RainShine Foundation Australia

Building opportunities for self-sufficiency in remote DRCongo (ACN 633 337 283)

Current Projects

Duru Clean Water Project

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The village of Duru is approximately 93 kilometers from Dungu where the RainShine office is located. The population in Duru is around 6,000 people. In 2023 RainShine was asked to assist this village to improve their access to clean water. While there is a significant river that flows through this village, people get sick because of water borne diseases. In fact the rate of sickness from water borne diseases in this specific village is recorded as being very high.

Church built during the Belgian Colonalism
The current well. Water is caught in a bucket

This type of project in our experience will deliver real benefits to the whole Duru community. When the local church was built many years ago, a water well was also installed in the court yard of the church. This well is accessed by lowering a bucket into the well. While the well has provided a never ending source of water, it is not easily accessible to the whole community due to its location, and it also does not have the capacity to service 6,000 people.

In February 2023 we did a site visit to Duru and spoke with the 2 chiefs of the village and other key members of the community. We also took a water engineer on this trip who divined for water and took a number of GPS co-ordinates. One location was agreed on by the Project Committee to dig the first water well.

The scope of this project is to construct 1 well and install a hand pump. The estimate to complete this project is $6,500 USD (conversion to AUD $10,000). Once we have established 1 well successfully then we will look at repeating this project in the future because 2 wells are still not sufficient for this village. We will also look at delivering an education program to the village on how to manage and treat clean water.

Duru Clean Water Project Committee

We are looking for a sponsor for this project so we can commence the 1st stage of the project in February 2024, which will be to dig and line the water well. The 2nd part of the project will be to install a hand water pump and to build a top cover and head for the well.

If you would like to support this project then you can donate at our safe link below. All donation amounts in AUD.

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Dekpe Primary School – Ngilima

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The Dekpe Primary School in the village of Ngilima was closed for about five years due to the occupation of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the area, and it was reopened in early 2018

The RainShine Foundation commenced a project in 2021 to replace the 6 grass hut classrooms with a comfortable and safe learning environment made of bricks, hardwood and tin. We planned the construction around raising funds for the 1st building with 3 classrooms, and then at the completion of the 1st school building we will start a follow on project to construct the 2nd school building.

A Ngilma classroom 2020

The first stage of the project successfully produced 21,000 bricks manufactered by workers in the local community. These bricks were used in the construction of one school block, which now contains 3 classrooms. Both school blocks on completion will house in total 6 classrooms and accommodate around 300 students.

Here are some photos showing progress of the building during 2022. The walls of the building have been completed and we are now ready to raise the roof onto the building.

Here are some photos showing progress that has been made since April 2022. In September 2022 at the start of the school year, the 1st of 2 planned school buildings was functional enough to be used by 200 students at Ngilima. RainShine during 2023 – 2024 will continue to finish the ceiling linning, plastering, and cement floors for this building. Here are some pictures of the new school building, which contains 3 classrooms.

Students are using the new classrooms. I fact we cant keep them out of the classrooms so we can finished the remaining jobs. Also as you can see we need to provide new desks for the 3 classrooms. If you would like to donate to the Ngilima Primary School Desk Program, then you will find a donation page on this website.

The 3 new classrooms are full to the top with students
We need to provide about 100 new student desks
There are still a significant number of students who cant fit into the new school building

Please donate to the Ngilima 2nd school building project and help our children have a comfortable learning environment for improved educational outcomes at Ngilima primary school by entering your donation below. Our plan is to build a 2nd school building with 3 classrooms because we still have another 200 students who cannot fit into the new school building and so they are still taking lessons in grass huts – see photo above. To do this we need to raise approximately $25, 000 USD (or conversion to AUD $39,000.


For Australian residents your donation of $2 and over is tax deductable. This is what your contribution will give towards building the Ngilima primary school in durable materials. All amounts are in AUD.

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A Place to Land

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How do we currently travel to the Epi and Mamili primary schools? The answer is by car, plane, and motobike. The last 70 kilometers between Amadi and the schools must be done by motorbike as the roads are very difficult to transverse by a 4 x 4 vehicle for 9 months out of 12 months due to the rains in Africa, and secondly finding a 4 x 4 vehicle in the area of the schools is almost impossible. The local chief of the Epi Village provided land to RainShine to build an airstrip similar to the one currently located at Amadi. This project commenced in January 2022. Local people worked very hard for most of 2022 to clear all of the trees to provide 1,200 x 30 meter airstrip.

Closest airstrip to Epi and Mamili Primary schools is at Amadi 70 kms away
Using motorbikes is the most efficient way to travel if one does not have access to an airstrip / plane.
Loading the plane in Dungu to take our solar equipment to the Epi village 2018

And airstrip will make it easier in many ways. For example, it will reduce the inherient risks to, and effort required for Rainshine volunteers, workers, donors to travel to the Epi village, and it will simplify the transportation of equipment to the Epi village. An airstrip will also make it easier for officials to visit Epi and for these villages to be better equiped to respond to medical emergencies.

In 2020 when RainShine field workers were visiting Epi and Mamili they were involved in a couple of medical emergencies. Good fortune was upon us and our intervenion save two people’s lives. Currenly once you go into Epi and Mamili you need to be healthy enough to get out of these areas to get assistance.

Project Launch conducted by the area chief
Some of the airstrip workers

A project launch event was held on the commence of the project in early 2022, which was attended by the area chief and Epi people. The area chosen for the airstrip is about 1 km from the main village and it had many trees, which needed to be cleared. All this work was done manually and was very challenging physically for the people involved. This project was also important to the Epi community as it also provided funds in the local economy.

We started with many trees, anthills, and a lot of savana
With a lot of hard work along the way
We finished with this, but there are still a lot large pot holes and anthill mounds to deal with.

We inspected the status of the construction of the airstrip in February 2023 and decided to put this project on hold for awhile. We are looking whether it is possible to use heavy equipment to remove the last of the anthills and to level the ground. While this sounds like a simple thing to do, but because roads are either non-existent and/or in very poor condition in DR Congo, to haul a large bulldozer about 500 kms through the forest does presents a few challenges for this project.

While we will not give up on this project, it will take awhile to plan the logistics and to secure additional funds so we can complete the remainder of this work.

Help us build an airstrip for emergency evacuations, wildlife Surveillance, and transporting equipment and people safely. Please enter your contribution below. For Australian residents your donation $2 and over is tax deductable. This is what your contribution will give. All amounts are in AUD.

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