[Puma Wa Mbuyu is co-founder and president of AWIEF]
Live today for today.
Tomorrow will take care of itself.
If tomorrow never comes
you had a beautiful yesterday
-a poem often recited by my friend John from Croatia
The poem says what I and my Congolese friends knew and practice without it being a lesson from books. Life in the Congo is a constant struggle for the basic necessity. Many people in the Congo live without holding on to anything. For home, they have a one room mud house with grass roof. For belongings, all they have can fit in one suitcase if they have one. These people have no opportunity for better education. They have no savings. They see or plan no tomorrow. All that they seek day in and day out is what to eat for the day.
Last year Jim and I invited all the Scouts of Lubumbashi to participate in a two day weekend challenge. A challenge is a Scout tradition to test the knowledge of each troupe in camping, first-aid, and physical endurance. It is a time when Scouts meet with each other and exchange gifts, sing together and be just kids among kids.
This time we were faced with the issue of food. In my
youth, Scout challenges where done without any question regarding food. Not
anymore. The Scout leaders in the district of
Lubumbashi had a meeting to talk about the event. Jim and I thought we were
going to do the planning and talk about the future events. No, the meeting was
all about food. It was not possible for the family of each Scout to pack food
for their child for two days so they could participate in the challenge. Jim and
I had to supply the food so the event could happen. With $150 (US) we fed nearly
150 kids and leaders for two days.
For a small sum, 150 Scouts were able to be just kids among kids for two days.
They had fun singing, dancing, playing and enjoying life together. At the end we
distributed some gifts that added more joy to the events. It is very sad that
generations of kids are being lost in the world because of the adult
responsibilities.
I thank you for you for continuing to support of our organization. Without you
these kids would not have the opportunity to be kids and get an education. Let
us continue to do good a day at a time.
Peer mediation program
Malaria control program
Educational contests
School survey
New technical workshops
Hire technical instructors
AIDS/HIV Education
Resolve administration issues
Buy new textbooks
Scout Challenge
Building maintenance
Gus Fahey is heading to the MYRT School this summer to initiate a peer mediation program for six-grade students. Peer mediation is a program that trains students in basic conflict resolution techniques so that they can intervene in conflicts between their peers.
Gus hopes that an ongoing program of peer mediation will demonstrate the utility of mediation as a local, sustainable means to transform relationships between disputants. Years of colonialism, corruption, neglect and government-sanctioned violence have eroded traditional mechanisms for decision-making, collaboration and relationship-building. There is a need for renewed grass-roots decision-making and empowerment in both the community and society as a whole. The proposed peer mediation program is an intentional effort to build upon a Congolese tradition of identifying peacemakers at an early age, and nurturing them so that they can best assist their community when conflicts invariably arise.
Students will be trained to intervene right on the spot of a conflict in a
school setting, normally on the playground. These conflicts often have their
roots in social interactions outside of school. The hope is to develop conflict
resolution skills of students so they can better assist their families and
communities in larger disputes later in life.
Students will be taught three pillars of mediation: neutrality, confidentiality
and voluntariness. They will be shown a typical five step process for a
mediation intervention: setting the stage, identifying the problem, framing the
issues, uncovering solutions, and closing an agreement. Student role-plays will
be an important tool for demonstrating and practicing peer mediation concepts.
Gus will conduct teacher training with three English-speaking teachers who have an interest in the peer mediation program. They will review concepts of mediation, evaluate the curriculum, and modify teaching strategies based on the social and cultural landscape of today’s Congolese village.
A special four-week class will be advertised for one class of thirty six-grade students. All three teachers will help run the class, with frequent use of small-group settings for practice role-plays. Classes will be conducted in Kiswahili, the local language. Based on the local MYRT board’s evaluation of this program, the school may put this class into their regular curriculum.
Gus will develop the specific curriculum with Kate Palmisano, the executive director of CALM. Kate helped to initiate the peer mediation program in Frederick County. Once in the DRC, the materials will be edited to better fit the children’s needs at MYRT.
Peer mediation strategies have been demonstrated world-wide to be an effective deterrent to youth violence, especially when targeted to students at an early age. Students trained in conflict resolution spontaneously adopt negotiation as their primary approach to conflict, rather than threats of violence. Student mediators show improved social development, better overall academic performance and more leadership.
Two organizations have contributed significantly to this peer mediation effort. The Provost Office of George Mason University, through the Center for Global Education, and Partners for Democratic Change, a U.S.-based non-government organization, have both contributed $1000 to Gus’s travel costs.
Gus Fahey, an Able And Willing board member,
is a community mediator at CALM, the Frederick County Mediation and Conflict
Resolution Center, and a graduate student at George Mason University’s Institute
for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR).
“Kibundji kwikala talala I kwabana biya.”
“To live peacefully is to share equally.”
-Katanga proverb translated from Luba
For ten years MYRT School has provided a way for many less fortunate parents to work for their children’s tuition. The work that they do has maintained the sanitation level of the school and adjacent land. They clean classrooms, toilettes, offices, pick up trash in the school yard and the street around it. The parents plant flowers, vegetable gardens, and trees. They have widened streets in and around the school campus and they continue to do the work so long us their children need the education. This community effort has helped to make MYRT School and the vicinity an inviting place for students and visiting foreigners. Each year since 2000 the village of Tshamalale, where MYRT School is located, has been nominated by the mayor of Lubumbashi the cleanest of all surrounding suburbs and villages.
However, the surrounding area needs immediate attention as some homes, streets and common areas have been neglected. These neglected areas provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry malaria.
The malaria costs the school money every year in medical bills for the MYRT personnel and their family. Malaria has become a chronic problem to some of the staff and their families. They are in and out of the hospital month after month. Effective medication is expensive while the affordable medication is diluted. In short, the sick tend to stay sick and their condition remains chronic.
Because of malaria, the staff of MYRT has been crying for help. The staff must choose between buying medicine or food. This malaria epidemic has made the salaries of the personnel meager and useless, and pushing them to demand a pay raise.
To give a raise without a solution to the malaria issue is like sugar coating
dung. A community clean up project is a necessity. This plan needs an incentive
to motivate people.
In the Spring of 2005, three girls in Frederick learned that the circumstances for all children in the world are not like their conditions, especially regarding to education. Hanne, Emily and Allison, consistent with the Montessori ideals of compassion and contribution to a world community, want to be part of a solution to alleviate this inequality.
Now in the sixth and seventh grades, the girls have volunteered their time at Able & Willing events and are studying French, the official language in the DRC. Hanne, Emily and Allison hope to raise the funds and must the energy to travel with Puma, Venus Elliot (one of their past instructional assistants) and Able and Willing to MYRT sometime in the future. Albert Schweitzer once said, “until we expand the circle of our compassion to all living beings, we will not be at peace ourselves.” These girls are the hope that the circle is ever expanding and that peace will come sooner than later.
We were surprised to receive email from Dr. Antoine Kabwasa congratulating us on our Congo school projects near Lubumbashi and asking if we could help his school project in Kikwit, located about 600 miles northwest.
Dr. Kabwasa is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is a former diplomat with the United Nations. He retired in 1992 after serving 25 years with UNESCO in Africa. He and his wife, Angela founded a community school in the Congo city of Kikwit. Dr. Kabwasa is the Prestige Professor of Humanities at the U. of Toledo, and an international consultant and lecturer on issues dealing with economic development, cultural understanding, and the environment.
After weeks of email exchange, Antoine and Angela visited us and we compared our school projects. We were quite excited to learn about their school and their plans for building “Mama House” for street orphans of Kinshasa. They have just recently formed an Ohio corporation, African Cultural Initiatives for Peace and Development, and have applied for IRS 501(c)(3) status. We look forward to working with them.
It so happens that both Puma and Antoine love to tell African stories to children. Venus Elliot, a board member who teaches at Frederick Montessori School, arranged a story telling session at the school. The kids set the mood by darkening the room and forming a circle in the African tradition. They were enthralled by the stories.
A picture of the event in the Frederick News-Post caught the attention of the media specialist at Walkersville Middle School. Puma arranged for three story telling sessions on June 2.
“If you can come through the snow and the rain and the sleet, you know you can make it when the sun is out and everything is all right.”
– Malcom X
This thought from Malcolm X describes the MYRT School in the Congo. Every year, the MYRT School overcomes a number of difficulties from infrastructure
to education to community development to environmental degradation. Every
time, we have made the effort, and the sun continues to rise and brighten days
for more and more of the people at MYRT.
The school year 2005-2006 will complete on July 2 and the new school year will
start on September 2!
MYRT currently serves 421 students: 352 in elementary school (grades 1-6) and 69 in high school (grades 7-9). Forty-eight students (about 10%) abandoned their studies during the course of the year. There are multiple causes for this abandonment: students don’t go to school because of ripped clothes or worn shoes; students cannot afford replacement supplies (notebooks, pens and pencils); a death in the student’s family; or, relocation. Sometimes parents lack the motivation to continue sending their children to school.
MYRT School continues to give scholarships to orphans and provides “work for education” programs. None of these students have abandoned their studies.
There has been great improvement financial stability and sustainability. The local MYRT board successfully paid all salaries and expenses with monthly tuition fees last year. This year, they paid personnel on time every month, and have even managed to save a cash reserve of $800.
Monthly fee: $5 per student.
Monthly cash in (approx.): $1600
Monthly expenses (approx.): $1450
Monthly savings (approx.): $150
There continues to be problems with late payment of tuition fees. Sometimes student are sent home for a day or two to remind the parent to pay the fee. The recovery process disrupts the education of both the late students and the on-time students, as teachers try to help students who missed class.
A delegation from the Belgian consulate in Lubumbashi visited the school and presented a gift of guitar adjusting mechanism for the technical workshop, fulfilling a promise they made last year. This mechanism will allow students to make and repair guitars at the school.
MYRT has been selected has one of the voting centers for Congo’s 2006 election, Congo’s first presidential election in 46 years. The school has received visits from different authorities, including some local deputies running for office! The school has refused to be associated with a politicians or political parties.
Again thanks to your help the sun is rising at MYRT School. Together we can do it.
--Puma
The March 26 benefit dinner was a huge success, despite technical problems with publicity. Nearly 60 people attended the feast that featured Puma’s African cuisine held at the spacious facilities of the Frederick Way Station. Over $5300 was raised, netting over $4600 for our projects.
We’d like to thank all those who helped us prepare. Special thanks to Randy Williams and Bob Hanson and to Hanne, Emily and Allison, the Frederick students who are anticipating helping in Congo next year.
The next dinner will be in September to welcome our team home and celebrate this year’s accomplishments. We’ll send cards and email and post an announcement on our web site. Save us some expense and join our email distribution list by sending email to
