Support Computer Training in DRC

By the very fact that you are reading this blog, I can safely say that using a computer is a part of your life. For most of you, I'd go so far as predicting that a good proportion of your life is spent at a computer, whether at work or at home.

As is the case everywhere else in the world, computer skills are becoming an increasingly important part of working life in the DRC, and some basic training can mean the difference between employment and unemployment. AMO-Congo is an organisation that was set up to help children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS to learn computer skills.

You can support the work they do by purchasing computer training as a gift here at Present Aid

Optimum Primus

Throughout the Congo's troubled history, there has been at least one industry whose continued productivity has been enjoyed by the locals, and that's the Bramlima Brewery, and it's flagship beer Primus.

As their TV advert shows, they've been an ever present fixture since they were founded in 1923, when the country was still a Belgian territory.

They then jump to 1960, where independence appears to have been marked by some relatively restrained dancing.

Next up is the 1974 football celebrations which mark the Congo's first qualification for the World Cup, as Zaire. In truth, however, they found the going tough in West Germany, losing 2-0 to Scotland, whose side included Kenny Dalglish, and 3-0 to Brazil. Their nadir however was in their second game, as they were beaten 9-0 by a rampant Yugoslavia. Enough to make you reach for a bottle of Primus...

Later in the same year, we see people chanting 'Ali' as they watch the 'Rumble in the Jungle' beamed around the country from the Mai 20 Stadium in Kinshasa.

The party continues in 1987 and today, but perhaps the less said about the somewhat sinister vision of 2050 the better...

Under African Skies

The tragic news of yesterday’s plane crash between Kisangani to Bukavu that killed 15 UN and NGO workers and 2 crew emphasises once again the dangers and difficulties of providing aid to the remotest regions of the Congo.

In a country so densely forested that earlier this year the BBC reported that villages are still being added to the maps, this means that aid workers must take incredible risks to transport supplies.

Once, Twice, Three times... Ilunga

Congolese international Hérita Ilunga (left) today completed a loan transfer to West Ham.

Ilunga's surname, a common name in the DRC, was identifed in 2004 as the 'most untranslatable' word in the world. The word is said to roughly indicate "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time", although the true meaning, and it's cultural connotations, are apparently lost in translation.