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In order to meet local regulations and prevent water from flooding through her property, Georgette is required to complete her exterior wall and install gates, as noted in the map of her property.

Upgrading Infrastructure to Meet Local Requirements

Georgette is currently upgrading the site’s infrastructure to better manage the water that floods her property, causing damage to the property, her relationships with downstream neighbours, and most recently to school books and food.

Given the increasingly intense rainfalls, she must now meet the local standards which require her to prevent water from running through her property to the properties downstream. This includes two key projects:

  1. Completing a fence and retaining wall across the top of the site so water is directed to a nearby stream.
  2. Improving the retaining walls within the site to prevent the erosion that undermines her buildings.

The Fence/Retaining Wall:
Kinshasa’s Education Department mandates that all schools be fully enclosed by a fence with metal gates. A German church has provided partial funding for this project, and three sides of the wall are complete. The final side, along the road across the top of the property, is partially finished and requires additional work. This section needs to channel water away from the home and serve as a retaining wall.

Approximately 75 meters of the fence along the road remain to be completed. The estimated cost to finish this properly is $35,000. This price is higher than expected due to several factors:

  • The elevation difference: This section of the campus was excavated to put up the buildings, so the grade sits below the road. The retaining wall must rise 15 feet to reach the road level, with a brick wall rising an additional 5 feet above that.
  • Retaining wall requirements: To function as a retaining wall, the fence must be built from stone.

We plan to visit the site in August 2025 to obtain drawings and a more accurate cost estimate.

Retaining Walls Within the Site:
Georgette’s Home and School are located on the side of a hill, and the sandy soil is prone to erosion. Several smaller retaining walls are needed to stabilize the site and prevent further degradation of the property and the foundations of the buildings. We expect to have drawings and a budget by September 2025.

These infrastructure upgrades are vital to ensuring the safety and stability of the site, and your support will help complete them, providing a secure environment for the children and staff.

A place to call home for 53 former street children
1. From her own funds, earned while working for the World Food Programme, Georgette built a house in 2005/6 as a home to 54 children. Now the front half of the building houses the kindergarten, and the back half houses the girls.
2. Congo’s Children sourced funds from the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation to purchase water tanks which collect water during the rainy season, providing a steady supply of clean water during rainy season for the home, the school, and the neighbourhood.
FIDES well on Georgette's property
3. An American organization provided a well in 2014, complete with solar panels to power the pump. In the years since it has become clear that the equipment – sand filter, electric motor, power for the motor, and the pump need an upgrade to provide reliable longterm service.
4. Georgette’s focus from the beginning of her work was and is education. A German church, The Evangelical Church of Oberbantenberg-Bielstein, provided the funds for these first 6 classrooms. These are the first school buildings to be put up, and were put in use before construction was even complete.
5. A local contractor provided two more classrooms in 2015 for free – as a demonstration of a new building technique he was modelling
6. The same German church that put up the first school buildings provided the funding to put up a second home in 2020 – for the boys.  We do not currently have a picture of this building.