Aktive Direkt Hilfe e.V.

During our meeting with the Minister of Education, Mr. Maker, a year ago in Kinshasa, we asked him if he could help us to get the teachers of our school paid since it is registered as a governmental school. He agreed to take care of this and now it happened: all our 10 teachers and the school director received their first salaries from the government! Until now, we paid their salaries. If somebody does not know all the local complications involved in reaching this goal it is difficult to understand what a huge miracle that is! Basically all of our contacts in Congo had their doubts and told us that this will never happen. Jean wrote us recently that nobody in the area understands how this is possible as none of the other schools in the villages around are receiving salaries for their teachers. In order for the teachers to receive their first salary the local school board in Kamonia ordered our school to close for 2 days and asked all teachers and the director to personally come to Tshikapa. They walked 60km from Mushapo and the next day they walked back. Hopefully soon they will be able to receive their salaries in Kamonia, which is only 40 km away. We are very thankful for this great victory as it is an important step towards the independence of our school. Another step in the direction of independence is the new school committee. They made an effort to inspire the parents to contribute something towards the school, in the interest of their children. All parents agreed to give 500 FC per child per month, which is about 50 Euro Cents. This is a big commitment of the parents and will help with the upkeep and running of the school.

For this school year 2015 - 2016, a new School Committee was voted in by the parents of the students. The two chiefs of the village were not voted in because of the personal issues they have with each other which were carried into the meetings in the past. The committee members make a financial contribution for the benefit of the school. The money will be kept by the treasurer under the control of the president of the committee and the school director. This development is very encouraging for Jean and us as it shows initiative of the local population. They were not afraid to vote out the two chiefs and vote in people who are considered responsible representatives of the village. This should stabilize and strengthen the school. The first committee meeting will be on the 4th of November. The latest account of children in our school: In the Primary School we have 238 boys and 202 girls. In the Secondary School we have 33 boys and 27 girls, in total exactly 500 students.

On 7 September at 07:30 am, the primary school started with 198 boys and 212 girls, a total of 410 pupils. At 12:30 pm, the high school started with 21 boys and 13 girls, a total of 34 pupils. Not all had yet returned from where they went during their holidays, since they travel by foot on the countryside, which is time-consuming. All teachers received their own Service Card with a photo functioning as an official card from our ADH Congo School. These cards are functioning as official identification. Josh helped us to produce these cards, and Anissa’s former school in Kinshasa printed and plasticized them. Our school director and two teachers received further training in Kamonia, organized by the Ministry of Education.

The final examinations of our sixth class in the principal town Shamungamba went very well. Twenty-six of our pupils entered the exams, and twenty-one of them were successful. In the neighbouring school in Kakondo only one pupil passed the exams, whereas at the school in Shamubenzi no one did. Such a good performance of our pupils makes us extremely happy and all the efforts and investments during our work worthwhile.

After a turbulent journey from Kinshasa I (Wolfgang Schmidt) finally arrive in Mushapo late at night together with Mrs. Maning, spouse of the German ambassador. To my surprise many children still wait for us and welcome us with shouts of joy. On the morning after 420 of our pupils sing for us very enthusiastically. One of the children and Pierre, our school principal, welcome us with a speech of thanks. After a few more songs, a group of children performs a sketch. When Mrs. Maning presents a gift to them, they are gigantically happy. After visiting school classes in their new buildings, we meet up with the teaching staff and afterwards with the school committee: two village chiefs, the school principal, representatives of parents, the person responsible for the newly created health center and with Jean, our manager. Towards evening, we sit down together and talk for quite a while about the future of the project.

Lessons moved to the new brick buildings on our property. Since the start of the project in 2011, a dream finally comes true after four exhausting years. Suited to the launch of the school lessons in the new school buildings we received all sorts of functional material donations: Orgaman, a local business, which helped us several times in the past, donated five cartons full of notebooks for the children. Our good friend and long-time supporter Ahmed, the Director of “Congo Futur”, transported them for us from Kinshasa to Tshikapa together with two cartons of drinking water and school and food supplies, which we packed for our stay. Furthermore, Ahmed organized a jeep for our journey from Tshikapa to Mushapo, since he does not want the wife of the German ambassador, who wants to visit our project in Mushapo soon, to ride on a motorcycle through the bushes for 4 hours. Mohamed, another good friend for many years and owner of a local pharmacy, provided us with three cartons full of medication against malaria and flu, including antibiotics and multivitamins.

An inspector of the regional Education Department gave all teachers of Mushapo and of the tree surrounding villages additional training in teaching. The course lasted three days and took place at the catholic church of the neighbouring village Kakondo. Also our principle Pierre and two teachers of the upper class were invited to join a special three-day training course in regional capital Kamonia, where instructors transmitted them special knowledge and skills. The trainings costs for the teacher were sponsored by ADH.

The second trimester in our school had a good start and brought about some changes. Just like on any other normal school day, the new trimester was started with a short speech by teacher Mr. Mukedi and the usual prayer by the entire student body. For the new school year we hired a new teacher for the secondary stage, Jeremie, who completed his studies in Kinshasa and brings with him many years of teaching experience in Kamonia and Tshikapa. He is an excellent teacher of French and hygiene, and trains the teachers of the elementary school. For computer science at the secondary level, we donated a laptop. This way they’ll have, with the devices of one of the teachers and Jean, a total of 3 laptops to be used for educational purposes. We also got a new copy machine for the exams, which take place three times a year. We are currently working with Jean on new photographs of all the children, especially of those for whom we have received sponsorship. However, as we said at the beginning of the project, we cannot guarantee a long-term financed school attendance of individual children because, just like happened again this year, some of the children have moved away with their families. If, however, a child departs, then the donations from the sponsorship are transferred to another child in our school.