“I Will Stay Until My Mission Is Complete”

How Charité Bilingue helps children rediscover hope through education and care

When Zimbe Buma Naomie began her journey at Charité Bilingue, she was told she would need a thick skin. The children she would be working with had all experienced some type of trauma and it would take a toll on her in one way or another.

She didn’t ask many questions. At the time, she herself was navigating a divorce and was no stranger to upheaval. But as she learned more about the children who attended the school – those who had been rejected, who came from broken homes, who were orphans; children of soldiers sent to war; children taken in from the streets or displaced by conflict – she understood immediately that this work mattered. At Charité Bilingue, she could offer something many of these children had never known: stability. A sense of home.

She was hooked.

“Without boasting, it’s my calling,” Mrs. Naomie said. “Charité is love. That is what deeply attracts me and gives me the joy of teaching here. I have worked in several schools, but I want to stay at this one until I am told that my mission is complete.”

She began as a teacher and has since worked her way up to director, guiding countless students as they discovered their potential. Pride fills her when she hears her name echo through the hallways – Mrs. Naomie. Some students who leave the school eventually return, drawn back by the sense of belonging they found there. At Charité Bilingue, they are treated as family. This is home.

Another faculty director, Kasereka Tsongo Simeon, echoes Mrs. Naomie’s belief that Charité Bilingue is a place where every child is welcomed and encouraged to flourish.

“As the name says, Charité is love,” Mr. Simeon said. “We love these children very much, including those who had lost all hope of studying. Right from the start – beginning with recruitment – we listen.”

Listening, he explains, is foundational. Through it, the school can advocate for each child’s needs. Staff provide counseling, connect families with medical professionals when necessary and reach out to relatives of orphaned children – doing whatever it takes to place each child on a path toward success. As a Christian school, Charité Bilingue also organizes prayer services and emphasizes the transformative power of God’s grace.

Here, these children are not defined by what they have lost. They are seen. They are heard. And they have found their place.