Hope and future for Tshumbe

Kitzbühel | Issue 53 | Summer 2023

If your innermost desire is to extend help, anyone can accomplish something. Manuela Erber-Telemaque is downright astounding. Ten years ago, the Tirolean girl who was 20 years old at this time flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to open a kindergarten there. Today her non-profit organisation “Zukunft für Tshumbe” stands on strong pillars with an impressive overall balance: 15,000 people now have access to clean water, 400 children are busy in their own educational establishments, 600 people are given medical treatment each year, 500 people receive a hot meal every day and 80 locals perform agricultural work on 78 hectares of land.

With courage and joy

Since she launched her first journey to Tshumbe in January 2013 one special awareness has grown to crystal clarity: in order for children to learn to play and study, they first need water, hot meals and stable health. The conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo are gruesome: 80% of the people live in abject poverty, more than 50 million people have no access to clean water, the consequence is, the world’s fourth-highest children’s mortality rate is right here. Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of that, she tackled the problem and sorted it out.

Manuela Erber-Telemaque is hardly a naive do-gooder, anything but. She works professionally and unflaggingly, she implements every solution with an impassioned dedication which is rare. A quick glance into her Instagram account or her website shows indisputably just how happy her work makes her. It is full of laughter and dancing. Her unadulterated joy radiates outwards in spite of the omni-present poverty and makes our jaws slacken in pure astonishment: it is simply unbelievable how much this young woman has achieved. We tip our hats and shout in loud tones: THANK YOU!