PROLASA’S top priority at the moment is a boat motor for transporting goods to and from the island of Idjwi.

History: All non island foods and supplies must be personally shipped from the nearest mainland city of Goma by boat.  Yet the island of Idjwi has no boat services, and so 3 years ago PROLASA orchestrated a boat project to build three big boats to transport food to the orphan Village, teachers and students to and from the university, and supplies for the many projects developed on the island.  One of the boats was wrecked in a storm, the other was to large for the boat motor we previously owned and the third has been making regular trips between Goma and the island for three years with a motor which was highly inefficient for the boats size.

Early in 2008 this motor broke for the last time and since then, PROLASA has had to rent a motor for the needs of their projects on Idjwi. The rented motor is expensive and thus the cost of supplies for PROLASA projects have risen.  Microfinance projects like the bakery, soap, coffee husking, transportation for the teachers, school supplies, or the expansion of appropriate technology have become more expensive and highly unreliable.

Need: All PROLASA work and development on Idjwi depends upon a reliable boat motor.  Our desire is to purchase a motor that is suitable for the size of boat that was built, so that it may have a longer lifespan.  PROLASA is currently seeking external consulting on the most appropriate motor for the boat and purpose, as well as the best country to purchase it in.

Future: A program will be implemented with this new boat motor, comprised of regular trips between the mainland and the island, so that imports and exports can share journey’s,  fee’s will be charged for both cargo and passenger transportation.  The money collected will be used to pay for the wages of those who command the boat, the upkeep of the boat, and a portion will be set aside for the replacement of the boat motor when it has reached its end.

The boat motor PROLASA is researching are between $6,000 and $10,000 dollars.   If you would like to contribute please see our contributions page.