UMR Communications is offering the latest headlines in the RSS format.
Features
Congo UMC saves lives of abused youths Kathy L. Gilbert, Jun 22, 2010
UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS BY MIKE DUBOSE
Abel Mumba Yamfura practices laying bricks in an open-air classroom at Mount Sinai United Methodist Church in Lubumbashi.
By Kathy L. Gilbert United Methodist News Service
LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo—Gaylord Wakashishi balances on a rickety piece of scaffolding 10 feet above the ground, tapping bricks into place. He is building a reception hall for Mount Sinai United Methodist Church and laying the foundation for his life at the same time.
Mr. Wakashishi, 24, is a graduate of the masonry and carpentry school the congregation launched after seeing teens and young adults wandering the streets with no jobs and no education. Church members took matters into their own hands; with no money—only some dirt, poles and blue tarp—they built a way for the boys in their community to earn a living.
“We would have made it bigger, but we ran out of blue tarp,” one member said.
Many of the children had been taken out of school and forced to be soldiers. Others were orphans who lost their families to Congo’s long civil war or to HIV/AIDS. In a world where 250,000 children are currently forced to be fighters or sex slaves, Congo is the largest persistent violator according to the United Nations Security Council.
Child soldier escapes
One of the child soldiers who found his way to the program at Mount Sinai is Kyungu Mpelembe. He was 12 when he was kidnapped and forced to be a soldier.
Kyungu escaped with two other boys by hiding in the bush for many days. The boys then hopped a train and rode on top beside the train’s electrical lines, afraid they would be electrocuted at any moment. Now 16, Kyungu tells his story slowly with the help of one of the teachers. He doesn’t like to talk about those days.
After riding on the train, the boys were discovered and scattered in different directions. Kyungu heard one boy died, and he does not know what happened to the other. “I was just moving around,” he said. “A pastor found me and I discovered this program. It has changed my life.”
Jules Ilunga Mayani, professor of carpentry at the school, said the church took on the project to help young boys “who are not doing anything in their lives. What they want is just to learn something so that they’ll be able to support themselves, so that they will be able to contribute.”
The church buys bricks for the boys to practice with and also purchases the tables the boys make.
Practicing, 16-year-old Eddy Mbayo Nalunalee lays a brick, throwing the mortar and carefully smoothing it with his trowel. He makes sure each row is even, using a level. It’s not hard work, he said.
In practice sessions, students build walls and then tear them down, so the next pupils can come in and learn the trade.
Hopes of students
Abel Mumba Yamfura, 18, said he wants to help build villages or “anything important for my country.”
Mr. Wakashishi is grateful to the church. “My father was a builder,” he said, “and I am learning to be a good builder. I’m making a living and surviving.”
The church has helped more than 140 children from ages 13 to 18 learn a skill they can use to make a living for themselves.
The Rev. Jackson Muteba Mwongenu Pasa, one of four pastors at the church, said the project has no outside financial support. “The church members are paying for it,” he said.
“We need people to help us get some equipment so we can grow and train many people,” Mr. Wakashishi said.
“We don’t have tools; we don’t have equipment,” said Mr. Mayani. “We have the children.”
UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS BY MIKE DUBOSE
Kyungu escaped with two other boys by hiding in the bush for many days. The boys then hopped a train and rode on top beside the train’s electrical lines, afraid they would be electrocuted at any moment. Now 16, Kyungu tells his story slowly with the help of one of the teachers. He doesn’t like to talk about those days.
Mr. Wakashishi is grateful to the church. “My father was a builder,” he said, “and I am learning to be a good builder. I’m making a living and surviving.”
