A mother watches as her child leaves their meager lodging, and the father? Killed years ago in one of Congo’s many military conflicts. The child walks shoeless through a path of waste and decay that is the route from home to school. Each step is an ugly coin-toss between the possibility of minor injury and dangerous infection. After traversing this risky road, the child reaches school– but school is not the safe-haven you might be picturing.
The school grounds are barren because of radioactive waste dumping. Nothing can grow until the waste is hauled off and wells are dug to water it. This is expensive and time-consuming, so for now there will be no food provided at school. Inside the school, temperatures reach heat-stroke levels, since there are no glass windows, no doors, no sinks, and no insulation or electricity. Typhoid and cholera thrive in this unsanitary environment, but this is the safest area the child will spend time in today. A lack of funding makes it impossible to keep the proper amount of qualified teachers present, yet these are still not the greatest problems faced by the school. Where you might take using toilets for granted, here they are a life-threatening challenge.
Most people would consider a simple hole in the ground used as a latrine disgusting or unacceptable. Here, that is a goal that is not even achievable. A hole in clean ground to control the spread of diseases like dysentery or typhoid would save the lives of countless schoolchildren and faculty alike. Because of the Congo’s lack of infrastructure, this is a very expensive task to accomplish. Materials cost three times the normal amount and this problem is only compounded by the fact that 90% of the population is unemployed. The completion of this project is imperative for the safety of the children and faculty of the Stabanoud School, and outside help is essential. For them, the $14,000 dollars it will require is an insurmountable obstacle. It is only through the participation of women around the world that these desperately needed facilities will be built.
While the short-term goal of hygienic latrines, a school meal program, and clean water is absolutely crucial, the ultimate solution to the problem of crippling poverty in the Congo is more sustainable projects. Immediate goals are necessary, but they will not fix the root of these problems. Lovoi Sustainable Villages wants to enable the people of the Congo to realize the long-term goal of sustainability. Their vision is to create a renewable infrastructure that mends the land and produces prolonged economic relief. This reality will come primarily through the women of the Congo. There are almost no able-bodied men, with entire villages lacking adult males between the ages of 16 and 55.
Lovoi Sustainable Villiage is helping the women of the Congo learn to farm, manufacture soap, produce essential oils, grow plants for herbal medicine, as well as other endeavors that will generate profitable goods and positive services for the villages of those who engage in producing them. They’re empowering women to sustain themselves so they can feed, clothe and educate their families. Through the united power of women, this dream will become real. Women united on all continents– not just Africa– working together to help the women and children of this war-torn country.
One women at a time, one act at a time, one child at a time. Will you participate in the power of one?
