Education

““We are on our way to making Kandale the true center of
education that is our vision.””

Building Schools. Building Dreams.

GUFWA GUBILA PRIMARY SCHOOL - 2022

An accelerated pace of school construction has been a major accomplishment of REVE Kandale over the past few years.

In 2019, under the leadership and advocacy of REVE Kandale co-founder Colette Ramm, the DRC government was persuaded to complete a six-classroom block for Gufwa-Gubila Primary School that had been started six years earlier but left unfinished. The classrooms were fully equipped with desks and blackboards, a new office for the headmaster and six latrines for the 276 students and 13 teachers at the school.

By the end of 2021, REVE Kandale had raised enough funds to build seven additional classrooms, giving the primary school its full complement of 13. In 2023, the Gufwa-Gubila primary school was in full operation with over 300 Students in grades 1 – 6. Final work on the newest block of seven classrooms included an exterior coat of paint and a ramp to accommodate students with disabilities.

MULTIPURPOSE EDUCATION CENTER

The Multi-Purpose Education Center which sits directly behind the church serves as the primary space for students to take exams, for the community to hold regular meetings and a space to entrust the growing library, the very popular sewing program, the solar panels and access to the internet. Presently the electricity generated by the solar panels lights the various rooms and offices. In addition, the solar panels provide power to run the laptops and connect to the internet. People come great distances to use the internet to communicate with loved ones in Angola, Kinshasa, and internationally. Colette communicates from Washington DC on a regular basis with members in Kandale using email, Facebook, Zoom and WhatsApp. Even the roof collects rainwater to fill the three large tanks that sit adjacent to the building to help alleviate the water crisis in Kandale. The lights have changed the culture of the community by allowing people to stay up late to communicate, read from the growing library or even study for their classes.

COMMUNITY LIBRARY

The library in the Multi-Purpose Education Center now has over 1,000 books. In order to promote increased usage of the library, we launched “Ami du Livre,” a project designed to promote reading. Forty-eight students joined and received a book appropriate to their age. REVE Kandale also supported a training for teachers and students of the secondary school sewing section to optimize use of sewing machines we received previously.

GIRLS’S DORMITORY

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MENSTRUAL HYGIENE KITS

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SOLAR ENERGY

The year 2018 saw some major developments for REVE Kandale Foundation that will have a lasting impact on the community of Kandale. We are grateful for the support of our generous donors and for volunteers such as Dr. Karl Klontz and David Whitford. Karl and David traveled to Kandale in October with several board members and installed solar panels on the hospital maternity ward and the new multi-purpose education building that the Kandale community built with lightning speed. It is a reminder that progress, and development do not always travel in a straight line.

REVE Kandale Foundation and the local REVE Kandale organization in Congo do not have a solar energy program per se. However, when Karl heard about our work, he committed to go with us to Kandale. The maternity ward was the priority, but Karl pledged that if we could complete the education building in time for the October trip, he would put three panels on the roof of that building as well. The motivation and spirit of the Kandale community to finish the building was impressive. With lights, students are now using the building for evening studies, and together with 40 new sewing machines we delivered, it has attracted students from surrounding villages to enroll in Kandale schools, particularly Lycee Gin’a Gisanga, the technical school. We are on our way to making Kandale the true center of education that is our vision. The education building aside, the work of Karl and David has made the maternity ward much safer for mothers giving birth at night. In fact, we witnessed the first baby born under the lights while we were there.