Bijojo: Steps in the Right Direction

In June 2009 Children in Crisis visited Bijojo with our local partner, Eben Ezer Ministry International, and Article 25, an architectural NGO who are helping us to improve the design of the schools we build this year. 

During meetings with the children and young people of Bijojo, we asked their requirements for a new school: "we want good seats to sit on, blackboards that are not broken so that we can see what the teacher is writing and classrooms that don't leak"

 Bijojo School is a five hour walk from the nearest vehicle drop off point, and a further six hours drive to the closest metropoiltan centre, Uvira.  In comparison to the more populous, and accessible lowlands of Eastern Deomcratic Republic of Congo, this remote high plateau region had been excluded from development intervention.  The teachers here are isolated with no supplies of teaching materials, and the school has not been regularly inspected.

Bijojo is also the home of the Batwa pygmy tribe, an extremely discriminated tribe who are least able to earn an income in this region because of their social exclusion.  Discrimination and poverty frequently prevent the Batwa from sending their children to school.  During the community meetings that took place Bijojo in June 2009, the need for these children to have access to the education system was recognised, and the community decided that their school fees should be waived.  The need for schooling here, especially for the Batwa tribe, is one of the reasons why Children in Crisis has chosen to build a school in this location.