Message From Co-founders

I hope this message finds each and everyone of you happy and healthy and looking forward to a year full of peace, prosperity and kindness.

I want to thank each of you again for your continuing support of the LCL. It has been an incredibly difficult year for the people of Goma where our center is located. Last January, the M23, an armed group supported by Rwanda, invaded parts of North and South Kivu along the Rwandan border and took over the cities of Uvira, Bukavu, and Goma. Many were killed and many more fled. While the political situation remains unchanged and M23 still controls these cities, the violence has, for the most part, subsided. However, in Goma, local government officials and many business owners fled and for the last year there have been no banking services among other important things. Life has become even more difficult for the people of the region.

HOWEVER, that has not stopped us from helping the youth of the region. While construction has slowed, we have been committed to lifting up the kids living near the center with a series of programs that we started in the summer. Just before Christmas, we finished a 10 week, 20 session mentoring program that we held in our unfinished building. 30 children from several local schools attended on Saturdays and Sundays for 3 hours, working with facilitators to help them with their homework. Under the leadership of our remarkable Program Director, Nakaima, all of the kids made extraordinary progress. Think of it: every one of these kids are in a school with class sizes of sixty or more with one instructor. It was no wonder that many of the kids still couldn’t recite the alphabet, write their names or do simple math. With individual attention, the kids made massive progress. Parents were astonished, grateful, and supportive of this free pilot program. Other families are clamoring for us to invite their kids as well. For now, we are limited in what we can do but will continue to do it…beginning with another session in February. *Nakaima has met with leaders of the M23 government in Goma and they assured her that our work can continue unimpeded by them.

Warm regards,

Paul Freedman,