2008.06 - Despite the Hardship: Susila Dharma in DR Congo

Despite the Hardship…

SDIA Report of the SDIA-WSC Joint Visit to the Democratic Republic Of Congo, June 21 – July 5, 2008

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On the road to Kimpemba.

by Virginia Thomas

As we travelled to the SD projects and met with Subud members in different centres, we became aware that life here is very hard, illness and death very present, and food and goods too expensive. People are unemployed or underpaid, if they are paid at all; and they need to be very entrepreneurial to survive. Every day we heard from Subud members that someone close to them had just died—parents, children and pregnant women.

Charlotte Ndona and students from Lemba Imbu School.

DRC ranks 167 of 177 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index. A combination of armed conflict and government corruption has meant that many poor people do not have access to health and education services or even to clean water and basic sanitation. Many children do not attend school. What was once one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s better education systems now caters to barely half of the primary school-age population. The literacy rate is only 62%. Medical services are of low quality and fees prevent most poor people from accessing them. Malaria and other preventable diseases are still massive killers. According to the World Health Organisation, one out of every five children does not live to the age of five. It is estimated that about 1.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, of which almost 60% are women, and that AIDS causes 100,000 deaths annually.

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Susila Dharma DRC

Students of Lemba Imbu sing their greetings.

Susila Dharma DRC was created in 1999 as a legally registered NGO and Association whose voting members are the members of Subud DRC. All SD projects function under the legal umbrella of SD DRC. Its chair, Charlotte Ndona Muini is a dynamic and committed educator and community leader who is assisted by a small volunteer committee. Despite the hardship, bad roads, and a huge workload, Charlotte’s dynamism and commitment are truly impressive, as is her analysis of the social issues facing her country:

New benches provided to Lemba Imbu School by World Vision.

The international Subud team, composed of International Helpers, Heloise Jackson (UK) and Jorge Guerin (Spain), Zonal Representative Lateef Dada Bashua (Nigeria), ISC Chair, Garrett Thomson (USA) and SDIA Executive Director, Virginia Thomas, (Canada) visited many but not all of the Susila Dharma projects in the country. We travelled, did Latihan and testing, met with the National Committee, and answered questions together. This was important to establish a common understanding between Subud and SD at both the national and international levels, and it is hoped that such joint visits will be the first of many. This report will focus on SD projects and their needs, and therefore cannot capture other dimensions of our visit.

There are five schools, nine infirmaries and a handful of initiatives that generate income and promote improved livelihood operating as SD projects. These projects vary greatly in terms of their size and level of organisation. A key objective of this visit for SDIA and SD RDC was to organise a three-day Project Management Capacity Building workshop to help SD project and Subud leaders to develop their project planning and management skills. According to Charlotte:

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Education and Child Development

Albadi School students and Rose Koka.

The five schools are Albadi School and Orphanage, Inkisi School, Lemba Imbu School, Nkembo School and the medical school at Kimpemba. We were unable to travel to Moanda on the coast to visit Nkembo School which now has about 650 students.

Lemba Imbu School, on the outskirts of Kinshasa in a district of the same name, currently has 450 students and would like to increase that number by building a new high school. Its classrooms are currently packed beyond capacity—school spaces in the area are inadequate to meet the demand. Charlotte and her husband Santu who operate the Lemba Imbu School project have formed a partnership with World Vision which has given new desks and school books, and are covering the basic school fees for 150 of the poorest children. During our visit, we met with the World Vision Regional Representative to explore a possible partnership for the construction of a new school building. Follow-up discussions will be held with World Vision Canada upon our return. Lemba Imbu School receives support from several countries in the SD Network which help pay teachers salaries and buy school supplies.

Albadi School, built with support from the SD Network..

We also visited Albadi and Inkisi Schools in Inkisi. Inkisi School has been in a state of decline since the death of Joseph Toussaint Ngamba, one the three founding members. It currently has 84 students and appears to be in need of strong leadership to raise the quality of education and regain the respect it formerly enjoyed from the community it serves. Inkisi School received support from SD Canada and SD France recently to help pay teachers salaries.

Relatives of those who operate the Inkisi School also run an NGO called the Centre for Holistic Community Development (CDCI). They would like to initiate several projects in the Inkisi area. They are waiting for external support in order to begin activities, but we counselled them to begin their activities first because SDIA can only raise funds for something that is actually happening, not for ideas only.

Newly constructed Kimpemba Medical School funded by Bambale Foundation.

Albadi School and Orphanage is run by an energetic couple—Albert Dilua Mbanzila and Rose Koka, who continue to build up the school. They also take in orphans or “spirit children” who are rejected or abandoned by their families because they are believed to be possessed or inhabited by an evil spirit. About ten children and youths reside at the school, where they help with chores and agricultural work. Thanks to assistance provided by the SD Network and the Blond Trust, Albadi School and Orphanage has gone from 100 students in 2006 to almost 200 students in 2008. In 2007 the project was assisted by grants for the construction of three new classrooms, an office and toilets, and will complete the construction, water supply and electrification in 2008.

Finally, with the International Helpers, we made the long and arduous journey to Kimpemba, about 80 kms from Inkisi. This involved hours of travel over roads that are barely passable in the dry season and are flooded during the rains. Although we planned to go on to Kimvumu, only 9 kms from Kimpemba, to meet with Subud members and visit a clinic, our vehicle became stuck in the sand and we had to turn back.

Bambale Foundation staff and founders meet with Virginia.

Here, we came to truly appreciate how precarious life is in rural DRC. There is one medical doctor who only recently arrived in Kimpemba for a dispersed rural population of over 20,000; and he will be difficult to retain. On the road to Kimpemba, we passed a pregnant girl of 14 who had passed out from fever. She was on a bicycle that was being pushed along the sandy road by two youths. They were still a day’s walk from the closest hospital. We knew that she could die before coming anywhere near medical help; so, we took her in the car with us, realising that our presence at that moment might mean the difference between life and death.

In this way, we were able to better appreciate the importance of the Kimpemba Medical School that trains nurses to practice medicine in this inaccessible part of Lower Congo province. Nurses are the only medical professionals most Congolese will ever come in contact with; so providing nursing training in rural areas contributes directly to improved access to health care, as well as providing important employment skills for rural youth. Fifty-six students are currently registered in this four-year nursing program.

Nandora Vunguta Clinic

The importance of the services provided by the Kimpemba Medical School has been recognised by the Dutch-based Bambale Foundation, whom we met during our visit. Bambale Foundation has provided a loan to re-build the classrooms, and SDIA will explore a partnership with Bambale to help support the reconstruction of the teaching clinic, the Elegance Health Centre.

A critical challenge for all SD schools in DRC is to maintain their infrastructure and pay teachers’ salaries. When we were there, some teachers had not been paid for months, or had only been partially paid. Many in DRC engage in subsistence agriculture to survive and receive very little cash from professional employment. Even in schools that received SD funds for school salaries, it was clear that some teachers had not been fully paid. It is important to consider how the SD Network can ensure fair pay for the work that these teachers do. ISC and SDIA are also working to support the creation of a scholarship programme to help Subud families with the costs of schooling their children.

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Health and Well-Being

Maternity ward in the new Nandora Vunguta Clinic.

Access to basic health care and the prevention of malaria and HIV/AIDS are major challenges in DRC. In DRC, there are a number of Subud members working in the health sector and number of strong projects worthy of support. With support from SDIA, SD Norway and the Blond Trust, SD DRC purchased two buildings in 2007 to house clinics run by Subud members, Oscar Diakabana and Zola Ferdinand. This was part of a broader strategy to enable these projects to access funds from government and international programmes, which require clinics to demonstrate ownership of their own premises, and to fund the operation of SD DRC through leases. Diakabana’s Nandora Vunguta Clinic had not yet formally changed its premises, since local authorisations are pending; yet, it is clear that the new building represents a significant improvement over the current one as it will provide more and cleaner spaces. Nandora Vunguta has not yet begun to pay rent to SD DRC; they anticipate that they will soon be in a position to do so. The three-year lease has been set at $50 per month, which will support SD DRC’s running costs. This is also an improvement for the project in terms of rent and stability from eviction.

Zola Ferdinand

Yenge Polyclinic moved into its new SD-owned premises in October 2007 and began paying rent in January 2008. Yenge has built a thriving medical centre with close ties to the local community. The project leader, Zola Ferdinand, talked about his motivation for starting the Yenge Clinic and for choosing the site for the new SD-owned clinic:


Collaborating with community leaders and a network of ten community mothers who provide outreach to other families as well as disease prevention, Zola Ferdinand has created a different kind of medical service. Yenge Polyclinic provides maternity, pre-and post-natal care, vaccinations and curative services in this poor neighbourhood of the Makiovele quarter of Kinshasa. At the time of our visit, Yenge Polyclinic was competing to become part of a World Bank pilot project to improve quality of and access to primary healthcare in the DRC. SDIA would like to support Yenge Polyclinic to share its healthcare model with other SD and non-SD clinics, and to provide support for improving and securing its premises by building a wall.

Medicines shipped from SD France.

Close to Lemba Imbu School, Charlotte Ndona and her husband Santu run a small infirmary in a rented property. They hope to refurbish and build a small hospital on a property bought for this purpose with support from SDIA and the Blond Trust.  Because there are no funds available to make the changes required to convert it into a health centre, the property is currently rented out to families who live there. At Lemba Imbu infirmary, we also saw what remains of the medicines sent by boat from SD France some years ago. Charlotte stressed that while affordable medicines are a priority and desperately needed, many of the medicines sent were past their expiry dates. She said that it is preferable to send funds rather than sending the medicines themselves because they are often held up at customs for a long time.

Subud members also run some other health centres and dispensaries that we were unable to visit: the Nkandu Clinic in Inkisi which has been in decline since the death of its founder, Dr. Luwawu; the Maternity and Health Centre in Kimvumu run by Sylvain Kidimbu, currently operating in a temporary building and hoping for help with the construction of a permanent structure; the Maternity and Dispensary Kiyenga in the Wungu area, owned by Diluk, a trained paramedical; and the Dissea Clinic in Boma, which functioned well in the past but, since the death of its founder, Dr. N’singhi, has been taken over by his wife and daughter who have difficulty obtaining required medicines.

Crumbling structure of the Elegance Clinic.

Just outside the Kimbemba Medical School is the crumbling structure of the Elegance Medical Clinic. SDIA hopes to help to rebuild this facility with support from the SD Network and the Blond Trust.

While healthcare is a sector in desperate need of support in DRC, a key step for the SD network will be to support carrying out a professional assessment of all SD health centres and services to determine which have a genuine interest in and commitment to improving their healthcare practices and providing quality, affordable services. Based on this assessment, the SD network should then provide training, capacity-building and small-scale support to those health projects that exhibit a strong commitment to quality and accessible care.

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Community Development and Sustainable Livelihoods   

Approaching Kingantoko Center.

A number of Subud members are working to develop Livelihood Projects that are sustainable—for themselves and others. Most prominent is the Kingantoko Center, where Subud DRC owns 52 hectares of land in an area surrounded by small-scale agricultural production. For many years Subud DRC has been unsure about how to develop this land, since a Subud hall was built at the top of a hill, while spring water is to be found only at the bottom. Some Subud members have suggested an agricultural project that would permit Subud DRC to earn some income, while also helping local villagers who would like more land to cultivate. But to date, there has been no clear agreement within Subud DRC that would permit them to create a community development and sustainable livelihood project and utilise the significant land resources they have at their disposal.

Pokoti showing the map of the Kingantoko land and development plans.

For this reason, some Subud members have decided to initiate their own productive projects. Makape, a professional musician, will develope a project on rented land, just next to Kingantoko, to provide pigs to local farmers who will breed them in exchange for a share in the offspring. He is looking for help to build a structure to house the pigs. Albert Mbanzila has leased seven hectares of land and hired a professional agronomist. They have built an impressive agricultural and fish-farming project outside Inkisi, the revenue from which he uses to support his family and the Albadi School and Orphanage.

In Inkisi we visited two livelihood projects that deliver a social benefit while providing an income to their owners. One was a bakery that had received Subud Enterprise Services (SES) funding to purchase a commercial oven but is now struggling due to the world food crisis and the rising price of grain.

Albert explaining his agricultural project to Heloise.

The other is an engine re-wiring project where out-of-work youth come to be trained in motor maintenance techniques. The project, run by Sylvain Kidimbu, is looking for support in the form of tools and equipment for the youth to use and for expanding its workshop. Finally, the Centre for Holistic Community Development (CDCI), which has for some time been dormant, is now headed by a young member with an interest in community development activities.

In DRC, where survival is as much a concern for those who run projects as it is for those who participate in them, it is sometimes difficult to make distinctions between which are social or “SD" Projects, and which are primarily enterprises that should be assisted through SES, micro-credit, or other forms of support. It has been a cause of some confusion and conflict within Subud in DRC that some members’ projects (namely those in the field of education and healthcare) get SD support, while others don’t. There is a strong need to develop sustainable livelihood projects for communities, and also for the Subud members themselves.

Charlotte, Sylvain, and Albert at the motor winding enterprise.

For this reason, during our visit, we also explored with SES Chair, Albert Mbanzila, possibilities for micro-credit and savings and loan scenarios that would benefit all Subud members and, potentially, non-Subud members, as well. In Kinshasa we met with microfinance NGOs who said that the best model for DRC and West African countries was Savings and Loan Cooperatives, in which those who are able to consistently save for 6 to 12 months are eligible for a small loan. However, Subud and SD DRC are not legally permitted to offer micro-credit or other loans. We are waiting for more information from SES DRC on how to organise Savings and Loan project for Subud members that could help these and other initiatives grow and develop. SDIA and SD DRC could support such an initiative if it is structured for a sound development impact.

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SDIA Capacity Building Initiative

Young apprentices in the motor winding enterprise.

On our arrival in DRC, we were greeted by many accusations of misuse of resources. During our visit and meetings with Subud DRC and SD DRC we confirmed that projects and the DRC Subud organisations have a need to improve their transparency, accountability and information sharing in terms of the management of resources that are sent. ISC and SDIA tried to communicate that we have a common approach: we emphasised that both SD DRC and Subud DRC need open and transparent budgeting and financial reporting that is approved by members, information sharing between SD DRC and the Subud organisation, and auditing of any activity where there are accusations of misuse of funds.

Working group on health project.

One of the key objectives of the SDIA visit to DRC was to help prepare for and carry out a Project Management Capacity Building Workshop for project leaders and other interested Subud members. With the support of the Blond Trust and in collaboration with SD DRC, we recruited two local trainers to deliver two capacity building workshops that were carried out over three days. One was on Project Planning, using a Results-Based Management approach, and the other was on Financial Management.

These workshops were attended by 35 SD Project Leaders and their teams, and a few locals also involved in community development work. Twelve social, educational and health projects were represented. Trainers very effectively introduced the participants to the principles of Results-Based Management, including problem analysis, identification of anticipated impacts, results, activities, outcomes and indicators.

Project management training workshops.

In order to apply the concepts and tools they were learning, project leaders were invited to break up into three groups for workshops on three existing projects in education, healthcare and community development. Each group demonstrated their ability to carry out problem analysis and develop a project proposal based on the tangible results that they were seeking through their project's activities. A second workshop carried out by a specialist in NGO financial management clarified basic principles of financial management, legal issues facing NGOs, how to create a budget and basic financial reporting.

The training was considered to be very successful by the participants, the trainers, and by SD DRC and SDIA. A second follow-up training is scheduled for October to consolidate and apply the knowledge gained by participants. Some lessons that were learned from this first workshop as part of SDIA’s Capacity Building Initiative are that it is very helpful to have local trainers deliver the training materials that have been developed by SDIA. We know our projects and their needs; local trainers know the culture, local language (Lingala) and the national laws that apply to schools and development NGOs. Conditions in DRC, the level of prior knowledge of participants and the complexity of materials would have favoured a longer training. One criticism by participants concerned meals. These took too long to prepare and participants were tired and hungry. Otherwise, all the participants would like to continue these capacity building activities, which were seen as necessary to ensure the success of projects and their leaders.

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Conclusions and Recommendations

Despite hardship, Subud members in DRC are deeply committed to their spiritual development, maintaining active Subud organisations and engaging in the social, educational and health projects urgently needed by their wider communities. The SD International Network can support these efforts in a number of ways. Some recommendations for future action are:

• Support SD DRC so it can continue to deliver capacity building activities, training and follow-up to help project leaders focus, not only on maintaining existing projects, but also on demonstrating the results they have achieved at the community level in order to enhance their credibility and ability to access non-Subud funding sources. In particular, establish good financial accounting, auditing and reporting practices, and use local resource people and NGOs who can support SD projects.

• Project management training workshops.

  SD Network needs to support and assist SD DRC to repair, maintain and enhance the properties that they now own.
• Support SD educational projects to find funding to pay their staff regularly and adequately. With SD DRC, explore the costs and benefits of registering SD schools with the Ministry of Education so that they can eventually benefit from government funding.
• Support the sharing of good practices and conduct a needs assessment of SD health projects to ensure that they are in line with national standards and have a clear commitment to improving access to quality care even for those who cannot afford to pay for health services.
• Continue to work with SES DRC to develop a viable model of micro-credit, based on successful “Savings and Loan” models, as a means of helping the enterprises of Subud members to grow and develop.
• Encourage Subud DRC to understand and use procedures to help members with urgent needs to access the Emergency Funds administered by WSA’s International Assistance Group.