Kubunina,access to school to 70 Congolese children

After the working session during the mission of Chiara Trotto all the sites re-started the activities with a stronger motivation and a new spirit of self-organization. The fact of having a better knowledge of how to plant, when to plant and what to plant in order to maximize their income, motivated the parents’ committees and helped them to have a broader view of their work.

Moreover, thanks to the specific market analysis, each site could better plan the garden activities and these already gave good results on the committee’s income.

The constant monitoring made by Mazao is also supporting the groups to plan their activities with large advance and to organize the harvest in order to get as much benefit as possible. A circular calendar was drawn in all Kubunina sites with the specific yearly planning of every farming activity the parents have to do in the year. After the participatory creation of the calendar, for a better understands of it, regularly refreshing sessions have been organized by the local team together with the parents directly in the field.

The common discussion about the activity plan made lots of good ideas came out.

In one site for example, parents committee realized they had to increase the cultivate surface after all the calculation done during the working session, so they decided to work one piece of land more per person and in one month they already have the first leaves of amaranth to sell. At the same time they understood that water was the key of their development because they were too slow in the watering and so they lost precious time to do something else. So they dig a canalization starting from the river and they built a dam to control the water. This simple solution gave them the possibility to improve their income of the 25% in the last 3 months.  They also decided to expand their filed to other culture, like corn and sweet potatoes (very rentable in the village).

In another site the committee realized that farming potatoes could be the solution of all their economic problems, so they managed to calculate how much surface they had to farm, how many times per year and how much seeds they had to buy to start the production.

So they decided to dedicate bigger efforts to grow especially potatoes for the selling beside carrots, eggplants, tomatoes and celery for their own consumption because in this isolated village is very hard to find different vegetables except for leaves; that means that parents started to have a better and diversify diet starting from Kubunina project and they would like to succeed in diversify vegetables for the market and vegetables for their families.

Beside the economic and technical advises tackled during the training course, another very important moment for the committees has been the creation of an Internal Common Rules list that should help the parents to better work together in the committees and regulate the behavior of the group.

This document has been creating with a participatory approach and will be use as well in next years to give continuity to the Kubunina’s committees; because parents could change every year but the general structure and rules will remain and should assure the sustainability of the activities.

In the last three months, Mazao’s staff went regularly to Kubunina sites to check how the community organization was going on thanks to the Common Rules list done together. They verified that generally the committees have a clearer hierarchy buy also less inactive parents, so a more efficient group. 

The local monitoring of Mazao ONGD is very useful in order to accompany the groups of local committee of parents in following the rules they decided for themselves. Parents are not used to be in an institutionalized structure so they need lots of support to understand how to behave and react to every situation. Culturally Congolese population is quite individualist, so every community project and community intent is hard to put in practice.

Very often little personal problems risk to affect the whole work of the group, that’s why a neutral facilitator and monitor is so needed in this delicate process towards sustainability.

The way is still long because the culture of waiting the external help and outside solutions is really deeply rooted in Congo; so, the only way is to keep on working on sustainability and always create new activities to encourage the self-management and self-community organization even if this process still need to be accompanied by an external facilitator. 

Links:

• Follow us on Kubunina FB page!

Kubinina Program wants to aim an ambitious goal: regular access to primary school thanks to the sustainable development of parents schools garden.

A new local partner, Mazao NGO, specialised in social business, started an intensive monitoring of all Kubunina activities and a local technical support to get parents’ committees running autonomously. 

In May 2015 a new mission to Congo of Mazao’s coordinator, Chiara Trotto,  took place. The focus was centred on training courses for parents committees to strength their vegetables producing skills, their market analysis capabilities and to develop participatory calendar pointed to better plan their farming activities.

Thanks to a participatory approach (including participatory theatre session, creative activities, games and arts) all the committees problems have been explored and lots of the difficulties had been tackled; after the first picture of the committees worriers, very simple project management bases were given to the participants; a participatory market analysis were done in order to better orientate the following decisions of the committees and a yearly participatory agricultural planning on the base of the market analysis has been created in order to help parents/farmers to improve their income by using a yearlong market product analysis.

Finally a picture of the circular calendar were drawn on the school wall as a tool to remain for next years to orientate parents choices and decision about schools gardens as well as their own gardens.

Moreover a specific   theoretical and practical training session about Moringa properties and Moringa uses have been made in one site where Moringa Trees were planted in December 2014. Moringa has extraordinary properties concerning Malaria prevention and calcium and vitamin C concentration. That means an wonderful nutritional support to the poor diet of Congolese people. These represent a pilot experience that we would like to replicate in the future. 

These training courses gave the roots on which the work of the following months will be based.

Now the way to the sustainability is still long but a new seed have been put on the ground and added to the others that already constitute Kubunina programme give us the hope in a future self-development parents’ committees.

Now we need your support to the follow up activities. Parents committees need your help to put in practice what they learn in the course and to start to run autonomously in order to pay their children scholar fees.

A regular technical assistance is very essential in this phase, with your contribution we will be able to make the follow up of 2 schools garden of Kubunina Program, that means to pay the agronomist until the end of December, to purchase the sowing seeds and to purchase the 2 water manual pumps that are so necessary to the running of the activities especially in dry season.

Your present support: a long-lasting result!

Don’t wait, do it now and give the chance to a lifelong change!