Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo – Tears welled into Deborah’s eyes, as a persistent smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. A long-forgotten memory was playing itself out at the site of a school to be built by All for Africa beneficiary the Georges Malaika Foundation in the village of Kalebuka, just outside Lubumbashi, Congo’s mining capital.

Toddlers played in the shade of trees, tracing circles in the rich red earth, oblivious to the crushing poverty surrounding them. Parents, acutely aware of the crushing weight of that poverty, called out to them as an entourage of cars pulled up, trying to get the children into some semblance of order as the Georges Malaika team stepped into their midst to celebrate an era of hope for the people of Kalebuka.

Deborah seemed mesmerized as the villagers began to chant “Georges Malaika.” It is a word she knows well as one of 16 young girls the foundation supports with a school education and food allowance. She listened to the songs of hundreds of villagers who had gathered to participate in a consultation for the girl’s school that they are hailing as their first glimpse of hope in a war-torn country too busy battling rebel militias to think about building schools.

She looked now at the homes dotting the rural landscape, the nutrient-rich soil, the shock of verdant green wherever trees spread their shade over mud huts topped with dry grass. The landscape could have been Deborah’s own village Kasala, ravaged by rebels who burnt down her home, forcing her join the hundreds of thousands of Congolese refugees who have managed to flee the fighting. She could have been staring at the village where her entire family perished – except that there was peace here, and very soon, there would be opportunity.

Sebastien Kinguru, former mayor and committed humanitarian, began to explain the school’s progress in Swahili. He told them about GMF’s vision of a school built to international standards, from which their children will emerge ready to lead. A place for the community to come together and work for progress, so that they can serve as an example to all of Congo as the people who lifted themselves out of poverty. He barely got beyond a few sentences before the congregation broke into relentless applause.

Kalebuka’s chief explained that past consultations had already energized the villagers who were ready to help Georges Malaika build the school they saw as their guarantor against hopelessness and hunger.

“They hear from anyone who goes into the city that people with education get jobs, but they have no way to get this education. They are used to being ignored, but now we know you return, each time with real action, and now we know we will have a school here.”

Parents stepped forward to ask how they can help, and pledged free labour:

We want to work to make this happen, we will help, we will work, just give us the chance, said a woman who identifies herself as ‘Mama.’

Noella Coursaris, founder of GMF, felt the muscles in her shoulders relax for the first time in weeks. She no longer felt the strain of hunching over her laptop, preparing for endless fund-raising presentations that blurred into one another as night followed day in New York City. The people of Kalebuka were buoyant with hope, and it was infectious.

Deborah returned to her lessons the next morning with a song in her heart, the song she had heard the women of the village of Kalebuka sing to the Georges Malaika team, “It isn’t easy to help, and not everyone has the will, the good grace to help, thank you for thinking so selflessly of us…” Weeks later, Noella showed the New York team footage of that afternoon, as Adriana and Misengabo worked late into the night on plans for the school that their volunteer/architect has sent over from Switzerland. 

Yamandou Alexander of GMF explains why it is key for the people to understand the school is about creating opportunity, not handing out charity.

“For us, the whole point is keeping the community involved, and having them take ownership of the school. There is a stark need for schooling, the schools that do exist function as day cares, we will provide a centre of learning,” said Alexander, director at Georges Malaika New York. “We wanted them to know that this school will not just empower their girls by opening doors to opportunity but that this school will be a place where parents will take classes after school hours in computer proficiency, in sewing, a place where they will receive training to help them be economically independent so they can pay to educate their children with pride.”