Congo Celebrates FIFA

The Leopards, Congo’s team in the World Cup, have made a great big splash! Even those who may not usually be avid sports fans have been celebrating this historic occasion. The Leopards qualified for FIFA for the first time in 52 years; then they held 5th ranked Portugal to a tie! Though they lost the next game to Columbia, they won 3-1 over Uzbekistan and are heading into the knock-outs!  You could hear the delight across the Atlantic. Whatever comes next, DRC is thrilled to be back on the world stage with reason for such a joyous celebration. These wins are a great boost to the national spirit while so many challenges continue at home.

Exciting Ways Forward!

Goma remains a warzone, but friends of our partner CENEDI’s primary school, Community Charity School (CCS), have the courage to plan and work for a better future. CCS is free; but most of its 6^th grade grads cannot afford secondary school, so they need a practical trade.

Mme Anuarite Mulamba, a talented tailor (and the principal’s wife), started a small sewing school where students and refugees can learn a career. She had two machines for many students – not enough! We were happy we could respond to her request for a new machine.

Students unpack and admire their new treasures of a treadle machine (the sturdiest type for much use) and its table.

Solar for the Women’s Center

FEBA’s Women’s Center is the center of all its activities: vocational training programs, seminars, community fellowship, economic support (micro-savings, microloans), counseling, refuge.

Though it is on the city electricity system (and pays for it) most of the time in recent years there has been no current and FEBA has had to buy and fuel a small (and noisy!) generator to run any equipment such as computers, irons for the sewing projects, etc. Mostly they rely on sunlight for illumination, but interior rooms are dark…

When the Center was completed in 2018 solar panels seemed too expensive, since city current was usually available. The situation has changed. An anonymous donor has gifted the Center with solar! Everyone is enjoying being able to see clearly!

Imagine being able to study or work or clean house when you can actually see!

We hope eventually to be able to afford fans for all the rooms, so that the heat of climate change (90 degrees and above for months this year) will be less oppressive.

Continuing Struggles

Congo, like most of the rest of the world, has been increasingly affected by the war in the Middle East. Not only have the prices of imported goods risen sharply, but also many shops simply are no long able to restock because the maritime cargo system has practically ceased to deliver goods.

     Congo does not have much industrial infrastructure, e.g., no factories for ready-made clothing (which is why tailors can make a good living). Cloth, needles, thread, and other supplies for the sewing and other vocational programs have become scarce as well as costly.

     The price of fuel has risen so much that people often cannot get transportation to work. They are forced to walk miles across Kinshasa (which is the largest Francophone urban area in the world, with a population far greater than the country of Switzerland). Many fewer women are able to come to FEBA’s monthly gatherings because they simply are not strong enough to walk the long distances. Even in places without Ebola, illnesses and deaths are multiplying.

     Our partners, in Kinshasa, in Goma, in villages around Uvira, are not giving up. They don’t have that luxury. We ask your prayers and your continued support, because it is a matter of life and death. If you are willing and able, please consider adopting a student for educational materials, or an elderly woman for food and medicine, or an orphan for a school uniform or exam fees. Or whatever! THANK YOU!

We Are Resilient!

A concluding word to remind us all of the amazing resilience of young Africa: see the students at FEBA’s sewing school offering us a gift of song and laughter.