{"id":432,"date":"2026-10-06T08:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/?p=432"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:40:18","slug":"aide-a-l-enfance-septembre-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/2026\/10\/06\/aide-a-l-enfance-septembre-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Children \u2014 September 2026: \u201cOne day, perhaps, I\u2019ll be the one looking after you\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 18 August, Pr\u00e9cieuse sat down at the centre to write to the couple who sponsor her. She had seen on television the heatwave sweeping France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Les
At the centre: the children write to their sponsors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

I saw on television that there is a heatwave in France, people are dying and many houses have burned. I hope you are not in danger.
Papa Vincent, I want to tell you that I passed my year with 58.1%. I am going to study nursing\u2026 one day, perhaps, I will look after you, when I have finished my nursing studies.<\/p>\nPr\u00e9cieuse, Kinshasa, 18 August 2026<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

She asks nothing for herself: she worries about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr\u00e9cieuse wants to study nursing at the Red Cross school, where other young people from MONIELO have gone before her \u2014 Fanny and Georgette among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That choice took five months to form. In March, her interview record read: \u201cShe very often talks to us about building, she would like to study architecture and become a civil engineer. She also says sometimes that she would like to care for the sick.\u201d Between March and August, the second option won out over the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr\u00e9cieuse lives at the centre because she is an orphan, and the only person who could look after her is her grandfather, who no longer works and has no safe home to take her into. The educator put it plainly: MONIELO stands in for her family, in every respect. We nonetheless make sure she keeps the link with her grandfather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three passes at the State Examination<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

July was a good month. Jireh scored 73% at the State Examination \u2014 the Congolese equivalent of the baccalaureate. Patricia obtained 70% in the mathematics and physics stream, one of the most demanding in the curriculum. Noella, 63% in Latin and philosophy. Three candidates presented, three diplomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have been paying school fees for years without always seeing what they produce. Here is one concrete result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school year turns on a deposit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Kinshasa, a deposit is required for every child. In some schools, a child who has not paid it is left off the examination lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pupil<\/th>Year<\/th>School<\/th>Deposit<\/th>Status<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
B\u00e9nie<\/td>4th<\/td>Saint Michel<\/td>450 $<\/td>paid <\/td><\/tr>
Emmanuel<\/td>4th<\/td>Saint Michel<\/td>450 $<\/td>pending<\/td><\/tr>
Parfaite<\/td>3rd<\/td>Saint Michel<\/td>300 $<\/td>pending<\/td><\/tr>
Jordi<\/td>9th<\/td>Saint Michel<\/td>300 $<\/td>pending<\/td><\/tr>
Shukrani<\/td>7th<\/td>Omisalisa<\/td>300 $<\/td>pending<\/td><\/tr>
Still to cover<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/td>1 350 $<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To these are added Gabriella and Consolate, who have started at Marcello Zago, for $345.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Parfaite
Parfaite, outside her school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Emmanuel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emmanuel is entering the fourth year of the humanit\u00e9s at Saint Michel: the year of the State Examination. His family has had no home of its own since the flood of 2024; his mother is looking for work and cannot, today, pay for his schooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emmanuel,
Emmanuel, entering the fourth year of the humanit\u00e9s \u2014 the year of the State Examination.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Emmanuel wants to study law and become a magistrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriella and Consolate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gabriella passed her year with 63%, her sister Consolate with 60% in the literary stream. Gabriella is entering the first year of the commercial humanit\u00e9s. She wants to become an accountant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gabriella
Gabriella is entering the first year of the commercial humanit\u00e9s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since 20 July, the two sisters have been living at the MONIELO shelter, their mother no longer being able to pay rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Accueil
The welcome at the centre: you sit down, you introduce yourselves, you explain the house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On 18 August, Gabriella wrote to her sponsor. Her letter begins like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI heard through papa Henri of a death in your family, someone who was dear to you. I know it is too hard for you, but take heart, maman Pauline. I do not know what to say to console your heart.\u201d<\/p>\nGabriella, 18 August 2026<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Only afterwards, almost apologetically, does she mention the bag, the uniform and the supplies she still does not have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Deux<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jeunes<\/figure>\n
They arrived with their bags; today they are surrounded. That is what the shelter funded by our sponsors brings: not only a roof and food, but human warmth and comfort.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the shelter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On 4 September, the centre received its supplies: a sack of dried cassava \u2014 fufu \u2014, a sack of charcoal, a sack of sweet potatoes and twenty chikwangue, those loaves of fermented cassava wrapped in leaves. All bought at a good price not far from the MONIELO farm. The children and the team spent the day sorting the cassava and the sweet potatoes, by knife, tuber by tuber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Sacs<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sacs<\/figure>\n
The sacks unloaded at the centre, on the evening of 4 September. They are old flour and sugar sacks, reused.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Enfants<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mise<\/figure>\n
At the centre, 4 September: peeling the sweet potatoes and bagging the dried cassava.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A third of the sack of sweet potatoes had rotted and had to be thrown out: sweet potato keeps badly without a dry store, whereas cassava, once dried, keeps without difficulty. That is the lesson of this delivery \u2014 next time, fewer potatoes and more dried cassava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These supplies come up by the association\u2019s truck, which travels from the farm to the centre about once a month. The same vehicle that carries goods for Kinshasa\u2019s traders therefore feeds the children at the centre; we come back to this in our letter about the farm. That truck, funded by a donation from the Rotary Club of Charleroi, also allows us to restart the Les Femmes Fortes cooperative project, on the Bat\u00e9k\u00e9 Plateau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Repas<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Enfants<\/figure>\n
The meal at the centre: the children who live here and those who come in from outside regularly eat at the same table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jeunes<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A sponsor at the farm<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maman Sylvaine is Shukrani\u2019s sponsor. During her stay in Kinshasa, she came and spent two days at the farm with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maman
Maman Sylvaine, who spent two days at the MONIELO farm with Shukrani, the girl she sponsors. The association\u2019s truck is parked behind them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the moment when sponsorship stops being abstract. If you are ever thinking of making the journey, tell us: these visits matter as much to the children as to those who make them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Une<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"L\u2019\u00e9quipe<\/figure>\n
A sponsor at the shelter; the team and the children at the Nkiene farm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alice, fourth year of medicine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Deposits, balances, uniforms, sacks of fufu: none of this is measured over a single school year. It is measured ten years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice is in her fourth year of medicine at Bel Campus University in Kinshasa. She studies alongside Brazelle, also a medical student, who has just entered her third year. Alice joined the sponsorship programme about ten years ago; her sponsors, papa Christophe and maman Brigitte, live in Europe, come from the DR Congo themselves, and see her every time they travel back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alice,
Alice at the microscope, at Bel Campus. Fourth year of medicine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Alice<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Alice<\/figure>\n
In the laboratory of the faculty of medicine. On the right, Alice and Brazelle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Her father uses a wheelchair. The chair is worn down to the frame and has to be replaced; the replacement is funded by maman Marie-Jos\u00e9e, a retired nurse living in Belgium, met entirely by chance in June during a stopover in Addis Ababa. That father never missed a parents\u2019 meeting at Saint Georges, the school where Alice did her primary and secondary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Alice<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Alice<\/figure>\n
Alice, ten years after joining the sponsorship programme.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When a sponsor asks what their transfer is for, it is the longest answer to give and the shortest to show: a white coat in a laboratory in Kinshasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we are still short of: food aid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The cost of living is rising in Kinshasa, and many families can no longer feed themselves properly. Thanks to you, the children at the centre are safe from hunger. That is not the case for the sponsored children who live outside the centre, in single-parent families or with relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For them, we want to restart food distributions from the shelter. We had done it in the past, and we hoped we would not have to again; reality obliges us to revise our plans. If funds allow, we would also like to give the children a few outings again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Support MONIELO<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you pay income tax in France, a donation of \u20ac100 costs you \u20ac34 after tax relief.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for what you make possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole MONIELO team \u2014 Kinshasa and Paris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Kinshasa, the school year turns on a deposit. Three State Examination passes in July, two sisters taken in at the shelter, and Alice entering her fourth year of medicine, ten years after her first sponsorship.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[20,24,18,22,21,23,19],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aide-a-l-enfance","tag-enfance","tag-hebergement","tag-ong","tag-parrainage","tag-rentree","tag-scolarite","tag-soutien"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}