Giving Back to Africa

GBA Partners

The situation in the DRC makes it impossible to adequately address any one issue in isolation, which is why GBA invests in the development of partnerships with Congolese organizations and facilitates connections between organizations, scholars, and resources. We believe that given the current situation in the DRC, investing in short-term projects and infrastructure can be a long-term investment in human capacity and help us achieve or long-term goals of educating young people, empowering leaders, and creating positive change in Congolese communities.

Our three partners in the DRC share with us the philosophy and commitment to improving the lives of Congolese people through education and community service. These experienced Congolese run organizations provide a solid foundation for our programs. Our partners include:

The Protestant University of Congo (UPC)

UPC located in Kinshasa, the capital city, is one of the premiere universities in the DRC. UPC was founded in 1959, one year before the DRC gained independence, by a variety of Protestant denominations. The university has remained independent and has been a pioneer in higher education in the DRC. Today UPC offers undergraduate and graduate degrees from its School of Business and Economics, School of Law, School of Theology, and its School of Medicine. UPC has a diverse student population; during the 2006-2007 academic year it had over 5,300 students enrolled, half of whom were female.

The GBA Scholars Program is based at UPC and all of the Scholars are enrolled at UPC during the first two years of the program while they are completing the coursework for the equivalent of their Masters degree. The UPC faculty and administration have played a key role in establishing the GBA Scholars Program at UPC. For more information on UPC visit their website at: www.upcongo.org/

PAID (Program of Aid and Integration to the Underprivileged)

PAID is a Congolese nonprofit organization formally created in October 2002 and located outside of Kinshasa. The mission of PAID is to assist underprivileged people‚ especially street children and orphans‚ to become capable of supporting themselves. The scope of their vision encompasses health, education, and development. Because the long-term vision of PAID is to help the children they serve become self-sufficient, PAID staff provide younger children with a primary school education and children over the age of 15 with professional training. In addition to running the orphanage which houses about 50 children PAID opens its primary school to the local community and educates more than 150 children.

GBA has connected PAID with another nonprofit organization called Rivers of the World (ROW). ROW has helped PAID repair the dormitories for the orphans and dig a new well to provide clean water to the community. GBA hopes to be able to facilitate other mutually beneficial connections between organizations working to improve the lives of people in the DRC.

PAID also serves as one of the service-learning sites for the GBA Scholars. This allows the Scholars to apply their community development training to assisting the orphans and students at PAID and to learn more about the realities of running a community development organization.

Click here to see a video of the GBA Scholars at PAID.

CFFL (Training Center for Future Leaders)

CFFL, in the rural Equateur province, was created in 2005 as a training center for future leaders of the DRC. Its immediate goal is to help prepare a select number of secondary school students to successfully pass their national exam through intensive preparation and training. The intermediate goal is to provide opportunities for students who do pass their national exam to attend institutions of higher learning with the intention that they will return as leaders in areas such as health care, education, development, gender education, agriculture, and pastoral work. The long-term goal of CFFL is to create a university for students in Equateur province who currently have to go 600 air miles south to Kinshasa if they wish to attend a university.

We recognize the enormous immediate needs in the DRC. This is why GBA continues to foster education in the DRC at all levels by providing financial support for PAID and CFFL. This enables our partner organizations to meet the short-term needs of their students, orphans, and teachers by providing salaries, food, school supplies, and books.