The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is situated in central Africa. It has roughly the same population as the UK - just over 60 million people - but it is nearly 10 times the size.
Oxfam Unwrapped has helped improved education standards in the capital, Kinshasa, by training teachers, renovating classrooms and providing materials like desks and textbooks. The work has also included developing school councils, which help parents, teachers and pupils to work together to make important decisions about the school.

Kingasani Primary School

Kingasani Primary School is a large school in one of the poorest areas of Kinshasa. The school had a parents' committee, but because many of the parents were poor or illiterate, they did not have the confidence to take part in running the committee or making the important decisions that affected their children's education. Oxfam Unwrapped funded training for teachers and parents on the roles and responsibilities of the parents' committees. With this training and support, parents are now more involved in making decisions about the running of the school.

It worked!

Mr Luyindula, the deputy president of the parents’ committee at Kingasani primary school in Kinshasa said: "I am really happy to have taken part to the training on our roles and responsibilities as parents' representatives. Before this training, I had no idea of what was expected of us and this had a very negative impact on our relationship with the school. With this training, our role is clear, we represent parents better and our relationship is easier."