War Child Canada supporter reports on life-changing visit to Congo school

Barry Smith is one of War Child Canada’s biggest supporters. As Head of History and Social Science at Westdale High School in Hamilton, ON, he has inspired his students to raise an incredible $75,000 through a series of Keep The Beat marathons. He has just returned from a visit to the Congo to see the school that Westdale built. Here is his personal testimony:

In late January this year, I accompanied War Child Canada’s Director of International Programs, Michelle Berg, and photographer Donald Weber on a tour of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – including the school in Makobola that Westdale students had raised the funds to rebuild. It was an experience that would shake and inspire me to my core.

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In each of the schools we visited, teachers and students alike had hope. One student I spoke with in the DRC walked a full 5 kilometers to school each day. Despite this trek, he was dedicated to fulfill his dream to finish school and go to university to become a physician. He has so little, but his dreams are large. He knows that education is the one thing that will propel him, and his nation, towards a promising future.

If hope is alive in places such as South Kivu – it must be both encouraged and nurtured. If we have it in our ability – through a music marathon, a simple donation or a letter to an MP – to raise our voices in a collective humanity to say that all people really do have the right to live and prosper then we must do that. We must do that because the alternative cannot be an option.

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