Kikungu Community Working Together

Happy girls at the community center

In the Kikungu village of D.R. Congo, there’s great excitement! After a generous gift of land from the chiefs, the Wasaidizi health workers and Kikungu community members joined together to build a community center to serve the children and mothers of the area.

After an traditional groundbreaking ceremony, the group encountered their first major obstacle: the truck hired to transport bricks to the site could not pass over the dike due to heavy rains. Seeing that this could mean significant delays in construction, women in the community volunteered to carry the heavy blocks! One woman would bend down while others would stack the blocks on her head, and then walk nearly a mile to the site where volunteers would help to unload them before doing it over again.

Thanks to their hard work, the community center walls went up in a matter of days, and now the roof is being framed while the floors are prepared and the outside of the center is receiving its first plaster coating. All of this has been accomplished in just a few short months!

One of the project coordinators, Musans, wrote: “The Kikungu center is an event of the century…[The community says] a miracle is done in Kikungu… to show their joy, everyone who visits the works contributes with his strength…the children, young people and parents.”

Community centers like these are only possible thanks to teamwork from coordinators, community members, and supporters like you! To see an abbreviated version of how this project has progressed on-site, watch our Youtube video here. You'll be amazed!