2024-02-26 11:47:47
BUTEMBO – In the town of Butembo, in North Kivu, certain educational circles present the training themselves. This is a result of the unacceptable conditions in which learners are trained. And yet, given the security and environmental situation, the Congolese government would pay particular attention to this region.
CongoForum visited some of the schools which, in the past, were supported by Belgian benefactors. Currently, with support cut, the study conditions in these educational institutions are truly deplorable. Students are exposed to all kinds of bad weather during study hours. If in some schools when it rains everything stops immediately, in others it is the dust which rhymes with learning, then in still others it is the collapse of the classroom walls which is imminent.
These schools, which operate in a disaster zone in the east of the DRC, also face difficulties such as welcoming those displaced by the security instability in the villages surrounding Butembo. The activism of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), negative armed groups and other negative forces poses a huge problem. In addition to welcoming displaced people, the schools also support orphans whose parents died from the massacres in Beni territory and those whose parents died from Ebola virus disease.
Some schools receive vulnerable children picked up from the street, having been abandoned by parents due to lack of resources, young single mothers, children living with disabilities and other categories.
LYAMBO Institute, Catholic approved
In this secondary school, most of whose classes are built of planks and are in advanced disrepair, the CongoForum reporter makes a bitter observation. According to MASIKA KAMWIRA Hubertine, president of the management council, training is transmitted to students in deplorable conditions. This school is a public Catholic approved school, with nearly 355 students including 169 girls and 186 boys. Among this number of students, there are three (3) living with disabilities, five (5) taken from the street, twenty-seven (27) orphans including 17 boys and 10 girls and finally five (5) displaced by war.
The president of the management council reveals that this secondary education institution faces the cramped conditions of the concession, with 13 classes, only four built of solid construction while others are made of planks and are in poor condition. All of them are neither cemented nor capped and the parents find themselves unable to transform this school due to lack of financial means. A class even operates outside the dealership. The administrative offices work on an unfinished site due to financial limitations and there had been a natural disaster following rain accompanied by a strong violent wind which had blown away the roof of the site. “We still need more than $30,000 for its reconstruction. »
No toilets or comfortable sanitary facilities, no water and the concession is not fenced.
This school operates in inhumane conditions, it is a technical school but without a workshop for professional practices, in order to combine theory with practice. It is devoid of teaching materials and textbooks.
Hence this desire to find a benefactor to improve the quality of training for Congolese youth. This could be achieved if and only if there is improvement of the buildings and its school furniture.
According to the school authorities of the LYAMBO Institute, the construction work of offices and two classrooms not completed until today had been initiated thanks to the support it had received from the local community with the technical support of the ULC DDI organization, more than two years ago.
MBUTO primary school not approved, public
Upon entering the school compound, the first observation is that it is an establishment whose 8 classes are all made of planks. Its director, KASEREKA MATHE Charles, reveals that this school created in 2006 accommodates 465 students including 246 girls and 219 boys.
However, like the previous school, EP Mbuto also faces problems in welcoming displaced children from the Beni area, fleeing ADF massacres. Others are orphans, 24 in total, including 17 girls and 7 boys who lost their parents in massacres and during the Ebola virus disease. Added to this are also the disabled who number 6 including 4 girls and 2 boys.
KASEREKA MATHE Charles thus pleads with people of good will to come to his rescue to improve the training conditions of his institution. His school needs good buildings, water, latrines, teaching materials but also school furniture. In addition to materials, support for the education of vulnerable people who study in this establishment.
This school authority also remembers the support that certain vulnerable schoolchildren received from the King Baudouin Foundation acting on behalf of the Guido Heylen Fund more than two years ago. This provided school supplies and paid school fees for others.
Kindugu 2 Academic Catch-up Center
Made up of 3 classes and 150 students, this center rescues vulnerable people, children abandoned on the street, unmarried mothers. These are mainly people who are over school age. This includes those whose age is already beyond 10 years up to 40 years.
In this recovery center, for 3 years, a 6-year school curriculum is summarized. And after three years, you are admitted to secondary studies, at least for those who are of the required age. In default, the oldest have mostly opted for apprenticeships in professional trades: carpentry, tailoring, automobile mechanics, masonry, hairdressing, pastry making, animal husbandry and others.
Unfortunately, according to KAVIRA KATSWAMBA Aminata, many learners have difficulty finishing this schooling course despite having the means. Recalling that it is abandoned young people who are trained, the center is faced with problems of notorious insolvency. This teacher added that for 3 years they pay 18 dollars per quarter. But being young people taken from the streets, demobilized, orphans and displaced people from massacres in Beni, they are unable to pay the fees.
This is the basis of school dropout, especially since many of them are maids, servants, single mothers and separated couples. This also leads to the departure of trainers who are not well paid.
Hence the need for a partner to support the center, pay the teachers, equip the center with teaching materials, help create a school canteen and a school farm. Another need remains the construction of buildings, because those currently in use remain in a very advanced state of disrepair. Toilets should also be built.
EP VULINDI, public Catholic contract
Made up of 16 classes, this school supervises 1,055 students including 547 girls and 508 boys. But just entering the grounds of this primary school, an involuntary tear comes to my eyes. And for good reason, the dilapidated state of the classroom buildings. Cracks in walls, ceilings, destroyed foundations and even oozing roofs.
KASERKA KIVINGU Melchior, director of this school, regrets that a total of more than 1,000 students only have 20 toilets, including even those of the teachers. This lack of latrines is the cause of infections, especially among schoolgirls.
This school authority also fears for the safety of schoolchildren in four classes, whose building was built during the colonial era. It could collapse at any moment, according to this school authority.
Among the major needs of this school, the director mentions the reconstruction of these buildings, the increase in the number of toilets, the supply of drinking water, the computerization of offices and classes, the equipment of classes, as well as their multiplication.
EP LIVATE, public Islamic convention
It is a primary school where the majority of classes are built from planks. Of the 18 classes, only 2 are made of hard material. According to MASIKA MUSUBAO Florence, director of this school, the population of her establishment is made up of 1,156 students including 632 girls and 524 boys.
This seated teacher makes it clear that her establishment is experiencing several difficulties linked to infrastructure. These include the poor study conditions in which schoolchildren learn. From where she expresses the wish to see people of good will come to their aid. This involves the construction of classes and latrines given that those built by the King Baudouin Foundation acting on behalf of the Franciscus O. Fund remain insufficient. This school, which deserves to have at least 28 latrines, has only 16 latrines.
The other major needs of this establishment remain the assistance and support of vulnerable students. Displaced people, orphans, children living with disabilities need school supplies, uniforms, etc.
The director also notes the need for drinking water within the establishment and the equipment of the classes. In addition, it is imperative for the school to initiate self-financing or better self-support projects. Like livestock farming, fish farming, public secretariat, school canteen to name just these examples.
LA PERSEVERANCE school complex, managed by the non-profit organization ADELUC
The primary school and secondary institute La Persévérance is a community establishment, initiated by the Association for Socio-economic Development and the Fight against Unemployment. This school complex accommodates 260 primary and 89 secondary students respectively. With 6 classes at the primary level and 7 at the secondary level, this institution faces several challenges.
According to KAMBASU HANGI Japhet, this educational establishment is completely devoid of everything needed for a school, for quality training. No classes, no teaching materials, no toilets, and so on.
Hence, asks this educational authority, support from benefactors is needed without which the establishment would risk closing its doors. However, he contributes to the supervision of vulnerable children who are victims of the security context that the province of North Kivu is going through.
These are displaced children victims of the massacres in Beni and negative armed groups around the town of Butembo, orphans in the same situation and others.
This institution would like to have good, well-equipped classes, school supplies and teaching materials, computers and other electronic tools, latrines, etc.
While thanking the Organization Union for the Fight Against Delinquency and for Integral Development “ULCDDI ONG-ASBL” and the King Baudouin Foundation acting on behalf of the Guido Heylen and Franciscus O. Funds for its support of their initiatives and in the schools of Butembo and its surroundings, the various school heads and teachers are calling on it to support them more and to put them in contact with other benefactors and private donors all over the world.
© CongoForum – Roger Mulyata, 22.02.24
Images – source: Congolese press
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