We put together a donation shipment of used hospital beds, tools for bricklayers, gardeners, carpenters and metalworkers as well as treadle sewing machines and workshop equipment for the Aqua creative association based in Meppen at short notice.
This was arranged by Mr. Marquardt (Vechta) from the Lernen-Helfen-Leben association. This transport was financed by the German Federal Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). Mr. Marquardt kindly provided us with the following text:
The Association Songa Nzila e.V. (Showing the Way) was founded in the community of Kilueka in 2008 at the suggestion of Mr. Augustin Konda ku Mbuta. Mr. Konda works as a researcher and biologist at the University of Kinshasa and is known as the author of the handbook “Plantes utiles du Bas-Congo”. He lives with his family in the Bumbu district of Kinshasa, where he has set up and runs a small Anamed health center. ANAMED means “Action Natural Medicine”, i.e. healing methods have been and are being developed with the help of indigenous medicinal plants. Mr. Konda is also the first chairman of Anamed Dem. Rep. Congo and works closely with the association Anamed e.V. (www.anamed.org) in Germany. Bumbu, the poor district of Kinshasa, is the most densely populated part of the capital with 65,000 inhabitants per km². Outside Kinshasa, about 40 kilometers away, Mr. Konda runs a large garden for the cultivation of medicinal plants, especially Artemisia annua.
Mr. Konda comes from Kilueka and speaks the local language Kikongo. He lives in Kinshasa and regularly travels to his home village of Kilueka, about 150 km southwest of Kinshasa, which can only be reached via completely unpaved roads.
In the last two years, Songa Nzila e.V. has worked together to build a village community center in Kilueka, in which a small health station and rooms for meetings and training courses are still to be set up. This building was created with a great deal of commitment by the members of the association, although financial support from Germany was still necessary. It is above all this joint commitment that has motivated Aqua creative to support the people in their further plans.
At the beginning, the Songa Nzila association only consisted of around 25 people, mainly women. However, the joint planning and work has shown the people what they are capable of, despite the general misery, when they work together to improve their living conditions. This has raised their expectations that further improvements can be made possible.
The measures planned as part of the project will improve the living conditions of around 5,000 people. And it is a common experience that successful projects are very quickly copied and imitated by people in the surrounding area. An important knock-on effect is likely to be a reduction in the rural exodus.
