Fields of Life

Fields of Life was invited by a church in Goma to construct a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The school is probably our most unusual one in that it is built on a 34-year old lava field. My first thought was to question was why would anyone wish to construct a school on an old lava field. I visited the site and when I saw thousands of people living in shacks on the lava field and the local children without any school, I knew a school had to be constructed on the site. I mark the visit as one of those gut wrenching experiences in my life. The school will open in late 2008. At this time, Fields of Life does not have any funding with which to build more schools in DRC although there is the need.

The DRC is bounded on the north by the Central African Republic and Sudan; on the east by Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Lake Tanganyika (which separates the DRC from Tanzania); on the south by Zambia and Angola; and on the west by the Republic of the Congo and the Angolan exclave of Cabinda.

Founded by European and American missionaries, the Congolese education system still depends on missionary schools to provide a significant amount of public education. Although six years of primary education is officially compulsory, only 47 percent of primary school-age children attended school in 1998–1999. Under the constitution approved in 2005, education at the primary level is free. Attendance at secondary school has risen since independence, but is still only 18 percent of those of eligible age. The nation has four universities, two in Kinshasa and one each at Lubumbashi and Kisangani, and a number of teacher-training colleges and technical institutes. These institutions of higher education had a total enrollment of 60,341 in 1998.

Rich in natural resources, the country is nonetheless economically stunted due to decades of misrule in the second half of the 20th century, under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The region was first united as the Congo Free State, a colony created by Belgian king Leopold II in the late 19th century. The colony was called the Belgian Congo from 1908 until 1960, when it gained independence as the Republic of the Congo. Its name was changed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1964 and then to Zaire in 1971.

Mobutu seized control of the country in 1965. During his 32-year-long rule he grew wealthier as the economy stagnated. After he was overthrown in 1997 the country’s name was changed back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). After Mobutu’s overthrow the DRC endured years of civil war. Although the war officially ended in 2003, regional armed conflict and a humanitarian crisis continued. By mid-2007 an estimated 5.4 million people had died from violence, malnutrition, and disease. The conflict ranked as the world’s deadliest since World War II (1939-1945).

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Projects in Congo:

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Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, employs 68 percent of the working population and accounts for 46 percent of GDP. However, only 3 percent of the country’s area is under cultivation. Large areas of the Congo Basin are suitable for farming but are currently covered with forests. Cash crop production declined markedly after Mobutu nationalized foreign-owned plantations in the 1970s, and again during political disturbances in the 1990s. Much of the farmland has reverted to subsistence farming. The principal food crops are manioc, plantains, sugarcane, corn, peanuts, bananas, rice, and yams. Cash crops include palm kernels, coffee, cottonseed and cotton lint, and rubber. Chickens, goats, pigs, and sheep are raised. Cattle raising is confined to elevated regions that are free of the tsetse fly, which spreads sleeping sickness.