A PERSONAL note from Co-Founder, Cassandra Lee
From my desk in the Congo, June 2024
My tears burn my cheeks as they slowly roll down my face. Between the heat-induced sweat and the layer of dirt from the dusty roads here in the Congo, it makes the untimely tears that much more uncomfortable. I try to choke them back and search for an explanation to give my team sitting in front of me: “Maybe it’s just the third-trimester pregnancy hormones? Or maybe it’s just that awful that this is some child’s reality…” To this, everyone quickly extended sympathy and support, “No, it’s just that awful.”
Let me share a little from this week here in Goma. As the academic year drew to a close, our grade six students complete the National Primary School Exit Exams, or TENAFEP, that took place over two days at various school sites around the country. Our schools, which are viewed as safe and well-constructed, are usually selected to host hundreds of grade six students every year who sit for the exams.
In the rebel-held village of Kalembe where we work, hours from the main city, with ongoing raids and mass displacement in the area, the government was unsure how to organize the exams this year. At the last minute, they decided the insecurities were too much and they made the choice to cancel the exam just days before the exams were set to take place. This would spell disaster for our students, and they would effectively lose out on the past year of schooling and would be forced to repeat the year. Though our children are resilient, that is a lot to ask of a child living in these kinds of conditions. Not only that, but in the village, the alternative to studying often looks like enlisting as a child soldier or early child marriage. A harsh reality that our students are all too familiar with.
With the loss of the school year and the chance to continue with their education on the line, our students, their families, teachers, and the school principal decided at the last minute to walk to a different “nearby” exam site to ensure that our kids could complete the TENAFEP. The journey? A 12-hour walk in rebel-held territory.
The students felt like they had no other choice, so at 6 am, they started their walk down a very dangerous road, and didn’t arrive in the host village until roughly 6 pm. They completed the trip on nothing more than a few bananas and some peanuts that they had packed with them. That night, without any connections in the village, all the students and school staff slept in the jungle, eagerly awaiting the big test the next day.
Without internet connection or cell phone reception, we didn’t find out about the government’s decision to cancel the exam sites or about our student’s decision to walk through rebel held territory and sleep in the jungle until after the fact.
I couldn’t stop crying.
The thought of what could’ve happened on the way, and the frustration that this was the reality that these kids were facing hit me hard. Imagining our students walking 12 hours through rebel held territory and how that was a price they were all willing to pay because they knew the alternative, not advancing in their education, was worse. I felt so humbled that these kids would risk so much for an education.
I also felt guilty that we didn’t know sooner and we weren’t able to off them the support the needed ahead of time.
The resilience in these 12- year old kids as they clung to the cost of missing the exam. I just kept imagining the days long walk on empty stomachs, and yet, knowing the context of the circumstances in that village, I realize that the tough reality is that our students are the lucky ones.
They are the ones that have had quality schooling. They have the knowledge to excel on the exams, they have the drive from encouraging teachers, and the support from incredible school staff, willing to make the 12-hour journey with them. Believing in them and that the risk was worth it.
As the academic year ends, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting and standing with our students. I couldn’t imagine a more deserving group of kids.
Update. 100% of our students passed their national primary school exit exam and not only that, but one of those students scored the highest mark out of the entire district. Thank you again for believing in our kids!
Cassandra Lee