“Fantastic Fundraising Ideas” and “Trustworthy Coworkers”
Wolfgang’s sister Annette is a teacher in an elementary school and her two classes support four of our orphans since a few years already. Now the school wanted to do something more for them and organized a “sponsorship-run” for all students. The teachers and local volunteers helped with the organization, the bakery and butchery of the village donated snacks, and the brave students gave their all on that day. Before the run they asked their relatives and friends if they would want to donate a certain amount of money per kilometer they would run and the result was phenomenal, way more than anybody expected, over 6000 Euros! Even the local newspaper gave a beautiful tribute to these little heroes!
Since it is so difficult to reach our orphans on the sandy paths and our old jeep is quite small and has many breakdowns, we desperately need a better one. The school gave us half of the raised amount for this purpose and the other half is for the schooling of the orphans.During our visit in Europe we could thank the students and teachers personally and took Anissa with us. She was an absolute hit! The children had so much fun with her, everyone wanted to hold her, stroke her hair and we could answer their many remarkable questions. We also showed them a video about our work and they were so inspired.
Lenka’s sister in law, Nadja, sang in a big choir in Prague and knows the conductor, Lydie, and Jacques, a Congolese leader of an ensemble comprised of African & Czech singers. Together they organized a special benefit concert for our project. Here too we were able to meet and thank the organizers personally and our thanks go to all participants of the concert!
Dalila, a friend of William, organized a similar benefit event in Rome. She rented a club hall, invited friends and showed them a video she prepared with photos and news about our project. The entrance ticket was 10 Euros and once inside people could give more donations. Before showing them the video they had a few professional actors performing for about one hour, donating their service. Aren’t these great ideas?! Thank you all for your initiatives and active help!!
Now some highlights about our work here: Since September all school aged orphans are enrolled in school, a big step forward in our care for them. Before we can start with our own school building we still have to jump a few legal hurdles, so that afterwards the building cannot be misused.
The biggest bakery in Kinshasa started to give us regularly fresh baked bread for the orphans which they enjoy a lot. We had again a special visitor from Europe. Cindy, a nurse from England, who gave the children a good check up and we’re planning to work out better medical care for them with the help of a local health center. The relatives with whom the children live are very poor and many times they cannot afford a doctor or medicine.
Through the help of some local donors we were able to again supply the children with a nice new set of clothes, a real need, as they wear them out quickly. In our work here it is of utmost importance to find the right kind of local coworkers. Our Bible study course in connection with on-the-job training are a tremendous asset in this as it reveals what people are like and what their motives are in wanting to work with us. Besides their theoretical studies they learn to apply the different subjects in their practical training. Basic moral values like integrity, trustworthiness, honesty and work ethics are on the top of the list as requirements for those who want to work with us. With the large amount of poverty here these virtues can easily get lost, although this can happen everywhere. The training of local people is the only way to ensure that our work will keep going after the foreigners have to leave one day. We want our work to stand on its own feet by that time!
Here are some of our local coworkers: Alain B. helped us to open up again the public Bible study course at “El Patio” every Sunday which is one place where we can find new potential coworkers. Our new French team members Alain und Patricia who came all the way from Cambodia are heading our university outreach ministry. There are about 120 000 students in Kinshasa, the future labor leaders of the country. Pastor Theophile and his wife Florence who helped us since the beginning as well as Pastor Simon and his wife Annie who live in Mokali continue to be a great asset in the care of the orphans.
We thank all of you who are already an active part of our work for your continued help. If you want to try to find new supporters or try some of the ideas mentioned above, we would appreciate it very much! At the moment we are looking for more support for a good 4-wheel drive vehicle and the planned new school building of the orphans as well as more regular income for the expenses of our team of fulltime volunteers and the training of potential Congolese coworkers. Thank you so much for all your help!