Pitshou Kafuku

Name: Pitshou Kafuku
Age: N/A
Country/State: United States; Virginia
Origine: RDC/DRC ~ Kinshasa
Profession: Graduate of Old Dominion University
Quote: “The better you become at describing reality, the better you will be at controlling it.”

My name is Pitshou Yunga Kafuku born and raised in Kinshasa the capital of the 2nd largest country since 2010 in Africa Democratic Republic of Congo. I was born in General Hospital changed to Mama Yemo the mother of the ex president dictator Mobutu Kuku Ngwendu Wazabanga born in 1930 when his mother was born in 1922. Nobody ever questioned the 8 years of age gap between the mother and her fourth child, I believe is because Congolese people have been softened and scared during his 34 years of dictatorship régime. That’s why today, Congolese don’t have any more time to question the past but instead they always want to jump to the conclusion and find who to blame. I was raised in the middle of the city of Kinshasa precisely in the commune of Kasa-Vubu. Back then life was ok; my mother is from the East of Congo Kivu and my father from Bas-Congo “Mutandu Munderi” lol. They both were in function public for more than three decades in medical field, but they have no nickel saved for their retirement, and they were not getting pay for months. Life was not what we expected but it was ok because they parents was doing their best to provide food on the table and to pay for our education.

I have done my primary education at Christ-Roi school, back then Catholic church was involved in our education even teachers were not pay for months, but today the church is not involved in many school education like in the past, that mean the education is not even close to be what it supposed to be, it is destroyed. The education system has been broken, many I mean a lot has to be improved “education is a right for our children”. Two out of three students make it to secondary school, and only one of them will graduate in overall.

For my secondary education I went to ITPA Mombele Agronomic school the only one in the capital, but I couldn’t graduated at this lovely school because of one stupid professors who decided to let me know that I won’t pass his class, means there is no reason to stay in the school (I hated this guy big time but God forgive him). My mother decided to send me to a private school so this situation won’t happened again; I decided to go to Mama Zoya to finish my last three years of High School. I finally graduated after sold all my mother clothes so I can pay for my last year of school. I finished my primary and secondary school without much help of my parent for doing my homework and other projects; I learned studying and educated myself in the hard way but it pay off at the end.

After my primary and secondary education, my family and I came to America as refugee from this war that had killed 5.4 million Congolese. A year later I decided to pursuit my education, I took a GED test to replace my High School Diplomat from Congo. I went for two year at the Community College John Tyler located at Richmond Virginia to get my Associate degree in Business Administrative, and later I transferred to Old Dominion University located at Norfolk Virginia to get my bachelor degree in International Business and Maritime Supply & Chain Management. I have learned a lot from what I learned in Congo schools and take it to another level in American schools. What I learned is that I didn’t know how much smart I was, until I start studying hard and it paid off; I improved my English since I wasn’t speaking it until I came to America. When I started tutoring some of the Americans and other students from develop country, I did amazed myself again and I was proud of my early education in Congo. I believe we need to give the opportunity to our young students in Congo to take their education seriously and to lead them to a better direction so our country can be developing in the peace.

Our great parents had witnessed 10 million of their family member and other member of their community getting killed by Leopold II during slavery from 1880 to 1920 to feed the development of his country Belgium. Less than a century later 5.4 million died from 1998 to 2010 due to multiple conflicts in the East of the country where I have lost some members of my family, and because of Colton discovered in this part of the country put us in a lot of trouble because white men had to feed is businesses around the world. However, the main reason of all this killing is due to the riches engorges our country, but instead what we Congolese people do is to stay ignorant and talking about things no related to develop this country.

What I am planning to do for my country is responding to what JF Kennedy messaged “don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” I also believe in what our grandparent said “You can straight a tree only when it is small than when it’s big” From both quotes I am going to return home to do what my country is expecting from me, and with the respect of what our grandparent message I believe to help this generation I call Generation  X of Congo. This generation x needs a lot from us and it is going to move this country to a new direction, but without our help it will be worst. We need to get smarter by preparing this Generation X to be ready to tackle any kind of problems they will face in the future, and work hard for the development of their country by doing a better job than any precedent generations.  That’s why I created a NGO I named “Community Development and Children Education” because without the involvement of the community in the development processes not much will be done, instead by working with the community many things will done with less effort. The Education of Generation X is the second main focus of this NGO, we are going to work with community to rehabilitate our school infrastructure and influence a big change in the education so this generation will expect what they could face in the future knowing what is the best solution for it ahead.