The En Classe Foundation is officially registered and acknowledged in the Netherlands, in the USA and in the DRC.
En Classe has a local team in Kinshasa that consists entirely of young, enthusiastic Congolese people. They oversee and guide all projects in Kinshasa. They are managed by Sylvia van den Brink from Singapore and Michiel Ruiter from Paris. The communication with Sylvia and Michiel mainly takes place via Whats App (calls and texts) and email. Sylvia and Michiel visit Kinshasa two or three times a year to maintain in contact with pupils, schools and the local team.
The local employees receive a small salary and En Classe grants them with a micro credit for personal development purposes, for example, English classes, computer training, leadership training and even a university study is possible. We also do a lot of team building. The official name of the local staff is "Aide Scolaire" which means school assistance. Their main job means that they are actively present at the schools every day in order to be able to give the right guidance and help to the school and to be able to adjust if necessary. For example, their task with respect to the school infrastructure consists of checking the (re) construction and helping the school to take good care of all improvements. The "Aide Scolaires" have been trained by our local partner Hygis so that they can supervise the implementation of the hygiene program professionally, they know the teacher training courses so that they can help the teachers to apply their acquired knowledge and help them with the reading program. Finally, they provide input when students are selected for our youth leadership program.
