Community members congratulated the students for doing research at a young age. Our Malembe Rise team works diligently with students to help them identify community needs and solutions using local resources. The students learned about community practices around food and nutrition. The questions they asked sparked curiosity and promoted collaboration and innovation among the students. Students asked 5 questions; two of the questions were: 

1. What do you usually eat? 

Vegetables: 86% Rice: 36% 

Meat: 44% Fufu: 60% 

Fish: 36% Bean: 20% 

Fruits: 12% Shikwangue: 10% 

Spaghetti: 2% Yams: 10% 

2. Do you have enough food? 

Yes: 0 No: 50 out of 50 = 100% 

From these two questions alone, students could see the diversity of what families eat in their community. They also heard from families about their food needs, with 100% stating they did not have enough food. Our CoL students are learning about the availability and access to food resources, as well as their impact on the Hebrone community. 

A special thank you from one of our 10th grade students.

Name: Kaziko 

I thank Malembe Rise because: 

• They lead us to organize the club, 

• They chose to help the youth of Hebrone, to strengthen the abilities of our teachers and ours, 

• They helped us build toilets, go on excursions, 

• They helped me discover many things, like: 

  • The richness of ash 

  • Collaboration 

  • Hygiene 

  • Sustainability 

Thank you for your support and for partnering with us to increase our impact in the DRC! 

Community Working Together

The Hebrone school does not have enough benches for students to sit on or write on, which negatively impacts students’ learning. There is a need for benches throughout the school to ensure students have a comfortable learning environment. CoL students worked with a local carpenter to build benches, helping make something they and their classmates could use.

The entire community rallied around the bench project and worked together to make this happen - adults in the community sold water and purchased wood with the proceeds. Having the physical outcome gave our students the opportunity to see their work and its impact on them and on other students.

It was exciting to see the synergy among the community. It was an inspiring project as the adults in the community, students, and the school worked together for a common goal. 

At the Club of Leaders, we develop many skills, including observation to identify assets and issues; reflection; research; collaboration; problem solving; sharing skills; and many more. We continually observe what is happening in our school, our community, and our families. We previously researched a hygiene problem and realized it was due to a lack of proper toilets. We then built a hygienic toilet to serve as a model for ourselves, our families, and the community. We raised awareness among community members about using hygienic toilets, including the following standards: a secure hole, a door, a roof, good walls, a lid, cleanliness, odorlessness, and freedom from flies and germs. Our CoL students work collaboratively with the Hebrone school, community, and church. Although the Hebrone church members can use the toilets UNICEF and our CoL students built, the church opted to build additional toilets closer to the church so members wouldn’t have to walk so far. The church began construction without considering our CoL students’ learning when we built hygienic toilets. Our CoL students took the initiative to speak with the pastor to express their concern about the lack of compliance with the new toilets. Our CoL students demonstrated true leadership when they took it upon themselves to work with the church pastor to share their insights and recommendations for improving the toilets.

When CoL students first approached the pastor, they met with him at his home and said, “Hello Pastor, we came as members of the Hebrone Leaders Club. At the Leaders Club, we learn many skills, such as observation, and we observed that the church did well to build a toilet nearby. However, when we inspected it, we found that our church’s toilet does not meet these hygienic standards.” CoL students explained their reasoning. The pastor was happy to hear from our students; he followed their advice and worked with them to build hygienic, sustainable toilets using local resources such as bamboo, branches, vines, bags, machetes, and shovels. The church members listened to our students and collaborated with them to make the necessary changes. This is just one example of CoL students putting their learning and leadership skills to serve the community better. Hebrone Church members were appreciative of our CoL students’ help. 

Thank you to those who joined us for our Women’s Tea on International Women’s Day. It was a fun-filled day of fellowship and celebrating women to provide education programs in the DRC. Thank you to those who attended, volunteered, and donated to a great cause. As a part of our program, Mama Angel joined us from the DRC via zoom; Mama Angel is the wife of Dr. Jerry, our DRC Country Director. Here is some of what she shared: 

What does International Women’s Day look like in Kinshasa / DRC: 

Here with us, we celebrate March 8 at schools, businesses, churches, universities, and many more organizations. On that day, 80% of adult women and children wear special clothes they have sewn themselves with special Congolese fabric. 

The activities that we carry out on that day include: 

• Conferences and workshops 

• Fairs that share the kinds of things women do and make and sell 

• Fashion shows 

• Leisure and recreational activities, hobbies 

• People of goodwill giving the women in their lives gifts 

My thoughts and hope for the children of Mpasa: 

In hearing Mama Angel’s words, we are reminded how similar we are in how we celebrate women. The work and beliefs of Mama Angel and Dr. Jerry are at the core of Malembe Rise. We focus our efforts on teaching sustainability rather than creating dependency. We collaborate with the people in the DRC to identify problems and solutions using local resources to ensure sustainability. Thank you for joining us on our journey to empower youth in the DRC and create an environment of working together to ensure sustainability. 

Lauren Miller, Board Chair

Lauren first began her Malembe Rise journey in 2016 as our event planning intern. During her nine years serving on the board, Lauren has served as treasurer and is currently our Board Chair. Lauren is a consultant in Organization Change Management and Business Process Reengineering. “Having the opportunity to work with Congolese teachers and see students use 21st century skills to solve problems is a great joy and is what makes me proud to be a part of this organization”. Thank you, Lauren, for your leadership and commitment to Malembe Rise and the youth we serve. 

To learn more about our Board of Directors. Country Directors and our Malembe Rise team visit: malemberise.org/leadership.