7/23/2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York
NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.
By United Methodist News Service
A two-campus school project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the first to become fully operational through the United Methodist Council of Bishops' Initiative, "Hope for the Children of Africa."
United Methodists celebrated the formal inauguration of the project in Kamina with a ceremony during the July 6-12 meeting of the North Katanga Annual Conference, which already runs about 30 schools in its area. The Rev. James Fitzgerald, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries who participated in the July 7 ceremony, said nearly 1,000 conference delegates and friends attended.
Each of the 11 United Methodist episcopal areas in Africa will receive enough funds from Hope for the Children of Africa to support two projects of $225,000 apiece, according to Fitzgerald. To date, the bishops' initiative has raised $5.65 million toward a $12 million goal.
One of the campuses in Kamina, which has two five-room buildings, is named in honor of Bishop Kenneth Carder, who formerly was based in Tennessee, where United Methodists have been involved in the project. One building will be used for primary education and the other is a trade school for young women. On the other campus, a 17-room school replaces a mud-brick building. More than 1,000 students will attend the schools in Kamina.
Fitzgerald credited what North Katanga Bishop Nkulu Ntanda Ntambo called a "partnership with termites" to help keep construction costs down. As African termites tunnel deeply below ground, they pile mounds of dirt as much as six feet high above the surface. With this "termite-processed" soil, locals were able to make strong blocks with a manually-operated blockmaking machine for building construction.
More than half a million such blocks already have been prepared for North Katanga's second Hope for the Children of Africa school project, which is a residential school near the town of Kinkunki. Eventually, the site also will house a 16-year-old United Methodist college, similar to a community college in the United States, for students preparing to become teachers.
United Methodist Bishop William Morris, currently of Tennessee, planted a palm tree during a dedication ceremony at the second site, as a symbol of permanence and life.
Completion of the schools brings new challenges, according to Fitzgerald. "To this point, Hope for the Children of Africa has been about construction projects," he explained. "Now we have to talk about the operation of these schools. The only way that's going to happen is with annual conference partnerships."
For example, he said, the Pacific Northwest Conference has figured it costs $300 per year for each student attending United Methodist schools in the Southern Congo Annual Conference and is approaching local churches to sponsor a student.
During the annual conference meeting, about 150 new bicycles - donated by the Central Texas, Tennessee and North Indiana conferences - were distributed to children who will study at the new Carder school. Twenty donated sewing machines also will be sent to the school. Another 30 sewing machines were given to pastors' wives.
Hope for the Children of Africa is designed to provide relief and reconciliation to children and families who have suffered from war and to rebuild United Methodist churches and restore ministries, especially those focusing on the physical, social and spiritual well-being of children.
Donations to Hope for the Children of Africa, Advance No. 101000-4, can be placed in church collection plates or mailed to The Advance, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 1400, New York, NY 10115.
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