GOOD WORKS
-photo courtesy Computers Beyond Borders
HAPPY STUDENTS
Guylain Matota manages DRC operations for Computers Beyond Borders. Here, he’s surrounded by excited E.P. Boko-Mpangala students, last Christmas. The charity had purchased school supplies for the children as Christmas gifts. Most children arrive at school without even a notepad and have just a sheet of paper for the purpose.
targeting this niche market and providing them with a competitive advantage,” says Mr. Kiasisua. “It feels good knowing that you are making a difference in someone’s life and in the process, helping an entire community.”
international banks and telecommunication companies are investing in DRC, opening offices and creating IT jobs there. Many of the jobs go unfilled, though, because young people — even university grads — don’t have basic computer literacy skills. At about $200 per person, training is out of reach for most Congolese, who earn an average of less than $50 a month. “Only the privileged few have the means to bridge the skills gap,” says Mr. Kiasisua. Next step: a decision to sponsor the training of four young adults at Eglise de Mangembo. “After they finished the three months of training, all of them got jobs right away, after many years of futile searches,” says Mr. Kiasisua. And they’re good jobs, paying almost four times the average salary. See sidebar. “By providing computer training to disadvantaged youths in Congo, we are
de Mangembo, his church back home in Kinshasa, and that led to the creation of CBB. A pastor there asked him to be a long-distance role model for a church youth group — the same one he belonged to as a teenager. He started regular Skype chats with the young people using a church computer. “A lot of youths attending the church are from poor neighbourhoods and they need some type of motivation to stay away from the streets, stay away from violence,” says Mr. Kiasisua. “Many of those young people graduate from high school and university, but there are no jobs for them. That issue kept coming up, every time I talked to them.” The problem-solver in him kicked into gear. While doing his research, he discovered that an increasing number of
LEVERAGING THE INVESTMENT
Four success stories make up certainly a great start. But Mr. Kiasisua sought a bigger impact. “What would happen,” he wondered, “if we started a non-profit training centre at the church, rather than paying someone else to provide the training?” The $800 worth of training could instead buy five recycled computers. Each computer could be used to train one student — at no cost to the student — every three months. Thus, Computers Beyond Borders was born. If the name sounds familiar,
54 | PEG SUMMER 2016
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