Dewes van Lohuizen is a database administrator for CSC in the Netherlands. In his free time, he supports a primary school in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He talked to Voices about his inspiration.

In 1997, a refugee from Democratic Republic of Congo came to the Netherlands, and began to send books in French to help create a library in Mikondo, a part of Kinshasa in the DR Congo. His dream was to create an educational and social center for the people of Mikondo, who lack financial and educational opportunities to develop themselves.

I met him in 2000 and got involved, and with the support of our church group, we created a foundation. Along with the people in Mikondo, the foundation set up a primary school, and today we still help the school by: 

• Finding sponsors (please for information)

• Collecting ink cartridges

• Organizing short cycle tours to raise funds

• And this year, for the seventh time, we are holding a flower bulb auction.

We do everything we can to offer good education to the very poor children in Mikondo.

Every year, about 400 children benefit and about 20 personnel make a living with our help. We try to think of new fundraising ideas all the time because we want the primary school to continue on and on. For the future, we dream about a vocational school for 12- to 16-year-old children, but as always, it depends on money. People in Mikondo cannot pay for this school, and education is not free. But if I look at the picture above, I know why we work so hard.

To learn more, e-mail or visit www.mikondo.org.