The Community of Friends of Nature and Culture (CANACU), one of the civil society organizations working in the field of human rights in the province of Grand Bandundu (Kwilu, Kwango and Mai-Ndombe) in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), still continues to carry out its activities concerning distance education despite the context inherent in the Covid-19 pandemic and its corollaries.
Currently, it has just produced three materials which explain, using simple and clear terms, all the activities relating to these distance learning courses.
All has been possible thanks to a grant from UNICEF.
“The activities that you see in these various documents are those that we are carrying out with the Ministry of EPST (Primary, Secondary and Technical Education) concerning only distance education. This is why we felt that it is important to support these activities with supports,”explains Damien Bungu, head of CANACU Bandundu.
He says the first medium, which is a comic strip, illustrates the different subjects that are developed in the different distance education lessons and the monitoring that CANACU regularly does in the target schools.
“The second medium is the leaflet which is written in Kikongo. It elucidates the way in which this distance education is given, the context of Covid-19 which presided over its implementation; the various advantages of these distance learning courses; the tools used; the target audience as well as the different radio stations selected for these activities in the different educational provinces ”, Bungu adds.He also informed that the third medium is a small piece of paper which invites the community to follow this or that other radio station while specifying the name of the radio station and its frequency including the slogans produced by the pupils to attract the attention of the beneficiaries.
“We are going to distribute all these materials to the students in the different schools, to the parents and to the different members of our communities. Because all these different categories are concerned by these teachings, ”he explains.
It should be noted that the “Comic Strip” begins with awareness messages in order to prevent and fight against Coronavirus.
“Today, the world, including our country, is facing a major socio-health crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is why for the health of individuals, families and schools, compliance with the anti-covid-19 barrier rules is mandatory, ”reads the first page after the title.
A little further, the debate concerning the Covid-19 pandemic prompts some characters to study medicine and to become doctors further away.
Regarding distance education, some parent figures present themselves as good role models who are involved in supporting their children in these distance learning courses.
Some recommendations read towards the end of the “Comics”.
According to a document in our possession, CANACU deals with Information, communication for behavior change and Education through several approaches such as intervention theater, theater and video forum, theater radio, the production of didactic and audiovisual aids, social mobilization.
CANACU’s activities are primarily oriented towards community support for positive individual change to encourage lasting social change through several existing community networks (local radios, televisions, women’s networks and different religious denominations) .
Badylon Kawanda Bakiman
