10 Years of Literacy Work!

Rose and I launched the CBCO women’s literacy ministry in 1998. The training team has put a lot of effort into this work. The ministry is considered by many to be the leading literacy group in all of Congo. In Kinshasa we have some 70 class sites, and have graduated nearly 1500 people. And we are the only group that tries to work on any scale in rural areas.

In Kinshasa anniversaries are a big deal. All occasions are opportunities to raise public awareness about the importance of literacy in modern life. But when the program already operates on lots of volunteer effort and a starvation ration for a budget, how do you celebrate. Badges? T shirts? Matching outfits for everyone? Influential people to speak? TV exposure? Sometimes it seems like a couple of hundred dollars doesn’t buy anything anymore.

But Rose was adamant. She took out a loan to get T shirts printed up: “Learn to read for your family’s well-being - 10 YEARS!”, with the Baptist literacy logo. The supervisors and teachers pooled resources for refreshments, and flaunted a kind of uniform at our gathering. Graduating students got their diplomas. We had a cautionary play about how reading and following directions can save your life when sick. The assistant director of the government adult education department spoke. That begins to sound like a celebration.

At the ceremony I noticed a group of young people off to the right. Who were they? They are school kids who are enrolled in adult classes in order to improve their reading, writing and French. They represent increasing numbers. Several people told about how literacy classes had helped them. One young man was an orphan. His extended family had taken him in, fed him and clothed him. But they didn’t pay for school. Learning to read and mastering simple arithmetic, he now has the means to work his way into a decent job.

Women testified about getting positions of leadership since learning to read and write and learning to use the Bible. Other women spoke of gaining new respect now that they could speak, read and write French. Several women had passed the state exam to get the equivalent of a GED.

On a side table, a pile of class projects caught my eye: clothes for sale by budding seamstresses, handmade mobile phone holders ($10 on the local market), doilies and hats represented new income-generating activities learned by our literacy students in class.

Another group of teenagers and young women turned out to be daughters of soldiers. Their families moved around so much from post to post that they never got any schooling. At Lemba-Matete, the biggest Baptist church in Kinshasa, these girls make up ¾ of the classes.

All of us in this ministry truly celebrated what the Lord has done in people’s lives through dedicated teachers in local churches. This was a day off to give thanks. But no one is more aware than we how much remains to be done if Congo truly wants to reduce adult illiteracy by 50%. Fifteen hundred people have new opportunities. Imagine if the Church throughout Congo could open the same doors for the 10 to 15 million people, most in rural areas, who still can’t read. Now that would be cause for celebration.