It is called « School Complex Prince of Peace-Beni »; an attractive academic institution that Assumptionist Fathers of Africa are building in the neighborhood of Butsili in the heart of the town of Beni, in memory of victims of the genocide raging in this country, almost three years ago!
While construction work is not yet finalized for lack of resources, the school has just opened its first doors on September 5, with in it a hundred children, most of whom are orphans, divided into four classes: one for kindergarten, two primary schools (one of them for young accelerated recovery training) and a fourth for high school.
The name says it all about its vocation and its aspiration. Faithful to its motto « Peace, Discipline and Excellence », and according to the spirituality of the Assumption in its A.R.T, this school aims to be a space where children, youth and adults will be prepared, through education and quality training, to take on the challenge of excellence for a culture of peace in order to contribute effectively to the multifaceted security and integral development of this oppressed country.
But let us be clear! The discipline in question here is to be understood in the sense of sacrifice! Our society, our country needs women and men who put the other at the heart of its projects. This requires self-denial, humility and renunciation of personal interests. Included in this sense, the discipline to which our children and young people will be trained aims neither to ascetic nor withdrawal. It leads to an opening, a permanent outlet to another, according to our Assumptionist spirit that asks us to go where « God is threatened in man and man threatened as image of God »! Without discipline, the other will always be forgotten! Our children will learn to forget self for the other and to go out to meet the latter.
What of Excellence? No doubt you think of the very good results to be obtained in the school and that will allow our young people to be counted among the best students in the country. You are right in part. Yes, we will form our children and young people to work hard to be counted among the best students in the country. But it’s not all about school results. At Academic Complex Prince of Peace-Beni, mediocrity is an enemy that we seek to combat. We shall seek from our children and our youth, nausea of the status quo and appetite of transformation! Transformation oneself but also transformation of society! Which implies new discipline!
You have understood: the main objective of the School Complex Prince of Peace-Beni is to bring our children and young people to be partners in rebuilding our country. This will be through the courses we intend to organize there! Besides what is provided by the Ministry of Education, our program will include courses that meet the current challenges, particularly in relation to peace and the protection of nature. Yes, we want the school complex Prince of Peace-Beni to be a place where our youth learn to listen; to talk; to share their joys and sorrows, their wounds and their healing, their ambitions and doubts; experimenting now the joy of living together as brothers and sisters, regardless of age of the other, his painful or happy story, ethnicity or social status! We will also ensure that the School Complex Prince of Peace-Beni be transformed into a space for creation, as a child, to feel protected and defended!
Gradually, this academic institution open several projects for training and professionalization for the entire population in place, without distinction of age. Indeed, to meet the real needs of the environment and in accordance with our aspirations, we intend to promote, especially at the secondary level, technical options. But there will also be organized school for recovery classes (at all levels) and training in various professional occupations, for those who have not done or finished their basic studies.
To achieve our goals, we have the noble ambition to make use of new teaching tools, such as computers, the internet but also to flavor language learning « cross border », like English and that from the primary school.
The School Complex Prince of Peace-Beni is you! The School Complex Prince of Peace-Beni is your home! It needs you, your talents, your gestures of solidarity, your free time to give hope to this land long wounded and amputated of its daughters and sons! You are looking for a place to give meaning to your life; here it is: the School Complex Prince of Peace-Beni!
This call has already touched the heart of many of you! It is thanks to them, thanks to their broad and generous heart that this dream is becoming a happy reality! May they find in these informative lines a deep expression of our sincere gratitude.
Thank you also to you who are already on your way to join us here at Butsili! Yes, by joining us, you launch a message of hope to all those who no longer believe in the future but at the same time you challenge the enemies of peace in this land-martyr! Peace will have the last word!
The management
Tel: +243977646440
E-mail : princedelapaixbeni@gmail.com
