“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
We welcome the arrival of Newton’s new child and congratulate him and his wife, Marie, on their beautiful daughter.
She is the embodiment of hope for the next generation that will reap the benefits of all the hard work happening on the ground in Kandale. The newest member of the community was born at night under the light powered by the solar panel installed by Dr. Klontz in 2018. The government in Kinshasa has lifted the travel bans for the western part of the Democratic Republic of Congo as the incidence of the Corona virus is negligible. As a result of this decree, school has resumed and the engineers have been able to once again travel from Kinshasa to Kikwit and on to Kandale.
The people have gathered for the benediction by Reverend Mputu Ernest to bless the space and the new construction.
Now that the rainy season has returned to the DRC, there is ample water available to utilize all the materials that have been stored up in anticipation, the bricks, the crushed stones, the sand and the many hands eager to get to work. Many volunteers continue to break rocks while others are filling up demijohns from the water tanks purchased with donations by the members of Saint Mark Church.
The foundations for the two blocks of seven primary school classrooms, has been completed and the construction of the walls has begun. The cost for the project still requires $56,000 to bring it to conclusion.
As it stands the results from the National exams have improved significantly this year as a result of the quality of education and the conditions under which the students are learning.
In the above caption the first bricks have been placed upon the foundation. To the right is the young couple, accompanied by Rev. Ernest, who have been hired to oversee the girl’s dormitory and to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Colette will be leaving for Kandale on November 29th. She spent last weekend working with the youth group of Saint Mark Church assembling care packages for RKF’s Girl to Girl Kit initiative to help girls in Kandale stay in school. The kits include uniforms, sheets, solar lights, school bags, hygiene kits, hand mirrors, flip-flops and pens. The intention is for the youths at Saint Mark Church to have a real connection to the girls in Kandale. Days for Girls has donated 50 reusable hygiene kits toward the initiative.
As always we wish to thank Newton for all his photos and keeping Kandale in our hearts and thoughts. The REVE Kandale Foundation purchased a new phone for Newton so he can keep us informed about all the activities in Kandale.
When Colette visits her home village of Kandale there is always an incredible amount of organizing and communicating that needs to be done. On one of Colette’s visits to Kandale, she became aware of a former ‘mentor’, Jeanne, from when she was a youth in school. Jeanne Lusambu had been a source of inspiration for her and she was surprised to find that Jeanne suffered a mental breakdown and was having a great deal of difficulty taking care of the most basic aspects of life and fitting into the community.
There is no awareness in Kandale for mental illness or social services to support people like Jeanne. Like many girls in Kandale, she dropped out of school due to lack of financial support after her father passed away. Years later when her mother passed, she was never able to find her place in the community. Many members of Kandale have made sure that she has had food to eat, but it was never enough to provide her with a purpose. Colette made a request to the Coordinator of Kandale that Jeanne was to be given work at the Foundation. It took Jeanne a long time to realize that she was now a member of the REVE Kandale Foundation, and little by little, with a small stipend, she has become a stalwart member of the community where she is valued and respected.
