About us
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Carla Mauro on the occasion of the association’s 20th anniversary.
About us
The Magic Amor association is a non-profit organization, established in December 2002, composed of people who share the ideal of promoting development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Many of the founding members are professionals who are involved in the fields of health and education. They were signatories to a constitutive act that covers vast potential for social and health intervention in Congo, as well as in Italy in favor of migrant African populations.
The work of our association stems from the need to provide answers to the needs of the Congolese population, which has been progressively deteriorating on a social and economic level over the last forty years. The area where we initially directed our aid, the Equator, is located in the north-western part of the DRC, in the heart of the equatorial forest. This was one of the regions hardest hit by the Congolese civil war, which since 1995 has killed at least four million people and reduced those who survived to destitution.
Dr Nzumbu-lo-Ambetima, one of our founding members, married to Dr Carla Mauro, President of Magic Amor, came from this area. He witnessed the decay of both the local cultural heritage and the culture brought by the former colonizers. very large families could not and often still cannot pay for only one child: most remain illiterate. Schools had become an opportunity to make money on children and to exploit them for work in the fields. Le famiglie, molto numerose, non potevano e spesso tuttora non possono pagare che per un solo figlio: la maggior parte restano analfabeti.
The association currently actively supports its multi-purpose center in Kinshasa, which includes a primary and secondary school (the Rocco Campagna school), a medical clinic with a medicine dispensary (the Antonino Nicolosi clinic), an orphanage (the Maison des enfants San Marcello) and the Arca dell’Alleanza-Nelson Mandela boarding school.
Our twenty schools that had been founded in the Equator, grouped in the directorates of Mbeti , Taliba, Nguelemgombe, Akula and Bolombo, were recognised by the Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and followed a school curriculum that made use of appropriate teaching tools. By regulation, corporal punishment was strictly forbidden: the children were encouraged to continue their studies, with a view to a general raising of the population’s cultural level – the only prospect that can lead to possible development. By regulation, corporal punishment was strictly forbidden: the children were encouraged to continue their studies, with a view to a general raising of the population’s cultural level – the only prospect that can lead to possible development.
In 2011, Magic Amor also co-founded a hospital in Zongo, in collaboration with the Sisters of St Joseph of Genoni and Soleterre.