Sep 28
Another post from Byron’s Congo trip:
Friday, Set. 4, 2009
Today, after our seminar concluded (it was a success), I visited a nearby school. The building serves three uses. In the morning it is a secondary school serving some of the outstanding young people selected from across the CEUM. In the afternoon it is used by three classes of young women who are learning to read, write, and perform basic arithmetic. These are young women who had to skip normal schooling and now realize how much they need it. About half already have children, and some of them are single mothers. The program takes three years. At the conclusion, a few manage to go on to secondary school. This year, one of the graduates received a secondary-school diploma and three others are in secondary school. At present, there are 30 women in the basic level, 36 at the second level and 26 at the third level. They focus on learning to read and write both French and Lingala, on arithmetic, and on learning to sew.
I asked what they hoped to attain. One young woman said she wanted to learn to sew and read her Bible. Now she can do both—and she said she now realizes how important it is that her children attend school.
Another woman who spoke is 56 years old. She had always wanted to be able to read her Bible for herself and now she can. She was also proud that now she can write her name. I wish you could have seen her face as she talked. Clearly she is very proud of her achievement!
QUESTON OF THE DAY: Beyond being able to read and write, how important to development are the pride and confidence that come with that capability?
Tagged with: Congo • education • leadership
Sep 24
Here is the second post sent by Byron from Congo:
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
We flew from Kinshasa to Gemena today. This time it was a direct flight that took about 1½ hours. The difficulty is that it only happens once a week. We could fly up with MAF (Missionary Air Fellowship) but that costs $2,000 each or more. The only other option for getting to Gemena is by boat, but that can take weeks and may not be safe. There are no flights to other places to which we regularly go. Getting to and departing from Gemena must be carefully planned.
Saturday, we’ll drive from Gemena to Karawa. In the past, that 50 miles has been a five-hour trip in a four-wheel drive vehicle. The road is being reconstructed and I’m told that it now takes about 2½ hours. Thanks to the European Union for financing this work!
Question of the day: When will another airline begin flying to Gemena so that timing is not so critical?
Tagged with: Congo • development • transportation
Sep 16
Editor’s note: We’ve just received several blog pieces from Byron in Congo. Without adequate Internet service to send them at the time, he wrote anyway and saved them up. Here is the first.
August 24, 2009
Today, was our first day back in Kinshasa, Congo. Our first call was at the USAID office, where we learned that our microenterprise project is on track for approval. They hope the papers will be available within the time we are in Congo. USAID is also developing some new agricultural projects that may be of interest to us. They were eager to connect to others working in development. Most exciting, we heard that the Deputy Prime Minister is pursuing a project with the World Bank to develop $120 million in projects in Équateur Province (which includes the Ubangi area). Half is proposed for infrastructure and half for agricultural development. They also pointed us to Dr. Mahungu at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), who is working with several groups to institute growing much better varieties of cassava. We visited him and learned that they have also developed new methods of processing cassava to preserve taste while minimizing cyanide residues.
At CDI Bwamanga [the Catholic development agency] we learned more about their road development projects. They have progressed well on the Gemena-Karawa road but are not finished. They are building log bridges, so cement bridges would be very welcome in some places. They hope to extend the road to Businga in the near future, but that depends upon funding by the European Union. CDI are interested in a partnership with us regarding future USAID projects and for promoting coffee production.
QUESTION of the day: How can we help CEUM to develop the leadership skill required to manage $1 million-plus projects?
Tagged with: Congo • cooperate • development • leadership • sustainable
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