Kyalwe Mwape is the oldest teacher in the 26 villages around MMG’s Kinsevere mine. In 1984 he was the first teacher to start a village school within a radius of 40 kilometres around the mine. He was experienced many difficulties while running the first two primary schools, which were built of mud bricks and covered with straw. Students sat on the ground on bricks, exposed to the weather conditions, and the teachers used a small metallic sheet as a blackboard, with shrunken cassava as chalk. Kyalwe reflects on how times have changed in the years since:

In 2007, it was my great joy to see the construction, and then the inauguration, of the first and second modern schools. Finally I was able to be placed in good working conditions and students no longer had back pain from sitting on the floor.
Nowadays when you compare our Kinsevere schools against several modern schools in Lubumbashi city, we have nothing to envy. This is the achievement of a mining company at Kinsevere who we warmly thank for being our partner and a hope for change in our villages. I look at myself and I think we have come a long way. We have really come a long way.

I got involved to encourage parents to send children to school. Before, they were neglected and they said they were poor and could send only boys to school and not girls. Twice we were forced to close our straw-covered school due to lack of funds. Today, Kinsevere takes care of the teachers and therefore the costs paid by parents are insignificant.

Thanks to awareness campaigns, and encouragement from MMG, today I am proud to say that we have more than 3,000 students enrolled regularly each year, and more than 2,000 of the students are girls.

I am happy because I teach lessons to students in the sixth grade, the last year of primary school. I have an increasing number of girls who are competitive alongside the boys. Thanks to the commitment of all the teachers, we have been able to slow the momentum of girls’ early marriage in the villages, and boys’ juvenile delinquency and dropout rates.

Thanks to our partner MMG, more than 50 girls who passed the national tests for primary schools could continue their education at high school through the Kinsevere scholarship program in Lubumbashi city, in renowned boarding schools. MMG has also allowed for our teachers to improve their skills by facilitating the attendance of many at capacity-building sessions.

To see where we have come from tells me this is a big change that has occurred in our communities. I am proud of myself.

For me the goal is not reached yet. We still need to do more to contribute to the development of our 26 communities. That’s progress, hope and glory of the world.

Pictured: Kyalwe Mwape has taught in local communities since 1984, witnessing astounding change over that time.