£7,700 has been awarded to Comfort International for Education for All in North Kivu conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This has been funded by Baillie Gifford International, administered by Foundation Scotland. This money will be vital to improving the quality of schooling that can be provided for children caught up in extreme conflict and poverty, and supporting the teachers who are sacrificing so much to make sure that education is being provided to those in such desperate need.
Comfort International’s partners in Congo, Comfort Congo, are presently providing education in 173 schools, in many cases to displaced and vulnerable children. In one community with a rudimentary school, 61% of present pupils are displaced, 8.3% orphans, 9.3% children of rape survivors, and 1.8% displaced pygmies. Many of the children served by those schools are already unable to pay school fees and so the school teachers sometimes go without salaries and school equipment is hard to come by. Comfort International provides a small number of teacher sponsorships and has supported the building of four full or part schools. However, recent conflict involving armed groups in North Kivu has dramatically increased insecurity. A March 2023 UN report states, ‘Over the past year, ongoing violence has affected education for more than 600,000 children in North Kivu. It has also uprooted more than 800,000 people in a country where more than six million are internally displaced.’ This has led to two related pressures on Comfort Congo’s schooling. Firstly, many displaced people took shelter in the schools meaning equipment was broken and/or used as firewood. Secondly, displaced children need schooling, both educationally to maintain their education, but also socially to provide stability and structure to their uprooted lives.
The funding provided will provide a huge boost to Comfort Congo’s efforts to continue to provide education and schooling to children who are desperately in need of the hope and opportunity that education can bring. The funding will cover sponsorship for 6 teachers. These are teachers like Theophile, who, without sponsorship money, would struggle to make ends meet for his family, “The sponsorship money I get is building my hope for the future because it helps me cover the cost of my rent and get food for my family, and that makes me hope to live like others do. Before, it was difficult for me to go to church with others as I was ashamed to stand or sit with others in the same clothes as I seldom changed, but today with the sponsorship money, I get clothes to allow us partake to church services and there, we pray and worship and sing praises with joy. I am happy with my life as a teacher because I like being with other colleagues – we change lives.”
Some of the money will also go to providing new desks and blackboards, and building and furnishing new classrooms. Many of the classrooms are built on top of volcanic rock, due to the repeated explosion of the Nyiragongo volcano in the area. Because of the overwhelming amount of children in the classroom, classes are overflowing, so new and refurbished classrooms are in great demand. The classroom on the left contained 126 children in one class!
This grant is a wonderful encouragement and we are so grateful for the opportunity to renovate, improve and increase the capacity for Comfort Congo to provide education to children and support teachers in such an unstable and desperate area. However, the need is still immense. Comfort International is currently requesting donations towards funding a new building for Kambize and Kisima schools. The current school is little more than some wooden planks on top of some volcanic rock, and while the teachers are doing the best they can to provide the best level of education possible, the children are in desperate need of a new building. The Congolese Development Bank have offered to pay for 90% of the school, providing Comfort International can raise the other 10%, which is in the region of £21,000. If you would like to support this appeal, please head to our donation page here.
