Will the people of DR Congo ever get a break? The BBC says it has new sources of evidence to show that UN Peacekeepers have been involved in trading arms to militia in eastern Congo in return for gold and ivory (click on the image to go to the story)
This is Ephrem: The children started to study in the new building both in Mutsora PS and Kengele PS for the last trimester of this year. Four classrooms still need desks in Kengele. WildlifeDirect has ordered them from a local carpenter and they should be ready anytime.
As mentioned in previous posts, we have started a major tree planting initiative around the schools. More than 300 trees have been planted at Kengele so far. We are waiting for the rainy season to plant more but it seems that the rains are late this year. Normally, it comes in March but until now, there has not been much rain
Although pupils made a small fence around each tree, some people are destroying trees along the path. The school lost almost 10% of planted trees. All those have been planted far from the path are growing well. Kengele Primary School Management has now hired someone to look after the field from 16h to 19h,which seems to be the time most of the trees are destroyed. They will try and protect them to the best of their ability until the trees are strong enough to take care of themselves and many more trees to come!
On Sunday 23rd March, Ephrem attended the formal handover of the new classrooms to the school Directors at Kengele. The ceremony was more a formality between Roberta and William from the EU, Mushenzi and Gudja from ICCN and William from SODERU as the children are all on holiday. They have a lot to be excited about!
And equally exciting is the tree planting project is well underway! Already 100 trees have been planted and there are 1000 more to go! Ephrem had hoped they would have been able to plant all of them by March 15th but this was not possible due to a lack of rains. It is critical to get them started during the rainy season so as to give the seedlings a good headstart. I believe we owe Lisa a special thanks for getting our tree project going and this is just the beginning of environmental education projects to come.
We are even more excited about it as we now have a new partner blogger who is all about using film for environmental education. The African Environmental Film Foundation have just started blogging with us but are one of the most establised organisations in Africa. It is a real pleasure to have you on board and we have so much to learn and share. We are certainly looking forward to showing some of their videos to the children of Mutsora. I visited Mutsora late last year and walked around with William and Ephrem in awe of what was happening. In addition to spending some time with Sam to learn more about what has been happening on the media front, I was very keen to see what the possibilities are for integrating environmental education into the schools as an extra-curricular activity. Of course it would not make much sense to start anything before a proper foundation is laid (literally!) and the children have a roof under their heads. Thanks to the EU’s support and William always there to follow, the propects are very realistic. I certainly won’t forget William who always had me laughing like an ass!
Something very special is building up between two places very far apart from eachother and someone very special is behind all this. I have only “met” Rebecca Pearson by email and I believe one line that she wrote sums everything special about what is happening in our little place in the labyrinth of cyberspace: “I am in this for the long haul…” Rebecca has initiated a partnership between the schools in Mutsora and Mutwanga and St. Stephen’s & St. Agne’s Schools in Alexandria, Virginia. I personally, would have a hard time putting my finger on a map in either of these places in the DR Congo and in the USA but this is exactly the kind of thing that kicks me about the world wide web! People that care can connect to others anywhere in the world and people who care can reach out and help any place in the world that need a helping hand.
The BIG NEWS is that Rachel, friends and the schools recently held a fundraiser and being as humble as she is, mentioned in passing that they raised between $6,000-$7,000 USD!! What more can we say except that we are in this for the long haul with you for the children of eastern Congo, and the gorillas.
Hope you had a wonderful honeymoon with your lucky man, Franc and we look forward to hearing all about the conference organised by Congo Global Action.
This week we have been a little bit disconnected with the migration of our server. So I will tell you about the activities we have started on Monday: planting trees, mostly Moringa Oleifera, with its wonderful nutrient properties. So far we have planted 200, each one with its own enclosure.
We have already ordered 1.000 more, and they will be planted mid March, the day we inaugurate the two buildings (Kengele and Mutsora Primary Schools). This was all possible thanks to Lisa who has kindly donated the money on behalf of her dearest friend Lisa as well. From all the children in Mutsora, asante sana! It is time for me to say goodbye to all the readers in WildlifeDirect. There are no words to express how grateful I am for all your support during this time. Hope to see you in the blogs!
The Bitter End, UNICEF and DMS are working on a book in which children around the world, aged 10-16 years, can write their personal views of the future, their fears, their hopes, their beliefs, their desires. It will become a unique book, representing the views and ideals of the next generations inheriting the earth, published worldwide on the International Day of Children’s Rights and the Davos Global Summit for political and business leaders in 2009. The children of Kengele Primary School participated today in this project and hopefully one of their stories will be selected!
On another note, we would like to wish good luck to Rebecca for the fundraiser she is organizing, together with her sister Rachel, on the 8th of March. Rebecca is a teacher in St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia. All funds will be donated to both Kengele and Mutsora Primary Schools. As for the rehabilitation project of both schools, the construction of latrines has begun.
As Samantha wrote on her last post before leaving DRC, the batch of supplies has now been delivered to the health clinic in Kanyaruchinya: 10 Bags of OMO Soap 20 Bottles Yddis Detergent 10 Chlore bidons 4 Baby washing basins 1 Kerosene bidon for lams
We are now on the final road to finishing with the rehabilitation of Kengele and Mutsora Primary Schools.
Sometime soon we will be inaugurating both buildings, with William from Soderu and Roberta from the EU. Educational and fundraising projects are underway and we will be working with children from both schools on new and exciting ideas. We will be posting on these regularly.
The old and the new, side by side
Last week I visited Franck & Roxane at J.A.C.K. - Jeunes Animaux Confisques du Katanga, a project that provides refuge to orphan baby chimps that have been legally confiscated by the Congolese authorities. In DR Congo the law clearly states you cannot buy a chimp, sell a chimp, traffic a chimp or keep a chimp in captivity. So when these chimps are confiscated, they need to be looked after. And that is where Franck & Roxane come in.
Roxane & I at the refuge center.
Franck & Chita, the oldest male chimp of the 13 at the refuge center. JACK started in April 2006 - and became a fully fledged NGO in October 2006.
Each morning Franck & Roxane make up the milk at their home for the 13 chimps and take it to the refuge centre which sits in a lush and tranquil corner of Lubumbashi Zoo.
Surrogate mothers Angeline and Arta help out - it really is each chimp for him/herself!
The project has not been going long, but has already made a substantial impact. Roxane was actually born in Belgium, and Franck has lived in DRC for 15 years - so their networks to have the maximum impact on the illegal chimp trade is significant. The political effort of their work is not to be underestimated.
Not all the chimps want to hug Roxane!
But most of them do.
Don’t buy me! / Don’t eat me! / Don’t sell me! / Respect me!
The chimps push and shove to get first the milk, then the bread, then the fruit, and then the yogurt and honey. Franck & Roxane feed the chimps with a natural diet, as they would eat in the forest. One of the main problems with chimpanzees in captivity is that they are either malnourished, or simply fed inappropriate foods like sweets that lead to cavities.
I was ecstatic to give Chita some milk. I could not resist shooting some video - so here are a couple of clips. Enjoy!
This will be my final post on Manioc Valley - it has been a real treat “meeting” you all. Please support Franck & Roxane - it really is a daily struggle for them, but one they embrace courageously. See you here or on the Gorilla Blog very soon! Samantha
Before I leave DR Congo I should like to provide you with the final update on the health clinic in Kanyaruchinya. It really was one of my favorite projects while I was here, and is a good example of what WildlifeDirect is all about - getting money from you to the people on the ground, and making all the difference.
This is the next batch of supplies that is ready to go to the clinic. There is a lot of cleaning product - powder for the blankets and clothes, disinfectant for the surfaces, hard core chlorine for the floors. There are also 4 baby tubs to wash the newborns, and in the yellow container at the end there is 30 liters of fuel for the oil lamps. I last blogged about this on 17th December, at which time I still had about $800 left of the $2,305 I initially raised in October. Now I have about $580 left that I am going to leave with my good friend William who built the clinic in the first place. He will purchase the cleaning materials & any other basic items that they need at the clinic as and when they request it. He is often driving past so he can literally just pop in.
The clinic is so busy at the moment, because, as I told you, it is right next to the IDP camp where we, with WWF, are supplying the fuel wood that is purchased entirely with WildlifeDirect donations.
So thank you everyone. I am going to write one last post tomorrow on this blog about my wonderful visit to JACK last week… and that will be it! Samantha
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