Aktive Direkt Hilfe e.V.

During the school holidays, our manager Jean took his entitled vacation to visit his family in Kinshasa. Our school principal Pierre will temporarily replace him during his vacation in order to supervise the work in Mushapo, especially the ongoing brick production. The manufacture of new bricks for the third school building and health centre is still running at full speed. Preparations are also being made for the new school year, to which we expect around 400 children in our primary school and 100 in our high school.

The new water reservoir is nearly finished: A deep pit was dug, interior walls were build out of bricks and faced with cement. Rainwater is collected from the roof of the school buildings and conducted into the reservoir. For this purpose, trenches were omitted. Additionally, plumbers embedded water pipes into the earth and connected them. Now the water can be obtained from the reservoir as required. Furthermore, the work on the new toilets has started and the production of thousand new bricks for the upcoming new buildings is running at full speed. Unfortunately, there were also many setbacks this month. Two children died of typhus due to the lack of medical care. This makes us all even more grateful for the prospect of the soon to be developed health center in Mushapo. It is urgently needed there. The land area, on which we will create the new health centre, is prepared for the construction at this moment.

Mrs. Manig, spouse of the German ambassador, who supervises mini-projects within the work of the embassy, visits our school project in Mushapo. During our visit of the new school areal, we inspect the old toilets (hole in the ground) and are happy to supply adequate new toilets with water flush, soak aways and hand washing facilities to the school in the near future. Work on the water reservoir has already started, a pit was constructed. We were also able to see, where the newly created health center will be located – the German Embassy sponsors all the three projects. We are greatly indebted to Mrs. Manig, who came all the way to Mushapo under difficult circumstances, and to the German embassy for their enormous support for our project. The fact, that despite many problems the implementation of changes is possible, boosts our hope, if don’t give up.

Lessons moved from the old temporary buildings and the brick building located on the former farm “SADR” to the new brick buildings on our own land. It was a special moment for everyone, for which the children were happy to help by cleaning the school grounds. Since the start of the project in 2011, a dream finally comes true after four exhausting years. Since we had to construct a water reservoir in the beginning in order to collect rainwater before dry season approaches in the following month, construction of the third new school building on our land has now to wait a little while. The possession of a local water supply is crucial for further construction projects, so we do not have to transport water from the nearest river located 80m further below in the valley.

The second school building is almost finished and is soon ready for usage. The windows and doors are built, installed and decorated. This just happened right on time: during a violent storm two weeks ago, the temporary school building, which was exposed the most to the wind, was severely damaged and could no longer be used. Temporarily we use a few smaller farm buildings for lessons of the pupils. This shows that there is an urgent need to complete the new brick buildings on our grounds. Our plan is to have the two buildings completed at the most as soon as possible, so they can be used for lessons. Directly afterwards, we will work on the third building, so that regular school activities can take place in the new buildings. In the planning phase cement has to be provided. One the one hand, it is needed for pooring out the floors of the three school buildings. On the other hand, proper toilets with septic tanks and water reservoirs are planned so as to absorb water in rainy season for dry season.

The masonry of the second school building has been completed. We record a slight delay in the construction of the third building due to transporting the bricks from production to the construction site. Parents, who previously helped with the transport, have to work on their fields at this time of year and are therefore unable to help. Therefore we have to employ to additional workers. These two students from upper school help us twice week transporting the bricks. They are happy to contribute with something to the school, since for an equal standard they would have to visit the secondary school in Tshikapa, which is about 60 km away. That would be too complicated respectively impossible for most of the pupils. Because there is at the moment no rainwater, we had to find new workers to take water from the fountain two km away to construction site.

The construction is proceeding as planned. The roof of the third brick building on our campus is ready and the foundation is being laid. Our 10-hectare property around the new school buildings, which is overgrown with high elephant grass, bushes and small trees, is cleared in preparation for a new agricultural project. In Kinshasa we were able to meet with the German ambassador, Dr. Manig and his wife, who also works at the embassy. Just as the former ambassador both want to further support our project, which is a great help.

Construction work on our third building is back in full swing. Metal sheets are placed and nailed down on the existing wooden rafters for the roof, the trenches for the foundation are dug and more bricks are made for the masonry. Unfortunately we lost 70 bags of cement due to the building freeze because after half a year they cured under the wet weather conditions. For new cement we have to go again to Angola because it is much cheaper there, than in Tshikapa. So Jean went to the Angolan border and bought the required cement which will be transported with cargo bikes to Mushapo. With 5 bags per bicycle, the cement is transported a distance of 100 km and will arrive in Mushapo after 4 to 5 days.