DR Congo Nonkilling School Starts New Year

The “Glenn Paige Nonkilling School” in DR Congo, managed by local nonprofit MLECI, started its 2009/2010 school year on September 21, with 232 school children divided into 6 classes. (1st, 2nd and 3rd Nursing school and 1st, 2nd and 3rd elementary school). A new “Nonkilling Society” subject and English language have been introduced this year.

The kindergarten and primary school operate at Kazimia-Katondje, Fizi (South-Kivu Province, DR Congo) and was renamed “Glenn Paige Nonkilling School” by its founders in July 2009. The school was originally founded in 2006 and provides education to over 200 students, who are casualties of war, disease and abandonment. Besides providing free education to the local community, the school also offers breakfast, health care and clothing.

As part of its innovative program, the school introduced curriculum focused on nonkilling following the Kiswahili condensed edition of Nonkilling Global Political Science jointly published and distributed by MLECI and other nonprofits in the Great Lakes region. Mr. Abedi Msikana (Vice-President of MLECI) and Juma Leonard (Vice-Coordinator) have readapted the contents into a new subject called “Nonkilling Society”.

The kindergarten section is designed for children from 3 to 5 and the primary school section teaches students from 6 to 12. Kazimia is located by Lake Tanganyika, and has approximately 18.000 inhabitants. The local administration has just offered 1,5 ha to the School to build their own facilities, a project in which great part of the community is involved. A Nonkilling Monument is also being erected next to the School in remembrance of massacres such as those in Lulinda, Makobola, Bangwe, Baraka, or Bibokoboko. Kazimia is 250 kilometers from Bujumbura (Burundi) and 180 kilometres from Kigoma (Tanzania).