"Creating opportunities and releasing potential"
 
SUCCESS STORIES
 
 
The Congolese are a contentious lot , like anyone else in any other country.we express an astonishing variety of opinions about politics and religion, sports teams, movies, and dress codes. Differences on questions of social class, the acceptable level of economic inequality is particularly sharp. 
 
 
But on one area we are united: 99.9% of Congolese parents agree that education is absolutely necessary or helpful to secure their children' s future. In fact, Congolese people see a university degree as the single most important determinant of young people's chances of future success - their ticket to the future. But it is harder than ever for families to pay for that ticket. 
 
 
Poverty is so bad in the Congo (DRC) that people sometimes resort to prostitution to survive, and girls are often encouraged into this industry to bring much needed income to their family but also to pay rising tuition fees.
 
 
MenelikEducation's service is designed to give every student, individual, family, and community we work with, a real opportunity to achieve what they want by: 
 

*   Improving the education system in the DR

 

*   Providing schools with adequate materials and equipment

 

*   Giving people the opportunity to share their expertise with people from the Congo and abroad, and work on community initiated projects in the areas in which we are working

 

*   Helping students financially with their tuition fees

 

*   Supporting sustainable new business opportunities

 

*  Supporting and developing schemes that focus primarily on girls education.   

 

The combination of these objectives works well because:

*   It provides focused leadership by concentrating mainly on poverty reduction initiatives

 

*   It gives special attention to the reduction of poverty among women

 

*   It supports existing poverty reduction initiatives by providing free training and support to sustainable existing businesses

 

*   It enables more children, young people and adults to go to school or university or learn skills for life

 

*   It offers, thanks to various partnership arrangements, opportunities to school leavers and graduates who would have otherwise been struggling to make ends meet

 

*   It removes obstacles preventing people from releasing their potential and achieve their goals in life 

 

 
 

 

 

This is Sifa, MenelikEducation started supporting when she was in secondary school at St Georges, today she is in her third year at the university of Kinshasa.  In April 2010, she was voted for the second year running president of the Student Union.  Sifa is studying International Relations (Politics).  

 

 

 

This is Ceasar, his parents were unable to pay for his tuition fee and he spent a couple of years not going to school.  Since September 2009, he has been enrolled at at the Lembo-Menelik Academy.  He is doing well, in fact he is the 1st in his class.  The last time we talked to him, Ceasar told us that his ambition was to become president of the republic.  Since then, people now call him "president". Time will tell... 

 

 

  

 

 

This is Ben, abandoned by his family at a very young age, he never had the opportunity to go to school.  Today in his mid twenties, he has found a aim in life.  In 2009, MenelikEducation started to teach him IT skills and Ben is now a freelance photographer, he takes pictures with cameras that MENELIK bought him and sells them. 

 

 

 

  

 
Graal, is in Secondary school at the Lembo-Menelik Academy, MenelikEducation has been supporting her since September 2008.  She is now going to university studying to become a medical doctor.  She still lives with her grandmother in a very deprived and notorious area of  Kinshasa, and until now, was the only girl on her street going to school....and university.   
 
 
 

Her friend Charlene (right) is an orphan, like Graal, MenelikEducation has been supporting her since 2008.  Charlene is a very dedicated student, in fact she is the 1st in her class.  She is now also going to university and although she initially wanted to do law, she also now studies to become a medical doctor.

 

MenelikPartnership is supporting another 17 students to help them complete their university studies.  Many of them are now working part-time for Menelik in Kinshasa. 

 
 
 

 

The upward spiral  

 

Educate a man, and you educate one person; educate a woman, and you educate an entire family.
                                                   

 African folk saying 

 

With an education, girls and women: 

 

*    Are less likely to be poor

 

*   Are less likely to get into prostitution

 

*   Are less likely to be victims of sexual exploitation

 

*   Are less likely to die in childbirth

 

*   Have dramatically reduced rates of child malnutrition in their families

 

*   Have greatly reduced rates of infant and child mortality

 

*   Are less subject to physical and other abuse by their husband

 

*   Raise agricultural productivity in peasant families

 

*   Are able to participate in the political, social and economic development of their community   

 

Educating girls is a more effective way of reducing population growth than any family planning programme. For every three years of schooling a mother has had, she has one less child.  The education of girls creates an upward spiral that lasts beyond their lifetime, breaking the cycle of poverty.