PDF version

Our team is undertaking a project that responds to a real and urgent need – hope for sustainable economic development and social stability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Our team is now committed to designing and constructing a conditioning center for medicinal plants, and delivering on-going training in entrepreneurship and the quality control of medicinal plants on the Luki Reserve in the province of Bas-Congo, DRC.

September 12th, 2009 - "From Monday to Saturday from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm we are on the site and ready to begin construction work. We have about 15 employees from Mangala, the village near the reserve, and also others who live in the work camp. These include many workers coming from all over to use their knowledge to benefit the Luki Reserve. … the work is progressing quickly. After two weeks of hard work we have finished digging the foundations, and the footings which are made of a mixture of cement and gravel are nearing completion. Soon we will begin raising the walls."

September 26th, 2009 - "We are a week late on the foundations according to the schedule established at the start. It is certain that we can make up the lost time by the end of the project since we've already almost finished digging the septic system, for which we had allocated an entire week! Our delay is due to the fact that we had not anticipated having to dig this much for the foundations, which put us a bit behind. "

October 2, 2009 - "Every day we see the difference in the building. Indeed, all week we have continued to raise walls. We shall soon reach the height of the lintel."

October 10th, 2009 - "Everything is going really well, we finished the walls to the height of the lintel. The parts are really taking shape right before our eyes! In addition, we made the forms for the side columns and they have been positioned on over half of the framework of the building. When filled with hardened cement, they will form the lintel. This arduous task of cement form-building has been undertaken by Adrian, while Emilie Francis and Pierre-Luc took on the carpentry work to build the formwork in the "African style"

Octobre 16th, 2009 - "Maintenant huit semaines que nous sommes au Congo pour accomplir notre projet. Notre bâtiment de 230 m² s’inscrira dans l’histoire des plus grands projets que le PRECI aura supportés durant ses 16 ans d’activités. Nous sommes très fiers de ce que nous avons accompli jusqu’à présent et sommes très enthousiastes de voir le projet avancer si bien!"

October 24th, 2009 - "Cette semaine a été ponctuée de plusieurs visites. Pour commencer l’équipe de BDA, notre partenaire de Montréal, est venue nous voir dans notre petit coin de Luki. Valérie Bouchard est la représentante de la fondation et Mohammed Saleh est ingénieur, habitant de Kinshasa. Ils étaient accompagnés de Marie Quinty, une journaliste qui fait un reportage sur des étudiants congolais qui sont à Luki également."

Read more of their adventures on their blog
www.preci2009.blogspot.com (French only)

You can also track the progress of work on our album "PRECI \ \ Luki 2009"