LIGHT UP A VILLAGE

The following programs were conducted in 2025:Our non-profit organization's mission is to help impoverished and disadvantaged communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Africa, become self-sufficient by implementing reforms across sectors such as education, entrepreneurship, electricity, and agriculture. The DRC is one of the world's poorest nations, with roughly 75% of its populationover 60 million peopleliving in poverty, despite immense natural wealth. "Education, Energy, and Entrepreneurship for All" is our tagline. Please visit our website, which is still under construction, to see photographs of field implementations of projects in Kinshasa, Mpanoka, Sankuru, and other locations. Here are some highlights from activities undertaken in 2025:Electrification: Leveraging its extensive expertise in Electrical Engineering, Light Up A Village has spearheaded the implementation of photovoltaic systems and off-grid generators across several key regions, including Plateau de Bateke in Kinshasa, and the provinces of Sankuru and Kasai Central. Building on this momentum, we expanded our solar electrification and off-grid generator initiatives in 2025 to additional surrounding rural communities, specifically targeting primary schools and hospitals to foster community resilience and improve public health outcomes, such as cold storage for vaccines and medications. A 17-kW generator was purchased and installed at the central hospital in Katako-Kombe in Sankuru, followed by a more powerful 30-kW generator at the hospital in Lusambo in the same province. Agriculture: The Light Up A Village program has actively supported agricultural development in Mpanoka Village, located on the Bateke Plateau just 20 kilometers from Kinshasa. Our activities have been expanded in 2025, to reach remote villages in the provinces of Sankuru, Bandundu, and Kasai Central. Benefiting from an equatorial climate and ample rainfall, the region is exceptionally well-suited for farming. LUV has secured 25 hectares of arable land and provided the funding necessary to cultivate various crops, including cassava, peanuts, and tomatoes. While rural agriculture in the community has traditionally been the work of local women using manual tools like the hoe, LUV has introduced tractor rentals to modernize these processes and significantly increase labor productivity. To ensure consistent yields during the dry season, the organization is currently constructing irrigation infrastructure and planning to install specialized piping systems. Furthermore, Light Up A Village continues to fund a pilot beekeeping project, which serves as a foundation for broader expansion scheduled for 2025Education: Dr. Avoki M. Omekanda, a distinguished expert in electrical machines and drive-by-wire systems with an engineering doctorate from the Facult Polytechnique de Mons, has dedicated significant personal and professional resources to advancing technical education in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Throughout 2025, Dr. Omekanda traveled to Kinshasa four times to deliver intensive electrical engineering lectures at ISTA University. These educational missions required balancing his demanding role as a Research Engineer at the General Motors Global R&D Center, using his weekends, holidays, and personal vacations to ensure Congolese students received high-caliber instruction. Despite the challenging conditions of overcrowded, unconditioned auditoriums, students remained highly engaged for hours on end, driven by a shared vision that specialized education is the most effective pathway for young people to escape systemic poverty. Supporting these academic efforts, the Light Up A Village program has played a pivotal role by financing Dr. Omekandas travel and providing critical institutional support to ISTA University. LUVs contributions extend beyond instruction to include essential ICT resources, such as computers and specialized electrical engineering textbooks, as well as funding for local engineering conferences. Furthermore, the organization facilitates access to higher education by providing tuition assistance to low-income engineering students, recognizing that improving the workforce's technical education is a primary driver of the adoption of sustainable technologies and local economic growth. A comprehensive visual record of these educational initiatives and community events in Kinshasa is available in the gallery.