A. Mwapoleni Project:

The purpose of the Mwapoleni Project is to empower the people of the Mwapoleni community and its vicinity. Roughly 10,000 people live in this area (70% are women and children) and will be able to take advantage of the organic agriculture, clean water, public school, training classes, and the upgraded infrastructure we are making available.

B. Saint Abanoub Elementary School:

Saint Abanoub Elementary School was established in order to educate the disadvantaged refugee youth of the North Katanga and North Kivu region, whom were forced to flee their homes and take refuge in other parts of the Congo, particularly Lubumbashi due to the war. SAES adopted over 100 of these children, and is providing free education to 55 boys and 70 girls, of which 80% are orphaned. Due to lack of funding, the school was not able to be completed. The classrooms have no doors, windows, insulation, nor electricity, making for severely uncomfortable temperatures. There are no sinks to wash hands or adequate toilets with toilet paper, making it a cesspool for typhoid and cholera. During the rainy season, the playground resembles a swamp rather than a place for children to recess; as the dry season leaves the earth dry, cracked, and unsafe for young children with no shoes. If this were not enough, the small salary provided to the teachers leave the children with instructors that are less than qualified for this necessary societal job.

C . ACRES of HOPE/Gemus Salubrite:

For the past 16 years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued with an untenable and deplorable phenomenon of thousands of children roaming their streets, a huge eye sore in the lives of not only those living in the DRC, but visitors alike. Many of these children have been kept by strangers out of compassion. These children have stories attached to their condition, some of which include having been displaced as refugees of wars and conflicts, having been abandoned by or having lost one or both parents, those having been cast away and severely hurt because their parents thought they were witches or wizards, those that simply left home in search of food and never returned, etc.- some are even born in the streets by young street parents themselves. LSV Inc. has pledged to help the children of the streets find homes with the wonderful collaboration of Gemus Salubrit? and Acres of Hope. We currently have a center in Kinshasa where we locate and bring the orphans and distressed children. Please help these lost children find a better life and way.

D. Hopital Jehovah Rapha Hospital (commune Kenya / Lubumbashi):

In December 2008, while trying to locate three abandoned children we were sent to this particular location and found it was a small clinic taking care of mostly disadvantaged people, the majority of which were incapable of paying the consultation fee (around $2.00 a visit). We were totally saddened to witness of the hospital and especially the state of the laboratory and consequently sent pictures to our team in the USA. Ingrid Naiman hooked up with Optics Planet (www.opticsplanet.net) who secured a microscope with accessories, which in fact was built from scratch to work safely with the Congo’s electrical requirement (220volts) and common wild power surges, as well as the ability to function without electricity.