The Nyiaragongo Volcano in the DRC [1/4]: teaching when your school is destroyed
Audio 02:13
Their school was destroyed by the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano.
Most schoolchildren no longer even study for lack of means.
(Illustrative image) © Unicef
By: Coralie Pierret
2 min
This week, RFI takes you to the foot of the Nyiragongo volcano, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On May 22, it erupted, killing a few dozen people and displacing more than 400,000, according to the United Nations.
In mid-October, solutions had not yet been found for all the victims.
Some students had not been able to return to school normally.
This is the case of the private establishment Patmos which nevertheless reopened its doors in October.
Advertising
This colossus is located about twenty kilometers from the city of Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu.
At the gates of the city, the inhabitants of neighborhoods engulfed by lava build low walls to redefine their plot.
Children are having fun on the still hot volcanic rock.
They were studying at the Patmos school complex which was destroyed by the volcano eruption in May.
A few streets away, the director of this establishment is organizing, as best he can, the resumption of classes.
Sylvain Mutumba had to find a reception structure since his buildings were completely destroyed by the lava flow:
"When the school is rebuilt, you will come back
", he told them.
"After the eruption, they are only 125 schoolchildren"
For lack of available classes, teachers in Patmos are forced to give lessons in the afternoon. Schedules that do not suit some of the students who have abandoned their course. Difficulties that Samy Kasséré deplores. The discipline director assures that the Patmos school complex has received almost no help. “
We were built tents that the sub-division brought to us. We were promised to equip these tents with benches at the start of the school year. Unfortunately and so far, he
laments
, the tents are empty, there is nothing and we cannot accommodate the children.
"
One kilometer away, three tents with the Unicef logo were pitched in the middle of a school yard. This is where the principal is supposed to greet the students. To communicate with his team, Sylvain Mutumba uses walkie-talkies, otherwise known as Motorola. But despite all these adjustments, the workforce has greatly decreased since last May, Sylvain Mutumba confides: “
And it is on all levels, teachers and learners. Before, there were 600 primary school children, but this year after the eruption, there are only 125 school children. Most of them no longer even study
due to a lack of resources. All of this creates serious problems.
"
Today, while most have returned home, nearly 30,000 people have been the direct victims of the disaster, according to government lists.
Their house or their plots have been destroyed by earthquakes or lava flow.
►
To read also:
•
DRC: Nyiragongo, a fascinating and dangerous volcano
•
DRC: "No one could have detected the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano"
•
Eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano: in the DRC, the populations authorized to return to Goma
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
DRC