The home and school complex we see today started out as something quite different, an initiative designed to be a low-cost way to support street children in exiting poverty.
In 2001 Georgette’s father, a Social Sciences professor, created an organization to generate and model solutions to Kinshasa’s social problems in new affordable and effective ways.
Georgette (2006)
The first initiative was led by Georgette – to educate street children in her office, sending them back to the street where they knew how to survive – thus avoiding the prohibitive costs associated with orphanages and schools. It was an admirable economic solution, but it wasn’t a good ‘human solution’. Within a few years the children were refusing to go back to the street and were staying in Georgette’s office.
We were introduced to Georgette in 2006 by Mennonite Central Committee. By that point she had a viable financial model, funded by her salary and food supplied by the World Food Programme. Primarily with her own resources she was just finishing a building to properly house the children. When we asked, she said all she needed was a well on the site, for which we agreed to fundraise.
That first conversation with Georgette cemented our commitment to support her goal to provide a loving home to the children, an income-earning education as they become youth, supporting them as they transition to responsible adulthood.
Unfortunately, in 2007, her financial model collapsed – the World Food Programme suddenly left Kinshasa without warning, leaving her without an income, without monthly delivery of food, and no time to develop alternatives. Her farm that was in the early tenuous stages of development collapsed from having to harvest and butcher anything that could be eaten, leaving no breeding stock or any means to start over.
Starting that month she needed far more from her international contacts than a simple well. Congo’s Children, through the generosity of several hundred donors, has supported the on-going growth and development of the children since – food, education and infrastructure on the site.
In 2012 she opened a primary school – funded by a church in Germany that has since provided most of the buildings for the K-12 school and other buildings that now stand on the site, as well as many other contributions to her work.
What started out as a one-time $5,000 commitment to provide a well in 2006, has turned into a 15 year relationship in which more than $500,000 has been provided to Georgette, leading to 81 former orphans and street children now supporting their families, 17 students currently studying at university, and 37 orphans and former street children currently in primary and secondary school.
The future holds further developments – in 2019 the City of Kinshasa provided her with 15 acres of accessible farmland on which she can grow much of the food for her children – once political and pandemic situations permit. Further improvements to her site, such as electricity, are in the plans for 2021. These changes will enhance the home and study environment for the 54 children in her home and expand her capacity to reach as many as 300 neighbourhood children with a quality affordable primary and secondary education.
Her vision remains unchanged through all the challenges she has faced in the 20 years since she first sat down in her rented office to teach a street child how to read.