Well, I didn’t mean it to take this long, but here is
installment #2 about my DRC trip in February:
On Tuesday, February 14, we got started on our work with the
Congo Initiative (CI). We started out
with a big meeting between our team and many of the leadership of CI/UCBC. The overarching NGO is The Congo Initiative,
but their main emphasis right now is UCBC, which stands for a French version of
Christian Bilingual University of Congo (so I’ll probably use UCBC and CI
somewhat interchangeably).
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| Dr. David Kasali |
The Congo Initiative is really like this BRIGHT LIGHT OF HOPE in Eastern
Congo. Dr. David Kasali and his wife
Kaswera, have an amazing heart for their country, and the vision to match. Dr. Kasali is from Beni (where CI is located),
but was educated in Kenya and the US (including a PhD). He held prominent positions at universities
and church organizations for many years and led a relatively privileged
life. (Looking back, he says he realizes
that he was letting God have every part of him except his wallet). After two of his siblings were killed in the war in Eastern DRC, he says he finally let God have all of him, and he and
his family decided to move back to Beni in 2001, even though the war continued
around them.
To back up a bit, the DRC has been in turmoil since the
1800s. King Leopold II of Belgium
started the colonization of the DRC when he acquired the land has his private
property in 1885. (In the past it has
been known as the Belgian Congo and later Zaire). According to my more-scholarly friends who
have read a book about it (“Leopold’s Ghost”), he raised funds from around the
world for humanitarian initiatives in the region. Unfortunately, he misused the funds and basically
raped the land of its resources while ignoring, or simply using/oppressing, its
people. When the Belgian Congo received
independence in 1960 (about the same time as all the other East African nations),
Belgium pulled out and left the new country with very few educated or trained
leaders, resulting in what is still considered a “failed state.” Mobutu, the Congolese leader who ruled Zaire
in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, continued Leopold’s waste and selfish personal use
of the country’s resources. It’s all
especially sad, since the DRC actually is one of the most resource-rich
countries in Africa. The Congo River
alone, which flows through much of the country, has more hydro-electric power potential
than all the rivers and lakes in the US combined! And yet, the DRC is currently the lowest (187th
out of 187 countries) on the United Nations’ Human Development Index and listed last (81st
out of 81) according to the Global Hunger Index on the list of countries
considered to have a serious, alarming, or extremely alarming hunger situation.
(According to the GHI, almost 70% of DRC’s
population is undernourished, compared to 10% of China’s and 20% of India’s.)
The Kasalis returned to Beni understanding the need to
rebuild the nation after decades of corrupt governance and in the midst of a
civil war that has sometimes been referred to as “Africa’s World War.” They desired to give the Congolese people
hope and a determination to invest in and change their nation. In 2002, the Kasalis decided to gather about
a dozen Congolese church leaders for a weekend “retreat” to ask three
questions: 1) What is happening in the DRC?
(What is the problem ... and how can people be so evil?) 2) Where
is the church? What impact has it made? 3) What should we do about it?
These leaders prayed and talked and brainstormed and
categorized their ideas and in the end came up with six areas of focus – six
ways that Christians should “be the church” in a hurting nation. The Congo Initiative was formed to address
these six areas, or “centers:”
1-UCBC (the need for a university)
2-The Center for CI-UCBC Development and Partnership
3-The Center for Church Renewal and Global Mission (training
church leaders)
4-The Center for Community and Family Renewal (women’s rehab,
child development, health, family counseling, etc.)
5-The Center for Professional Development and Vocational
Training
6-The Center for Creative Arts
The Congo Initiative has a unique relationship with its US
board. After coming up with the six
areas of focus, Dr. Kasali went back to his contacts in the US and asked them
to help flesh out the Congolese’s ideas.
He then took those plans back to the Congolese to make sure they were
headed in the right direction. The plan
went back and forth between the US and Congolese teams until it was further
developed. CI now has a US board (in
addition to a Congolese Board), which helps to raise funds and acts as
consultants to the Congolese CI leaders.
Unlike many organizations where are birthed in the West and then look
for local leaders to help lead them, CI was started and initiated by Congolese,
and US partners were brought in at the request of the Congolese as
consultants. A pretty exciting model!
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| EMI checking out the property with Dr. Kasali |
Dr. Kasali shared that the Congolese are often wary of NGOs,
as they are seen as outsiders and not a part of the people. CI decided to focus its initial efforts on
the university in order to gain credibility with the local community. They have a vision for the CI campus to feel
like a village, where people are welcomed into it and feel like they’re a part
of it. In 2006, CI was given 85 acres at
a very low price, and in 2007, UCBC was opened.
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| A UCBC class in session |
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| The new Community Center under construction |
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| It will contain an auditorium that seats 3,000! |
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| Using every possible space - even unfinished ones! |
UCBC currently has several hundred students enrolled and is
utilizing one existing building plus parts of a very large community
center, which is still under construction.
UCBC currently has four degree programs: Applied Sciences, Communications,
Economics, and Theology. Dr. Kasali
shared that the Congolese culture is very community-oriented except in the area
of education, which has become very competitive and individualistic. UCBC has a strong focus in community learning
and believes in raising up leaders who do not consider themselves better than or
separate from the less-educated members of their communities. One way they address this is by requiring every
student to participate in two hours of manual labor (grounds keeping,
construction, etc.) per week. They also
hold service days in the community, where even the professors and university
president (Dr. Kasali) are out on the streets picking up trash, etc. As part of the communications program,
students are already running a radio station on campus. [An interesting side note: Ben Affleck (yes,
that Ben Affleck) has a heart for the eastern DRC, so he formed a foundation to
help. He actually wanted to name it the
Congo Initiative, but he couldn’t because this one already existed, so his
organization is called the Eastern Congo Initiative. But they have friendly relations, as Ben, his
mom, and some others have visited CI, and his foundation has helped to fund the
radio station and other parts of the communications program.]
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| The UCBC Radio Station |
CI’s vision for their 85-acre campus is to accommodate 3,000
university students, dormitory housing for half of them, some staff &
faculty housing, a childcare center to allow mothers in particular to be able
to attend classes, a primary & secondary school to demonstrate quality education
techniques, vocational training spaces, and the necessary spaces to run the
other five centers of CI. It was such a
great experience to get to work on this project and get to know the people at
UCBC. They are all such wonderful
people, and I was especially struck by all of the educated, capable,
intelligent Congolese who were giving of their talents and time to be part of
this vision for an improved DRC. It is
very exciting that this whole thing was started and is still run by local
Congolese.
One of the US Board members, Mary, was there while we were
there – she was our wonderful, helpful, and gracious host. I also really appreciated meeting the two American women who live there full-time, Bethany and Chelsie. There are such beautiful, humble people, who
I look forward to seeing again, since they occasionally come in to Kampala
(their nearest major city). It really
made me appreciate all the conveniences we have here in Kampala when I realized
these women have to drive for 10 hours just to get here so they can get some
chocolate. =) There are NO grocery stores in Beni, which
pretty much means nothing imported. The
only place to shop for food is at the outdoor local market. Now, I’m happy to shop in the local market for
produce, but I still go to the grocery store weekly for things like yogurt,
milk, butter, cheese, bread, apples, pasta, powdered sugar, cat litter, meat,
olive oil, flour, toilet paper, etc.
Since there is NO electrical grid in Beni, everyone runs off of
generators. Petrol (gasoline) is
extremely expensive, so these ladies get three hours of power per night at
their house (fortunately they can use their computers and internet during the
day at the university). Three hours of
power per day = no way you can have a fridge.
Yikes! And they don’t have an
oven at their house. No baking? That’s when I realized I have NO cause to
complain about the few conveniences we’re missing in Kampala! Major props to these ladies for their
willingness to give up Western conveniences to help support this awesome
university!
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| The ladies of our trip: Chelsie (CI), Eileen (eMi Volunteer), Mary (CI-USA), me, Lise (eMi Intern), Bethany (CI) |
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