UN mission in DR of Congo renovates and erects buildings for students

The United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), implementing "rapid impact projects," has renovated a building to house university students and built another to train the deaf.

Starting at the end of September, the mission said, it spent $13,000 renovating the Boyoma student residence at the University of Kisangani. For four months, the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) repaired the roof, replaced windows and made the water supply, electricity and sanitation systems workable, so that 190 students now have a decent place to live and study.

During the same period, MONUC spent $30,000 constructing a carpentry building and installing new teaching equipment at the Hope Centre for the Deaf. More than 450 handicapped students and their families would benefit from the project, it said.

William Lacy Swing, the head of MONUC and the Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, took part in a ceremony to inaugurate the buildings in Kisangani on Friday, the mission said.