REVE KANDALE
REVE is an acronym that in French means “rehabilitation of green space and schools,” but it also spells out the French word for dream. Our name is no accident.
REVE is a successful women-led organization.
REVE is a coalition of two organizations working together to achieve a mission.
Julie Martel
President
REVE Kandale Board of Directors
Merveille Gilatulu
Local Team Leader
REVE Kandale, DRC
Colette MADISHI Ramm
Founding Director
REVE Kandale
A TRIP NOT LIKE OTHERS
In September 1995, Colette Madishi Ramm returned from the United States to her home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to visit her family following the Ebola outbreak of July 1995. Ebola had ravaged the city of Kikwit, the regional capital 220 kilometers from Kandale, where her mother lived. During her two-week visit, Colette realized that she had spent nearly $10,000 through cash handouts and gifts to help her family and friends. Yet their situation remained as bleak as ever been with no sign of hope.
It was the start of the new school year. As though occurring by divine power, an unprecedented torrential storm struck Kandale the night before schools were to resume and leveled all the classrooms and their thatched roofs. Teachers gathered under a tree in the school yard to tackle the challenge ahead and divide tasks to put up temporary structures in order to resume classes. Most were in their 70s and had been teaching since 1952 and could barely hold a piece of chalk steadily in their hands.
They were quick to recommend that as a way forward, their three female colleagues be replaced by male teachers with immediate effect. They reasoned that female teachers relied heavily on their male colleagues to climb to the roof and fix their classrooms, giving the men extra work and delaying the entire process. It dawned on Colette that the amount of money spent in handouts and gifts could be better used to build an entire sturdy classroom to provide the children of Kandale and their aging teachers with a safer and more protective learning environment.
In 2010, we founded REVE Kandale followed in 2016 by the US-based REVE Kandale Foundation.
Founder Colette Ramm
Visit to Kandale - September 1995
REVE KANDALE & REVE KANDALE FOUNDATION
REVE Kandale - REVE Kandale was founded in 2010 as a local self-help organization engaged in improving lives in Kandale, Kwilu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The organization focuses on:
- Access to education
- Access to Clean
- Tree planting to protect the environment
- Youth development through sport
- Empowerment of girls and womenREVE Kandale Foundation (RKF) - is a US-based 501c3 non-profit organization founded in August 2016. RKF works in partnership with the local Réhabilitation de l’Espace Vert et des Écoles – REVE – and its more than 100 dues-paying community members to build a better future for the children of Kandale and improve their lives. The organization focuses on:
- Fundraising based on local feedback on priorities
- Strategic planning to support targeted initiativesColette Ramm is a member of both organizations and maintains alignment and ensures effective management of funded projects.
Our Logo
Designed in 2018 by the Rev. Vicki Fogel Mykles, the new RKF logo is a redesign of the REVE Kandale logo, guided primarily by its mission statement: Promoting equal access to education for all boys and girls through the creation of a safe and protective environment.
The new tag line: “Every Child. Every Dream” neatly encapsulates our goal that every child in the Democratic Republic of Congo deserves a chance to learn, grow, and dream.
The children under the tree are both learning (reading the books in their hands) and maybe dreaming… Because, who doesn’t dream just a bit when reading something new?
The girl is the larger of the two figures. She might even be an adolescent. This is intentional as girls often are unable to complete their education due to cultural practices that place a low value on learning for girls.
The tree is frequently a symbol for growth, both intellectual and physical. A tree provides a safe, shady, and friendly arbor for quiet contemplation, conversations, discussions, rest… and dreaming. As children in Kandale expand in knowledge and stature, this symbolic tree provides a solid backbone for their growing experiences. So the children were melded into the trunk.
Trees are more than abstract symbols, however. New trees are being planted in Kandale and surrounding villages in an intentional reforestation program to heal the landscape and provide nourishing and sustainable food for area communities.
Finally, both trees and people have roots that run deep in the places they call home. The children of Kandale and its surrounding villages are the future of this region. But there is more to their future than just a small school, village, or country. Because of the current time and space they occupy in history, they are not children of a single geographic place. They are children of the world. The gifts they will eventually bring to the global stage will be interpreted through their uniquely African experiences and dreams.
The lush African leaf canopies lent themselves to assuming the shape of the continent in which these children reside. Their land floats above them as reminders of the value of their heritage and future contributions.
In the end, a logo’s job is to clearly interpret the goals of its organization. An added bonus is a logo’s ability to call a viewer into deeper meaning. What’s described above is what we see. What others see in this may inspire different concepts and dreams.
What do you see for the children of Kandale?
