A Treasured Friendship

By staff reporter LI YUAN

In June 2014 the President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso visited China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. During his stay he met with some teachers and students from the China-Congo Friendship School in Chindu County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

The school was built with financial aid from the Republic of Congo following the earthquake of 2010. During a visit to the central African nation in March 2013, President Xi hailed the gesture as a sign of true friendship between the Republic of Congo and China and cited letters written by the school’s students thanking President Sassou Nguesso. One student wrote, “Birds enjoy greater freedom under the open sky, horses grow more sturdy in expanses of grassland, flowers are more splendid when nourished by the sun and rain, and we now have a better life thanks to the aid of the Congolese government and people.”

Students study in the playground.

A New Start

I crossed the Bayan Har Pass, at 4,824 meters above sea level, before reaching Chindu County, 200 kilometers from the prefectural seat of Yushu. The China-Congo Friendship School sits at the foot of the Bayan Har ranges. Headmaster Gengga Jamyong, aged 50, who has been working there for 10 years, showed me around. “These were built with the financial help from the Republic of Congo,” he said, pointing to three classroom buildings, a plastic cement running track and a playground.

The school, formerly known as Wenle Primary School, was founded in 2004 with funding from the prefectural government for orphans. It was leveled, like most constructions in the region, in the 2010 earthquake. All nine rows of one-story houses in the compound were ruined, but fortunately, there were no casualties. The teachers and students moved into tents and makeshift classrooms to continue lessons afterwards.

President Sassou Nguesso sent a letter of condolence shortly after the earthquake. When he came to China to attend the opening of the Shanghai World Expo two weeks later, he disclosed his country’s plans to donate a primary school to the disaster-stricken area.

Considering the cost of constructing a fully functional boarding school in a high-altitude region and the economic burden on the Republic of Congo, whose population is a mere three million, the Chinese side proposed contributions towards one building or a library. But the president was adamant: “The Republic of Congo will donate a whole primary school. We will do it whatever the cost.”

In February the Congolese government handed over RMB 16 million to Yushu to rebuild the Wenle Primary School. When the facility, which features distinct Tibetan architectural style and complete and advanced teaching equipment, was completed it was renamed China-Congo Friendship School.

The new school occupies an area of 42,625 square meters, four times the size of the original school, and the floor space is nearly seven-fold what it used to be. The larger premises afford more scope for the school: “Because of limited capacity, we used to enroll every two years. Now, we recruit annually and broadly, taking not only local orphans, but also children from single-parent and low-income families from neighboring areas,” the headmaster said. The student body has expanded from 100 to 324.