News Archive 2017

November 2017

Following on from our August newsletter ( see below), we are delighted to say that we have received pledges of £26,000 for the orphans. This is more than our initial target of £20,000 which was for 269 children at an annual cost of £70. The actual number of children needing schooling and food has risen to 315 and we are now, in addition,able to pay the annual school fees of $33 for each child.

Thank you for everyone who contributed.

We are still fundraising for this project since we want to support these children through to the end of their school years. The age range of the children is from 6 to 18 years and 190 of them are girls and 125 boys.

On a sadder note, the CME hospital in Beni/Sose was attacked last month and patients and staff were injured as well as robbed. Thankfully no one was killed. In response, we have sent CME £3,000 to pay the hospital fees of patients who were robbed as well as repair and replace damaged windows, doors and stolen equipment.

Urgent need to feed and school orphans

What we need? £6 a month.

What will it do? Provide basic food and schooling for an orphan.

Daniel and Claudine Masumbuko, have a huge task in Oicha, DRC– to support 269 orphans whose parents have been killed in fighting and civil war. The children are cared for by local foster families but they need support to feed the children and get them to school for basic education.

Last year Friends of CME Trust raised £9,000 to fund the need for 200 children up to the end of the June 2017 school year. Testimonies of some in the program can be found here.

With our support, the children received a basic meal of rice and beans. Their teachers noted an improvement in school performance. The children also received trauma counselling and positive effects have been appreciated by their host families.

But the need is ongoing, the number of children has increased from 200 to 269 and high inflation is pushing costs up.

We would like these children to continue to receive support for the next year.

Here is a 4 minute film showing how one of the orphans has already been helped by the project.

More detail on the project can be found on our Orphans project page.