Understanding the balance of the natural world and learning how to live nonviolently within it is part of the Congo Peace School’s curriculum.
Nshobole (pictured above) is a 4th grade elementary school student, starting 5th grade in October. After she finished reading this book, “Our Planet in Danger,” she told Amani: “Cutting down trees and throwing away plastic waste are big threats to our planet.”
Message from Founding Director Amani Matabaro to supporters of the Congo Peace School ....
Amani shared a video of the guava trees planted at the Congo Peace School, and when you listen, it is a peaceful moment filled with bird-song. “That is part of the reason we plant the trees,” Amani says. “To bring back more birds.” In addition to providing fruit and shade, the trees attract more birds to the area, helping to balance the ecosystem, and to combat the spread of malaria, as the birds eat mosquitos.
Amani shared a video of the guava trees planted at the Congo Peace School, and when you listen, it is a peaceful moment filled with bird-song. “That is part of the reason we plant the trees,” Amani says. “To bring back more birds.” In addition to providing fruit and shade, the trees attract more birds to the area, helping to balance the ecosystem, and to combat the spread of malaria, as the birds eat mosquitos.
The students who attend the Congo Peace School experience many different forms of trauma, from extreme poverty to violence to the fear of the pandemic and the unknown, and at school, they receive support in many different ways: from meals that provide the security of not going hungry, to psychological support from the staff and Amani, who has trained in several different modalities of therapy and healing. Part of that practice is play, and this past month, the students played what we in the U.S. call cornhole for the first time. Amani says it was wonderful to see them having fun, focusing on the game, laughing and supporting each other.
A new building with three classes on the ground floor to add a third preschool class is almost finished! The roof completed, it is being painted outside and in, and after that dries, the windows and doors will be installed.
The students continue to learn, inside the classroom and out, because of your partnership. The lessons of stories, of science, of the mathematics of the universe, of growing food, and living in peace with the earth and one another, will change their communities, and ripple into the rest of the world. Thank you for investing in the staff and students at the Congo Peace School!
