We were at the same place–the Les Buissonnets Carmelite monastery in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo–but the vibe felt very different. It wasn’t because the people were different (23 of the participants were returning participants and the international experts, AfreWatch staff and EarthRights staff, were almost all familiar faces). It wasn’t the vests (updated for the 3rd school but similar in design and color to the vests from EFC1 and EFC2) or the classroom or the unique combination of French, English, Lingala, and Swahili greetings. The mood was different because it was infused with the joy of old friends coming back together. We gathered for the third Congo River School (EFC3) with the most serious of purposes, a unique international training program designed to shift power to Congolese communities standing up to some of the world’s most powerful and rapacious extractive industries. But we began with hugs and updates on families, weddings, and children.
One participant captured this as “the spirit of openness–we learned while laughing and getting to know each other”
EFC3 also felt different because the participants were bringing skills, perspectives, and expectations shaped through their experiences in EFC1 and EFC2. Terms like stakeholder engagement, power mapping, and action plans were commonly understood. Advocacy strategies, strategic communication skills, and community mobilization tactics were familiar concepts for the agenda. And participants were prepared and ready on day one to share how they had engaged with their communities, the media, and the international mining and logging companies exploiting the DRC’s natural resources. Participants were also eager to learn more about the focus of EFC3: How to Build and Sustain a Strong Community Organization. Participants knew that this third school would be their last time gathering as a learning cohort and that they would be tasked with carrying the work forward in their communities – a challenge they embraced.
Over the course of 10 days, from February 21-March 3, 2026, AfreWatch and EarthRights, together with our partners from CREEDA, Advocates for Community Alternatives, Strategic Youth Network for Development, Action Mines Guinée, Casamance Horizons, and Rights Forward Consulting, LLC, worked with participants to prepare them to build and sustain their own strong community organizations. We talked about how to establish an organization under Congolese law, how to create a name, value proposition, and purpose for an organization, and how to draft and implement a communications plan. Expert presentations and interactive sessions on budgeting, strategic planning, and partnership building were all on the menu. We also looked carefully at risk assessment and security planning, examined case studies of successful community advocacy efforts in the DRC and neighboring countries, worked in groups to explore social change movements, and engaged in negotiation role plays.
Participants in EFC3 work on drafting organizational mission statements and values.
As with EFC1 and EFC2, experiential learning was also an important component of our third and final training program with this initial cohort. We visited and met with NGOs, governmental agencies, and law firms in Lubumbashi to learn more about the practicalities and challenges of building and sustaining community-based organizations. We visited communities around the recently reopened Kipushi mine, the highest grade zinc mine in the world, and listened to the communities living next to the mine as they told us about the environmental and human rights impacts.
On the last day of EFC3, we broke with tradition. Unlike the closing presentations in EFC1 and EFC2, where participants shared action plans for the work they would return to lead in their communities, EFC3 participants instead presented their contributions to a collective advocacy resource guide for community leaders. This 15 chapter book, composed entirely of the learnings, insights, and tools valued by participants, will be printed and delivered to communities working to shift power in the DRC. Our commitment to supporting participant action plans continues, however. This year, participants will be using their new grant writing skills to submit organizational funding proposals to AfreWatch.
EFC3 participant Elaudine Watshik Nambumb receives her Certificate of Completion from Sarah Mbuyi Ngandu (CREEDA), Seán Arthurs (EarthRights International), and Emmanuel Umpula (AfreWatch)
Even as AfreWatch and EarthRights celebrate the success of the EFC training model, we know there is more work to do. Communities living next to copper, cobalt, and zinc mines have requested another EFC training cycle. Indigenous and pygmy groups facing deforestation and land claims in the Équateur province of the DRC joined us for EFC3 and asked that we lead a similar training program in their communities.
“As the United States moves aggressively to increase access to the DRC’s critical minerals as a matter of national security–helping negotiate peace deals, brokering billion-dollar deals, hosting mineral summits, and directing investment–the communities living next to these mines cannot be an afterthought. A minerals strategy built on weak governance and silenced communities is not a lasting solution. Our training program exists for precisely this moment: to ensure that the new wave of investment and extraction is balanced by local activists that have the knowledge, networks, and skills to hold them accountable. Supporting this work helps support both empowered local communities and America’s legitimate strategic interests”
-Seán Arthurs, EarthRights International’s Director of Global Education and Training
AfreWatch and EarthRights are immensely proud of the work we have already done standing with DRC communities seeking a truly just transition and hope to continue this work in the future.
Learn more about the Congo River School:
“When your rights are violated, you must fight.” -Soleil Tshiyamba Kasongo
Activism and Education: The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Hopeful Horizon
