As a follow up to Congo Kids Initiative’s back to school September focus on education, we thought it would be helpful to share a bit of background about the work we support at St. Kizito Orphanage in order to understand the broader issues children face in the transition out of conflict.

The back-to-school campaign launched in August has been an extreme success! Everyone at CKI and at the St. Kizito school are extremely grateful for all of those able to contribute to the campaign.

As children return to school for the next step in their education, it seems fitting to introduce the education occurring at the St. Kizito School and two of the children benefitting from the Congo Kids Initiative Education Fund.

Last year we embarked on our first international collaboration in which students at the Norwegian School of Creative Arts (NKH) in Oslo and photographer Marcus Bleasdale created the photography project, NKH for CKI – Foto for Kongo.

Thanks to the support of the Congo Kids Initiative global community - Brigitte and Neema, two St. Kizito residents, are attending college this fall! Both young women are attending ISTM Nyankunde (High Technical Institute of Medicine). Brigitte is studying nursing, and Neema is training to work as a lab technician.

As every parent knows - making sure each child has a clean, dry, warm bed to sleep in each night provides a key start to the day. Thanks to the support of Congo Kids Initiative family, all of the children at St. Kizito now have a new bed!

Amazingly, we have collected over 56.000 kroner (so far) for Congo Kids Initiative since launching the project! Last week we worked on our individual photo shoots and two of our students arranged a photo session for babies and children in our studio at NKH.

CONGO KIDS INITIATIVE announces our first international collaboration: NKH FOR CKI - PHOTOGRAPHY FOR CONGO

The constructions for the infant center are fully underway. We are thrilled to see that the building process is moving along smoothly and the youngest members of the St.Kizito orphanage will soon have a beautiful home to be safe and grow up in. Thank you all who supported us. We'll keep posting images as the construction moves along.

As Christmas approaches in eastern Congo, the caregivers at St. Kizito orphanage in Bunia are overwhelmed. In the past three months, twelve newborn infants have arrived from surrounding towns and villages, all in various stages of dire health.

School is starting all over the world - and nowhere with more importance than at St. Kizito. The school is full (it's currently operating on double shifts!) of children whose youth has been marked by violence that most of us cannot imagine.

Running an orphanage takes a resourceful heart. No one exemplifies this more than St. Kizito's headmistress, Sister Catherine. Always willing to take in a child who has no parents and whose community cannot step forward, she is the one who is called when there is a crisis.

All over the world kids on a Sunday afternoon play football. In the US it's called soccer, but beyond that – it’s all the same thing. St. Kizito’s orphanage is no different.