Uvira, 8–9 December 2018 – On International Anti-Corruption Day, students from 35 secondary schools in Uvira marched 3 km through their city behind a single slogan: “United Against Corruption for Development, Peace and Security”. The march attracted large crowds.
The commemoration was organised as part of Students Acting for Honesty, Integrity and Equality (SHINE), a project implemented by CERC with Integrity Action and funded by NORAD and Sida. Through SHINE, students in Integrity Clubs learn about integrity and monitor their schools' services.
The campaign aimed to raise public awareness of the cost of corruption in education, to draw attention to national and local efforts to address it and to promote integrity and good governance in schools. CERC placed the members of its Integrity Clubs at the centre of the day.
Activities before and on the day were widely covered by radio programmes and promoted on Twitter and Facebook. Together with the march, the campaign reached an estimated 15,000 people. It obtained public commitments to fight corruption, strengthened dialogue between civil society and government and encouraged people to take a stand.
CERC's Executive Director, Heri Bitamala, issued an official statement for the day, stressing the importance of addressing corruption to build responsive, capable and inclusive institutions that meet the needs of their people.
The students who marched know what is at stake. At Institut Itara in Luvungi, SHINE monitors found 70 to 90 students in classrooms built for 50 and only three toilets for 590 students; after they brought the school management and stakeholders together, new classrooms were completed in October 2018. Yvette Rosalive Meucca, an Integrity Club leader, summed up what the clubs mean to her:
“The Integrity Club saved my life.”
The march also crowned a year of results for SHINE in Uvira:
- 35 Integrity Clubs are now active, with 15 new ones created this year;
- 645 people took part directly in 2018 – 525 students, 35 principals and 70 teachers – including 277 girls and 47 people with disabilities;
- 1,780 students are able to study in safer conditions thanks to the clubs' monitoring and advocacy;
- the weekly radio magazine The Integrity Builders, in Swahili and French, reaches an estimated 2,000 households.
With 35 schools standing together in public, the Integrity Clubs showed their city that the fight against corruption starts in every school.
Stand with the young people of South Kivu: make a donation or become a supporter to help bring Integrity Clubs to more schools.
Read also: 120 teachers, principals and club leaders trained in Uvira and Sange