many diamonds. In view of this situation, we can only hope and pray that more international attention will move the government towards finding a peaceful solution. Until then, not only are our and the other schools and health centers in the region brought to a halt, but innocent people will continue to die and are driven away. Instead of letting ourselves be discouraged from helping other needy people, we are thankful for what has been achieved so far: • Since the beginning of our project in 2011, nearly 2000 pupils have attended our school. They will not forget how someone from abroad built them a school, set it up and made it possible for them to receive free schooling, while now their own country men drove them out. • The children will be able to continue to receive further schooling in their new places of refuge. • Our teachers keep receiving salaries from the government in spite of the fighting. • Through this project, our team has gained important experience on how to build development work in the rural areas of Congo, where the need is the biggest. These experiences can help us and others with similar projects.

The situation in the Kasai provinces, where our school is situated, has changed a lot. In this formerly peaceful region, late last year fighting erupted between the followers of Chief Kamuina Nsapu and government forces, causing hundreds of lives on both sides. The unrest spread from one area to others which made it unsafe for Wolfgang and Jean to travel to Mushapo. Even two white UN experts were kidnapped and killed there recently. In the meantime, several militia groups attacked cities and villages in the different Kasai provinces. In the middle of April, Tshokwe tribesmen from the village Mungamba chased away all none-Tshokwe people from Mushapo and the surrounding villages. This included our school director Pierre and 8 out of 10 teachers who had to take refuge in Tshikapa, the capital of this province. The attackers wounded our teacher Mukendi in his arm with a machete. These bandits also looted what they could take with them. Thankfully, 13 new mattresses of our health center, the photo-copy machine of our school and the generator of our camp were saved. A government office opened in Tshikapa, where people can file complaint about the materials which they lost in the lootings. Gilbert contacted the former Minister of Education, Mr. Maker, who told him that we should not be discouraged as he believes that things will slowly calm down in the area. We have to wait for peace in the region before our teachers can return to Mushapo.

In order to plan the trip to Nioki we had a meeting with representatives of the BBK NGO who we want to work with on a new project in Mabala, 7 km East of Nioki. We would like to build a Primary School there and will see step by step how the project develops. We need to buy and register a piece of land and choose the right person who will be trained as an overseer of the work there by our local manager Jean, who will oversee this person and the new project, just like he is doing with our school director Pierre in Mushapo.