The only vaccine the Democratic Republic of Congo requires for entry is Yellow Fever within the last 10 years, but there are plenty of other choice diseases there! One of them requires 2 doses administered across a period of months. When I told my companions I was going to skip that one because I wasn't planning on sharing any needles there, I learned that you can get it from a blood transfusion and that it's a particularly nasty disease. I signed up for that one right away. The vaccines with Live virus have to be spaced apart so it requires some planning. Even a booster for polio is highly recommended. Other vaccines are only considered good for a few years. For polio and a few other "outdated" vaccines in doubt I had blood titers done. Turned out I have good immunity in all the titers, so I was spared subjecting myself to several of the shots. Some of the new shots I needed were not available locally but only at a "travel vaccine" place, where they try to sell you everything else imaginable but also give excellent information. And these shots are expensive! Then there are various options for malaria pills, also highly recommended. The other two travel-preparation tasks were getting our visas and airline tickets. Unless you live in Wash DC you can't just trot over to a local DRC Consulate. We had to trust FexEx with our passports, but the passport services place worked out fine. Last thing we are sweating is airline tickets. Flights are a real roll of the dice these days. Last few times I've flown I'd been trotting at full speed for one gate only the receive a text of change of gate and had to trot back the other way. What's less amusing is missing a connection due to a delayed flight. We are trying to converge onto one flight out of Paris to arrive in Kinshasa together. So far they have changed my flights three times without regard for the amount of connection times required. So far this has been the most complicated part of the planning. 1966: Our standard poodle from France with my mother in Congo. Our suburban house abutted a large section of jungle, now totally developed, along with every other inch of Kinshasa. I was 12 years old the last time I flew to the Congo. This was in comparative luxury on Pan Am with my family, my sister's parakeet and our large standard poodle. My mother the nurse had practiced drugging our dog to make sure she had the right dose for sedating him to travel in the belly of the plane. But apparently during the longest leg from New York to Africa the sedation took the opposite effect on him. He went wild, shredded his favorite blanket, bit his way out of his kennel and ran loose, terrorizing everyone who tried to catch him. For the remaining legs of our flight, my father arranged for him to fly in the cabin with us. Joë did not make a peep and stayed under the footrest area (larger in those days!) 1966: My sister Evadne with Joë at our house. A Black Mambo later attacked a Congolese construction worker by bouncing down the steep concrete stairs (at right) toward him. The worker ran backwards down the stairs while at the same time striking it dead with a shovel in a single, very skillful blow. For the return trip two years later, my father made sure Joë could travel with us in the cabin. Unfortunately my sister's parakeet, who was already quite elderly, had died in the Congo. The only thing I remember about the return flight was feeling my heart literally break upon take-off. Physically very painful, unlike anything I've ever felt before.

The service took place in three stages: Bringing the body from the morgue to the church, the service and the interment. I was told that the cathedral can hold up to 7,500 people. My guess is that there were over 3,000 for the service. The activities at the morgue started at 9 am. The internment ended around 4 pm with no breaks to speak of. It was a very long day but also rewarding. They didn't tell me when I was to be called on to speak so I was busy watching other activities before realizing that they were calling on me. Then the translator (from Lonkundo to French) didn't show up, so they had to find someone. In the end, all went well. More people than I can count told me how much they appreciated Education Congo sending someone. They took such great care of me. I would have no idea of what was next, only to find someone there to guide me. So, that is it for now… Short video clip of Ernie speaking at Daniel Ngoy's funeral When Ernie starts speaking in Lonkundo, the crowd responds with a roar of warm applause!

Imagine having to carry your sick child or spouse down a long winding path to the river on a hot humid day in the Congo. After hiring a canoe and pilot you then embark on a 3+ hour journey down a fast flowing river. There is a good likelihood you will need to navigate around areas with hippos or crocodiles on this trip. Eventually you reach the nearest town with a medical facility. The last leg of your voyage involves hiring a taxi to take you to the hospital where you join the long queue of people waiting to be seen by a doctor. You hope you have arrived in time… Photo credit: Bruno Baerg These were the kinds of experiences familiar to Moluamba Clavers as he grew up in a village distant enough from the city of Mbandaka in the DRC that the only way to access medical care was via dugout canoe. After experiencing this reality firsthand, Moluamba became determined to study medicine so that he could make medical care more readily and easily available to the people in smaller more remote villages like the one he grew up in. Moluamba got his start as a nursing student in Mbandaka. Subsequent to nursing school he decided that he wanted to become a doctor. He did not have the financial resources for university studies so he and his family moved to Kinshasa where he worked as a nurse, saving up money as he was able. Once at l’Université Protestante au Congo (UPC) in Kinshasa he found that he didn’t have sufficient funds to complete his studies. He wrote a letter to the university administration asking if there were any scholarships available. UPC was able to grant him a scholarship through Education Congo. Moluamba is now nearing completion of his medical studies! Ernie Ross, president of Education Congo, recently met Moluamba while visiting l’Université Protestante au Congo (UPC) in Kinshasa. Education Congo board members periodically travel to the DRC to engage face to face with our partners on the ground to assess programming and ensure that our mutual goals and vision for education are in alignment. Moluamba is very grateful to Education Congo for the help we’ve given him through our scholarship program. It has made it possible for him to succeed in his studies and thus move towards his goal of providing medical care to more remote communities. Thank you for your support in making Moluamba’s journey as a health practitioner possible!

“Education is to me one of the pillars of the development of my country,” declares Celeste Mujinga Musasa, a 2017 graduate of Université Protestante au Congo's Medical School. A native of Kinshasa, Celeste had imagined becoming a doctor since she was a child. Due to childhood illnesses, she spent quite a lot of time in hospitals and quickly saw the ‘superpowers’ the doctors possessed and wanted to develop the same skills to help others.   Université Protestante au Congo's Medical School’s 8-year program is very comprehensive and requires dedication. Midway through, when the curriculum became focused on medical studies, Celeste was inspired by her professors, particularly Dr. François Lepira, who made the world of medicine come alive. Her decision to study medicine was reaffirmed. Celeste spent her internship year at the rural hospital in Vanga where she found her calling. Witnessing so many children dying of malaria in Vanga had a tremendous impact on her. Influenced by her professor Dr. Thierry Bobanga, she decided to pursue parasitology to participate actively in the eradication of malaria. After completing her Master’s degree in medical microbiology, Celeste continued to plan for the future. She located a Ph.D. advisor and program at Keele University in England that would champion her research in malaria. Early in her medical studies, she realized that despite her ability to treat an ailment, a true advancement in medical interventions in the DRC can only come with years of advanced biomedical research. Celeste strives for a healthy Congo as she continues the fight against malaria.  56% of the 9,658 students at Université Protestante au Congo were women in 2024   If you would like to support scholarships for women at UPC, consider donating to one of Education Congo's named funds  designated for women: Sue Cardwell Fund —designated for women students from Bolenge Province or Equateur Province who are preparing for careers in teaching Jain-Goel Fund —designated for women medical school students at UPC Sanichas IT Fund —designated for women computer science students at UPC Sanichas Law Fund —designated for women law school students at UPC Jack & Linda Spencer Fund —designated for women medical school students at UPC To donate to a named fund, click the donate button above,  choose "Named funds" to go to our secure donation site, then scroll to choose your preferred named fund. To donate by check,  write the name of the fund on the memo line of the check and mail to Education Congo, PO Box 29, Lamar, CO  81052 USA. If you are taking distributions from your IRA,  you might consider making a direct donation from your account to Education Congo. The distribution amount that is paid directly to Education Congo would not be taxable to you and could save you some income tax dollars. Please talk to your financial and/or tax advisors on how to best make this kind of donation. (If you go this route, be sure to notify us with details.)

Kasololo M.   Kasololo, age 23 and eldest of five siblings, lives in a municipality about 30 minutes’ walk from the university. He is a student in Business Administration and Economics. His father died during his last year of high school. His mother does her best to cultivate a vegetable garden on the side of the main road in her commune for lack of means to acquire better and more suitable land.  A hardworking young man, Kasololo is highly intelligent and was eager to study at Université Protestante au Congo, specifically for the quality of education. He enrolled without knowing how he was going to finance his studies but on the faith that he would find a way.  Highly motivated to work hard for the sake of his siblings and widowed mother, Kasololo is a very diligent and conscientious student. He is now in the last year of his university studies thanks to support from Education Congo. Tingi B. Tingi is 24 years old and has four younger siblings. She lives in one of the most distant municipalities from the university. Now a student in her final year of law school, Tingi grew up as an orphan having lost her father and mother. She was taken in and raised by the family of a cousin and separated from her brothers and sisters, who were entrusted to the care of other family members.   To support her studies and other needs, including transportation, Tingi worked as a waitress in Kinshasa nightclubs. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with nightclubs being forced to close, Tingi no longer had the means to support herself. Education Congo’s assistance has been an unexpected lifeline for her, enabling her to pursue her dream of contributing to her nation's future as an attorney.

Why do we go back to where we grew up? Perhaps to see what has changed, to see what remains, or to bridge the years, somehow—and reconnect. Where I grew up I was born and raised in the Belgian Congo, which later became the Democratic Republic of Congo. When I went “back” some years ago, I indeed found such a bridging of the years as I visited The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK). TASOK is the international school I attended with students of diverse backgrounds from around the world whose parents worked in various embassies and government agencies, a variety of NGOs, businesses and religious missions around the country. While our parents were working as missionaries in the interior, my brothers and I boarded in a Mennonite missionary hostel. Memories like this resurfaced as we passed through the gate to the old lower school where we used to wait for the Combi (VW minibus) to pick us up along the dusty road bordering the noisy Chanic ship company. I remembered the hibiscus flowers that Joanie (American missionary kid) wore in her hair as she padded barefoot across the playing field from the Baptist hostel… the unreturnable and devastating ping pong slams of Azim and Bashyr (sons of merchants of Indian and Pakistani descent who had worked in eastern Africa for many generations before relocating to Congo)… Jim’s (American missionary kid) python and crocodile in 9th grade biology, at once intriguing and terrifying. So many personal bridges. The reason for my trip—to check on my investments in Congo But I did not go back to revive memories. Rather, I went back to check on my investments. I invest in Education Congo to provide scholarships to Congolese university students who depend on them to stay in school and who are contributing to building a stronger Congo. I wanted to see if my money was accomplishing that. Inspiring returns on my investments In Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, I met a team doing cutting-edge research on HIV that will directly benefit not only Congolese, but others around the world. In the Baptist mission station of Vanga (my birthplace), I met medical students who have not only excelled in their theoretical studies, but were now demonstrating an extraordinary commitment to improving health in Congo. At Université Évangélique en Afrique (UEA) just under 1,000 miles to the east, in Bukavu, set in the war-torn South Kivu province, I saw a multi-disciplinary group of students researching ethics in governance and confronting authorities with their findings—lives on the line, given the politics. I saw students in a lab, testing their own DNA for sickle cell anemia as a way of learning to curb that disease. I saw theology students focused on peace studies and healing in a country torn by brutality. I saw social science students learning how to moderate conflict and bring healing. I saw an agricultural program that not only raises pigs and squash, but addresses pollution. Panzi Hospital and Dr. Mukwege, Nobel Peace Laureate I also visited the Panzi Hospital, founded by Dr. Denis Mukwege, professor on the UEA medical faculty. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his worldwide pioneering of gynecological repair from military rape and accountability for those responsible. UEA medical students learn not only medical treatment, but also Mukwege's model of psychological support, legal aid and economic assistance. Medical students at Panzi Hospital in war-torn Eastern Congo care for patients waiting for and recovering from fistula-repair surgery, the horrific result of sexual violence as a tool of war. As we stepped out of that ward, I saw a sign on the closed door adjacent that said "Pediatrics." I asked why pediatrics would be next door to the ward for fistula repair. They replied "that ward is for pediatric fistula repair." I asked how old and they said 14. I replied no, what I meant was how young, and they said "infants." Renewed commitment to continue investing Yes, the memories help to bridge the years. But more to the point of my visit, my observation of students addressing the pressing issues of Congo overwhelmed me, and this experience reaffirmed my decision to continue investing in scholarships for these students. Donating my IRA disbursements to help students in Eastern Congo Upon turning 73 this year, instead of taking my first Required Minimum Disbursement in cash, I have made a sustainable investment with it in the new “UEA Kanji” Named Fund providing scholarships to students at Université Évangélique en Afrique in Bukavu. This fund was recently established in memory of the late Dr. Mohamed Kanji, a personal childhood friend and TASOK alum of Indian descent. A true world citizen, Mohamed was born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and lived in Bukavu before a narrow escape to Kinshasa with his family. Dr. Kanji in maroon reuniting with friends from Tabor College After TASOK, he came to the US for university studies of rheumatology and devoted his career to relief for those suffering from pain. As a father, he nurtured his daughter and son to become passionate advocates for human rights, and his fellow scholars and friends across continents came to know him as a passionate advocate for human rights. They have therefore found meaning in contributing in his memory to scholarships for UEA students studying in an environment that emphasizes human rights. I also recommend this fund to anyone seeking to make a meaningful charitable contribution that will continue to fund scholarships year after year in Eastern Congo. How you can help grow the UEA Kanji memorial fund To help more young Congolese attend Université Évangélique en Afrique (UEA), make a contribution to the UEA Kanji fund. Once the fund reaches maturity at $25,000, its earnings will pay for scholarships year after year. The larger the fund, the larger the payout—so please help bring this fund to maturity and keep it growing! Click here to donate to the UEA Kanji fund To donate by check note “UEA Kanji” on the memo line of the check and mail to Education Congo, PO Box 29, Lamar, CO  81052 USA. If you are taking distributions from your IRA you might consider making a direct donation from your account to Education Congo. The distribution amount that is paid directly to Education Congo would not be taxable to you and could save you some income tax dollars. Please talk to your financial and/or tax advisors on how to best make this kind of donation. For information about starting your own named fund, please email us at info@educationcongo.org .