Spotlight

Into Africa

Where a dollar makes a big difference, NEA is investing in Third World organizing.

Months after his journey into the heart of Africa, New Jersey guidance counselor Earl Kights still feels the peace of the place. Even as he makes his way among Camden's most troubled teens, he carries with him a sense of tranquility—a feeling he finally found his home.

But oh, if a man's home is his castle, the Congo is a palace for the heart. With its dirt floors and punishing roads, it's too tough on the body and not so easy on the mind either. If you want to get or provide an education, well, good luck to you.

"Truly, if educators have to be dedicated, they have to be dedicated there," says Kights, who visited the Republic of Congo last spring to check on its organizing campaign.

Since 2003, NEA has been helping our Congolese partners to recruit new members and improve the working conditions of teachers there. So far, at a cost of about $30,000, which has been matched by the French Education Union, NEA has printed recruitment brochures and provided leaders with cell phones. Still, it's not an easy task. How do you organize folks unreachable by phone or mail? How do you ask for dues when local history makes everybody fear corruption?

There are countless discouragements for educators in the developing world and yet, NEA's small investments abroad can help transform their workplaces, says Jill Christianson of NEA International Relations, who traveled with Kights.

To that end, NEA has been involved in a handful of projects around the world, including human rights education in Colombia and teacher training in West Africa, and remains a leading member of Education International, an association that represents more than 29 million education professionals worldwide.

In the Congo, the need is obvious. Teachers haven't had a pay raise in 15 years—"and they don't know from paycheck to paycheck if they're going to get paid at all," says Kights. Forget about books. But keep an eye on the weather because you're teaching virtually outdoors. "Many schools have no electricity, no sanitation, and certainly no running water," says Christianson.

Students sit at benches—sometimes sans desks. Without options, teachers lecture from the chalkboard, which frequently is so ancient that the chalk just flakes off.

Teacher training? Ha.

And yet, Kights found his Congolese colleagues to be "energetic, hopeful…. I saw the dedication there." And they're making inroads, he points out. The local union has signed up almost 1,000 members, and begun talking to national officials about training and organizing. (Between 8,000 and 12,000 teachers work there.)

During their 10 days of travel, Kights, Christianson, and our French partners traveled from Brazzaville, the republic's capital city, into the verdant mountains, meeting with Education Ministry captains and local union officials. Almost all were men, though teachers are mostly women.

In each location, the team visited classrooms. In the village of Djambala, to have a little fun, kids turn cans into cars and push them down the dirt street with sticks—"I haven't seen that for 40 years," says Kights. Everywhere, the Congolese are very serious about their schoolwork. At the same time, they wear Western-style clothes, are fluent users of e-mail, and love modern music.

When Kights left, "a part of me stayed in the Congo."

"Even today, I can close my eyes and go back," says Kights. "If nothing else, it put a much clearer perspective on life for me, to know as an individual just how truly blessed I am. I am blessed."

—Mary Ellen Flannery

Related Links

• NEA International Relations 
• Education International 

Photo: Jill Christianson