Wamu provides a library with both a medical and general section to the Panzi community. Women receive free services at the library, including help with their reading, one-on-one time with a tutor, and their pick of available books. We provide books in a range of subject areas: health and hygiene, history, social sciences and gender based violence. We believe that providing materials on the issues facing women in their daily lives, like common diseases, rape and their country’s history, empowers women by placing knowledge in their hands.
The medical section of the library, once completed, will provide doctors, medical students and local GBV and health practitioners with books, journals and electronic resources in their specific fields. We hope that providing access to these resources will assist in developing the capacity of local medical and social providers and infrastructure, improve the accuracy of diagnoses and encourage research and authorship among medical professionals.
The library is the crux of our literacy program because it is a beacon of hope in the Panzi community. There are few libraries in this region of Congo and none like ours in the Panzi community.
We welcome women with open arms to our library and love seeing them pack into the room eager to touch glossy pages that tell of distant lands and hopeful futures.
Wamu provides free non-formal education classes to women in French, Swahili and most recently, English.
French and Swahili are the main languages of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is crucial for women, particularly those affected by conflict, to be able to read and write in these languages. Most of our students come from rural villages where education is not even an option for girls. Some of them had their educations suddenly ended by war, violent rape, marriage or pregnancy. Providing these women with an opportunity to educate themselves, and accomplish dreams and goals far beyond what they had ever dreamed, is by far… our greatest honor.
