Kisangani, August 6th, 2025 (CPA).- Ten laureates from a technical school have been equipped with agricultural equipment and overalls on Wednesday following a competition organised by a Belgian development agency in Kisangani, the main city of Tshopo, in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Deeply impressed by this gesture, Jean-Pierre Bachangondua, Prefect of Studies at the Maendeleo Institute, has expressed his profound satisfaction and gratitude to the Belgian development agency ENABEL. ‘The Maendeleo Institute is extremely pleased with this gesture by ENABEL, in collaboration with the forestry company CIFOR, which has provided the students in the agricultural and veterinary departments with a work suit, a wheelbarrow and a watering can each.’ ‘We are very grateful to this agency and wish it every success in its missions,’ has added the head of studies. On his part, André Tombola, representative of the two aforementioned institutions, has encouraged the laureates to continue their studies until the end.
‘You are the hope of tomorrow. With this gesture, CIFOR and ENABEL are encouraging you to successfully complete your studies so that you can become agricultural and veterinary engineers in the field, rather than being confined to air-conditioned offices,’ he has said. This competition, organised a few weeks ago, has focused on agro-veterinary knowledge. It aimed to identify the ten best students in this section, which is still rare in the educational province of Tshopo 1. It should be noted that this is not the first time that ENABEL and CIFOR have supported this institution. In the past, they have provided significant support, including covering the costs of the final-year students’ internship in Yangambi, donating a three-wheeled vehicle to the institute for transporting agricultural inputs, and providing many other forms of support aimed at improving teaching and training conditions.