News

News about Don Bosco

In recent months numerous changes have taken place in the management team of Don Bosco Ngangi, the centre which receives 3,000 children each day, and which is financed by EAL with regard to school fees and health costs. New priests have arrived from abroad – Italian and Belgian. All Congolese priests have been replaced. This new structure is in place and all have begun their tasks full of courage and good will.

Thanks to you, hundreds of children are able to go to quality schools in the centre, for we pay the entrance fees. And we pay the salaries of more than 120 teachers at the professional school in the city. In addition, we have taken charge of the salaries of both doctors and nurses at the small health centre.

Senior Citizens to be helped in Goma

A new project developed by Nicole Decoux, member of EALE, to give support to the aged who have been abandoned by many, and who live truly in utter misery, has taken off.  Contrary to what one might believe, not all the Seniors citizens of Goma have received support from their families, nor do they enjoy social security which would given them a pension permitting them to live decently.  Alas, such a system does not exist in the RDC.

Nicole with some friends and women from Goma, especially Mimi, the mayor's spouse has decided to come to their aid with HAD, a non profit organisation. This organisation has existed for some time, but has no means of support other than the the good will of its members.  Their objectives are to renovate living quarters, and to give Seniors their own means of subsistence through the creation of vegetable gardens.  You can sponsor a senior by donating  to this project.  You can also participate in the September 4th walk (see events). . .Your gift will be well utilized.

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Kila Siku has been a grand commercial and social success. Ladies you are the champions!

In Africa the needles dance, the threads jumble and the points, little by little form a motif on the linen, and then an object.

Each year,  trips to Goma and Kigali allow us to prepare the collection and refine the work.  In Brussels, Madrid, London, Geneva, Luxemburg, Lasne and Aartselaar, volunteers are mobilized, open their homes and offer help.  A calendar of private sales is put in place.  Each day of the year, in Goma, (RD Congo) and Kigali (Rwanda), close to 100 women work, allowing them to come to the aid of almost 800 people.  Expert embroiderers train young girls at risk, while others may marry and establish a family.  This is what KILA SIKU tries to give to these vulnerable women  - the possibilty to find their place in the heart of a community, whatever their ethnic group or social status. African women want to work to nourish and educate their children.  In essence, they want to construct their lives by embroidering. We hope to pursue and reinforce even more this feminine solidarity, which has been set in place throughout the world in order to offer decent conditions of life to these women.

The sale of their goods allows us to remunerate the daily work, to help take charge of family planning, to grant loans without interest in order to improve unsafe living quarters, to offer improved hearths in order to diminish greatly the use of coal, to create a pension fund.  These commercial endeavours enable us to buy fabric in linen and cotton, threads and other materials...for a new collection. . . and last but not least to participate financially in  taking in many young women in distress and helping to find their families or help form new families. INUKA works to establish balanced individuals among the young suffering from mistreatment.

Thanks to the support and enthusiasm of our volunteers, the work of these women will bear fruit.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your confidence in our projects.

Kila Siku Team 

www.kilasiku.com

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The Children of INUKA are among the best at the primary school CHIPUKO!

CHIPUKO is a part of the Catholic primary school in the city of Goma/RDC.  It has been in operation for more than 30 years and is composed of 27 classes and 35 educators with more than 1200 students.  The religious congregation of nuns, "The Daughters of Mary", manage this school offering a quality education.  The school, alas, like many others in the RDC, is in a state of deterioration which does not help to maintain the optimum quality education.

For several years now INUKA has sponsored young girls who have been studying here.  The Sister/Directror encourages the children so well that the girls succeed very well and many perform better than those children living with their biological families. The mean percentage of success is 75%, compared with a general mean of 61%.  This success is based upon the extraordinary supervision and encouragement of the monitors from INUKA who visit the school regularly and who guide students in their after school studies. They demand a respect of the timetable and spend  leisure time with the children.  Bravo to these devoted leaders of INUKA projects.

In addition, INUKA subsidises 40 vulnerable children while paying their tuition.   As well INUKA has offered the school several hundred ponchos in 2009, financed by Accenture.

In March,  at the initiative of EALE, Belgian teachers spent 10 days at CHIPUKO which permitted the teachers of this school to acquire new techniques for their class presentations.

de Angèle

Responsible for leaders at Inuka

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Benoit Cerexhe, Minister of Brussels on Economic Mission to Goma, visits Goma.

On the occasion of his economic mission to Goma with other Belgian business men on February 18 and 19th, Minister Cerexhe visited our Inuka project, where he was welcomed by the Administrative Council of EALE RDC, by our partners from Goma and by all the children who gave a truly warm welcome!  Benoît Cerexhe expressed how very impressed he was at the quality of the project and this, both for INUKA and for KILA SIKU, where he also was welcomed by 45 embroiderers!

TV Brussels accompanied the mission and made filmed a short documentary on INUKA which was presented on the Belgian news on Februay 28, 2011.  

65 youth and 15 adults have found a home.

What a wonderful Christmas gift. . .Friday, December 24. . . 81 people, of which 36 young girls and 30 young boys along with 15 adults were able to settle into 16 houses built by INUKA at Kibwe, in the Ngangi 1 neighbourhood, in the Nyiragongo territory, belonging to the  Munigi group, of the Bakumu collectivity, just 12 kms from the city of Goma.  Present as Group chef was Mr. Kakoti, as well as the collectivity chef, EALE collaborators and children reintegrated with several members of their families.

In total 16 families were reunited with 8 children in their "Peace Homes"  These children benefited from a reinsertion kit and all houses were equipped with basic material needs:  beds, mattresses, sheets, covers, mosquito nets, stools, shelves and tables.

To render the environment more pleasant and useful vegetable gardens and fruit trees have already been planted.

From Delphine, project leader for Inuka in Goma

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