Gratitude, Peace School, and Preschool in Congo

This month in the U.S. with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, many of us focus our attention on gratitude. In a tumultuous year with so much uncertainty and grief, gratitude can seem difficult, but is often the very thing to help us heal and process.

In this update from the Congo Peace School, we’re holding gratitude for you, our partners in this exciting adventure, the teachers at the preschool, and the Pedagogical Institute of Los Angeles (PILA), our partner who created and support The Nest at the Congo Peace School, the two preschool classes and classrooms that better prepare students to enter first grade. There are very few preschool classes in eastern Congo, and none that are stocked with the tools, experiences, and play items that the PILA team outfitted these classrooms with when they traveled to Congo in May of 2019. The Nest classrooms also provide three teachers per class, so the 22 and 26 children in each classroom receive plenty of attention.

As we noted in the last update, children model the behavior they see in adults, so it is critical that the teachers and staff at the Congo Peace School have been well-trained in and ingested the principles of peace and nonviolence, so that they are a guiding example for the students.

Meet Barhalibirhu Mutongo Theresite, whose story offers the hope of perseverance and dedication.

A local to Mumosho (home of the Congo Peace School), Barhalibirhu moved away in secondary school, to live with her cousin who was able to pay her school fees. One year before she was to graduate, however, Barhalibirhu, having moved to Bukavu, ran out of money for school, and married instead of graduating.

"After several years of participation in women’s empowerment sessions, I decided to go back to school to complete my secondary school education," Barhalibirhu says. "It was not easy but I had the encouragement of my husband and my children. Since childhood I always felt the passion to work with children. In addition, I did not want to remain a parasite, economically speaking. I wanted to get a job, but fulfilling my dream was not an easy task. I am married and the mother of 11 children, 5 daughters and 6 sons, and I am blessed to be the grandmother of several grandchildren.

"I felt I had a call to work with children, I love children and I feel blessed to be a preschool teacher at the CongoPeace School. I feel I am a mother for our 22 beautiful amazing children we have.

"From teaching and facilitating the learning process for children since September of 2019, I’ve learned that children are amazing creators when you look at what they are accomplishing at the end of every day. I have understood that every child can succeed if they’re encouraged, loved, and given a chance. And from the trainings I learned so much and many things at a time: that children should not be asked to memorize theories and facts but let them grow their spirit of curiosity, take initiative. They solve problems, ask questions, tell stories, explain what they have built. They build extraordinary things like railway stations, houses, fences on their own, tell intelligent and wildly imaginative stories. Children have high levels of creative storytelling.

“There have been tremendous changes at different levels in the children’s everyday lives. Their sense of imagination, freedom, creativity, curiosity, is going up and up every single day. Children are taking leadership, they are no longer shy!"

In other news, a baby girl calf was born at the Congo Peace School farm! Learn how the animals are a part of the sustainable, organic teaching farm at the Action Kivu site.

Your investment in the Congo Peace School has a ripple effect into the community: the student uniforms and cloth masks are made by women who were trained in Action Kivu’s Entrepreneurial Program, giving work to those who will then invest in the future of their children and the greater community!

COVID-19 update, from our visionary leader and partner Amani Matabaro: "The Congo Peace School (CPS) fully reopened on the 12th of October. It has been a great joy for the student population and the entire CPS beloved community. The COVID-19 protocol in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and especially in school settings is, theoretically, that everybody must wear a mask, have their temperatures taken before entering school, wash their hands with soap or chlorinated water, and if there is a suspicious case with high temperature or showing other COVID-19 symptoms, that student or staff member should be isolated in a separate room until medical staff determines what the issue is. Unlike so many schools in Congo, there is running water at the Congo Peace School and students are able to wash their hands. We have two thermo flashes to take temperatures every single school day morning."

It’s a process to adapt to this new world. As you and I might forget our masks when we go out to walk the dog and have to hurry home or create a makeshift one from a scarf, so do some of the students forget their masks at home, and Action Kivu is wiring further funding to purchase more cloth masks that the school can keep on hand for those who forget. Amani reports that after the first two weeks, it is becoming a habit to pack their masks along with school books!

Amani shares that Mabikane Lydie, the school principal for the elementary school, reports that sometimes younger children forget to wash their hands and someone needs to be careful to make sure they really do every time they arrive at the school and after using the bathroom. There is need of constant follow up with the kids to make sure they keep using their masks. At the secondary school level, students are highly aware of the danger of the pandemic and they wear their masks, wash their hands and wait in line until their temperatures are taken at the gate every morning. The CPS staff and teachers are all happy to report that our school remains a COVID-19 free space from the reopening day up to now! Our school nurse has been very careful in following how the situation is unfolding, and is in close contact with a local health clinic in case anything happens.

The school has significantly reduced the number of attendees in the cafeteria and students need to wait to take their meals in small numbers. Priority is given to preschool students, then the elementary students, and lastly the secondary school students. The pandemic is new and dangerous and everyone is being careful in changing behavior to protect themselves and others.