The academic year 2007/2008 began among thousands of difficulties mainly because a four-month strike by professors and personnel in all the state institutes. The students organized themselves to study using the texts and with the help of their more advanced friends so as not to lose the year. Their life is difficult. Lodgings were built to house two students per room, instead, there are up to ten or more people in each room. There is no university refectory so, individually or in groups, they have to prepare their own meals on small stoves. There are no books; libraries have been plundered during the war; Internet access is only possible at cyber-cafés and at high prices.
Clara Zulu studies Communication Sciences at Lubumbashi (2000 km from Kinshasa). She is now attending the 4th year. Last year student lodgings were closed because of collapsing danger. Clara rents a very small room and shares it with other three girls. During the United World Week, Clara organized, with around thirty students, the manufacture of bricks to be sold and the money raised was to contribute to the world fund. Every Sunday the United World students meet at Mass in the university parish. After the mass they share the Word of Life and then they organize a meeting for children, others for teenagers, and others visit people in jail.
Bienvenue Makeba: attends the 5th year of medicine in Kinshasa. In the free time, he takes care of people in hospital who have no one.
Bernadette Kabanga comes from a far away village in the inner country. She came to Kinshasa with the idea of getting a job and save some money to study. As she could not find a job –because there are not any–, she began to cook and sell sweet bread. That money allowed her to live but no saving was possible. This year, she began to study Nursing in Kikwit; she is very happy and grateful.
Niclette Diaswambu is orphan and lives with an aunt in great poverty. The help of the youth for a united world allowed her to study in high school and she will probably be able to finish next year.
There are other youths who have finished their studies in 2007 and 2008: Toussaint and Pakys are surveyors; Gelor and Jean-Paul are electricians. Jean Senghi got his title in philosophy and Charles Asobee in sociology.
Some information about the socio-economic situation in Congo The economic situation in Congo is still very difficult with devastating effects on the population impoverished for years. About 84% of the population (2003 data) lives on the limit of human dignity with just 0.30 dollars a day per person. The 86% of the families eats less than three meals a day and the calorie intake is about 1800 calories a day per person, when the WHO recommends a minimum of 2300 calories a day. Unemployment is one of the main causes of poverty (83,6% of the people who live with less than a dollar a day do not have a decent job). In 2000, the 98% of the active population was directly hit by unemployment. The foreign debt of the country is 10 billion dollars.
The first visible steps taken are not always correct. For example, in Kinshasa the maximum number of people per car is 5. However, as there are not enough cars, people crowd at bus stops and many must walk. They are pulling down houses illegally built along roads, as well as small “shops” (a table and an umbrella) offering services such as the use cell-phones, sale of bread, watch and shoe mending, etc., but without offering any alternatives. Homeless people wander around and unemployment increases. Roads are unsafe, especially at night. Many military men and policemen (they are paid 15 dollars a month) are tempted to rob. To the east of Congo, insecurity moves thousands of people. More than 4500 women and children have been raped during the first months of 2007. Road, fluvial, railway and air infrastructure is scarce or in a very bad shape. It is true that some international financing institutions and the cooperation of several countries are helping to open the first roads (for example, the Matadi-Kinshasa road financed by the EU). The Chinese are also financing roads but they do not always pay the Congolese personnel correctly. Cement is produced by just two firms (one is state owned). As it is scarce, some unscrupulous middlemen raise the price from its usual 10 dollars the 50 kg pack to 22 dollars in Kinshasa and up to 30 dollars in the interior of the country. This fact blocked some people who were building their houses little by little so as to escape from the high rents for crumbling houses.
In the interior of the country, people who have agricultural production –in many regions it is impossible because of the war– cannot sell it because trucks cannot reach them due to the lack of roads. Farmers must transport their production with bikes in insufficient quantities and in such long times that do not guarantee the arrival of vegetables in time.
Whoever wants to contribute to the project can do so by a bank-transfer to: PAMOM-Fondo Mondo Unito Banca Intesa San Paolo, Via delle Sorgenti Grottaferrata (Roma) IBAN: IT04 M030 6939 1401 0000 0640 100 BIC: BCITITMM Specify the reason: Borse di studio Congo