What we're doing now

Our initial partnership with PAID has evolved to include undertaking the goal of creating and implementing a curriculum rooted in ideas of servant leadership. With its core emphasis on collaboration and community, this educational program will initially affect the lives of some two hundred and fifty students and their families in Mpasa II. A peri-urban slum designated a refugee settlement by UNHCR in the 1960s; Mpasa II lies about 40 kilometers (twenty four miles) outside of Kinshasa, DRC's capital city of 10 million.

Our project director, Dr. Jerry Kindombo is developing the first part of this curriculum, which focuses on clean water. Access to Dr. Jerry Kindomba and Jackson Babese, president of PAIDclean water is often limited in communities such as Mpasa II, and though PAID's well is working once again, this course will provide the students at PAID with information on clean water and hygiene. Jerry's work in developing lessons on clean water will empower children to involve and teach others about an issue that affects their everyday lives. As access to clean water is a challenge that affects many within Mpasa II, children can teach others what they have learned, through student-led classroom presentations and informal conversation.

After the initial pilot curriculum on clean water has been implemented and evaluated, we plan to use the lessons learned from this experience to guide the development of the next phases of the servant leader education program. The next set of lessons will be connected to the first, focusing on vectorborne diseases such as typhoid and malaria. Bringing issues that are relevant to the community into the classroom creates the opportunity for informed discussion of topics that relate to the everyday lives of children and their families.

While the curriculum on clean water and hygiene could be described as a public health project, we see it as Kids at PAID celebrate repair of the wella great starter project to promote giving back in the community. The lessons learned in these classes won't just be applicable within the classroom-- they have the potential to permeate numerous aspects of the children's lives. Because these lessons relate to issues that are familiar, children will have more incentive to pass on what they've learned-- it's information that they and their families can use.