After lunch at Kimbilio today, the children were rushing around to get ready to go to their computer lessons. They are attending lessons at the Charlotte Ilunga Centre twice a week, kindly run by Annie, a Kimbilio volunteer. They are learning fast, they have only been going for a few weeks, but today they were very proficiently producing tables in Word, a task I'm not sure I have yet mastered after many years using a computer! The Charlotte Ilunga Centre was set up by Bournik a Congolese guy who is now living and working in Australia. He left Congo over 20 years ago around the time I came here for the first time! He wanted to give something back to his home country and started to build this well equiped education centre for vulnerable children in the garden of his brother in laws house. The centre is named after his mother who was a midwife at the Centre de Sante at Mungulungu which is on the road towards where my Aunt is also a midwife. It was great to meet Bournik on one of his trips out here two years ago when his wife Edwina contacted me after reading this blog! It was interesting to realise the number of connections between us despite having never met before and coming from different sides of the world. You can see more about the Charlotte Ilunga on their website http://clfoundation.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/hello-world/ We are very grateful to Bournik and the staff at CIF who facilitate our free use of this fantastic resource. It's also great to see the Kimbilio children so enthusiastic about going to the Charlotte Ilunga Centre and learning these new skills which may help to transform their lives in the future creating more employment and learning possiblities for them.
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