For years, Faida and her husband had no work, and no means to feed, clothe, or send their six children to school. “We suffered for many years,” she says. “Some of my children were going to school, but in very bad conditions.” They had no food to eat, no shoes to wear, and often went to class without the necessary books. “I can’t even talk about a school bag [backpack] – I had no money to ever buy one for any of the kids. I could never think about buying clothes. At that time, when one of my children was sick, I could not afford to take them to a doctor. Can you imagine that?” she asks. “Seeing your child suffer, and not being able to do anything about it?”Faida confided that she had been losing hope. Uncertain what she could do, unable to find work to care for her family, she thought about suicide. That day she saw a friend who invited her to go to apply for the Microloan Project with ABFEC (Action Kivu’s partner organization in Congo).“I got the loan,” Faida says with a smile. “It was a miracle that I had never seen in my life. I started my business, selling cassava flour, and I thank God – everything is going well. With this small business, I am now able to pay the school fees for all my children, buy food for them, and I save some money. ABFEC also gave me a goat, which helps provide fertilizer for my soil. I don’t know how I can describe my former life, but I can say that I have seen a great change in my life because of Action Kivu’s support. Thank you so much to the people who made this possible.”Thanks to individual donors giving initial investments through Action Kivu, ABFEC’s Microloan Project is up and running in eastern Congo, sustaining itself as the businesswomen re-invest a portion of their proceeds back into the program, funding more and more women to launch their own small businesses.Your donation enables Action Kivu to continue to fund the Literacy Program and Vocational Trainings that teach the women skills to transform their lives. Consider giving that gift of real hope today!
Children's Day in Congo: How Much Does a Birth Certificate Weigh?
How much does your birth certificate weigh? Likely not a question you've ever asked yourself. You may not know where it is, and if pressed to present it for a new passport, you'd have to go through the hassle of ordering another copy. Such a light piece of paper for such a weighty document: proving who you are, where you were born, what name was given to you. Yet for the children born because of rape in a country where sexual assualt is a common weapon of war and societal control, a birth certificate is heavy with meaning.May 28th, 2016 felt much like any other day for these kids in Congo: waking with the sun, as toddlers around the world are wont to do, despite their mothers' wishes for an extra hour of sleep. Eating breakfast. Melting down in a toddler-sized-tantrum as their developing brains fight to accept that they can't have everything their way.For their mothers, May 28th was a momentous day. It was a day of healing, of helping to transform the horrific memory of rape into a celebration of life. Born without a father on record, their babies didn't have an official record of citizenship in their own country.Six months ago, Amani Matabaro began work to rectify that. The co-founder and Executive Director of ABFEC - Action Congo, Action Kivu's partner in eastern Congo, he is known to the kids in Mumosho as Papa Amani. And known to all of his friends and partners as an activist and feminist who believes that equality for women and the rights of children are the only way for us to move forward to create a more peaceful, just world.A just world isn't born without the work of many, and Amani, at heart a community builder and connector, knew just the organization to coordinate with: SOS-IJM, a civil society nonprofit which works tirelessly for human rights and the legal protection for the people of DRC. Working with a young lawyer named Nancy, ABFEC's field team researched and investigated the mothers' experiences of sexual assault and pregnancy. Together, with legal guidance from Nancy and SOS-IJM, they listened and recorded the stories of the girls and women, and SOS-IJM filed with the Congolese government for birth certificates for each child.The official document holds great weight in legal terms for the future of the children, but for their mothers, that piece of paper represents acceptance. It signifies social standing in a place where most girls and women are shamed and shunned for being victims of rape. It is a picture of the transformation from being subjected to blame to recognition as a member in the community.Join us in celebrating these children today, June 1st, known internationally as The International Day for Protection of Children (#ChildrensDay)! And consider partnering with the kids, their mothers, and the communities in Congo through the life-changing programs Action Kivu supports:
- Education Assistance to send children to school;
- Vocational training programs at the Mumosho Women's Center, including the Sewing Workshop that graduates women with a machine and the tools to run their own businesses;
- Literacy Courses – beginning, intermediate, and advanced;
- Organic Food for All program, teaching sustainable farming and providing healthy, organic food for families;
- My Goat is Your Goat animal husbandry program, providing goats and chickens to families and follow-up education and veterinary care;
- AIDS/HIV education and family planning and health services;
- Power in Unity: providing $100 investments and financial literacy training for women to start their small businesses.
Read more stories on our blog, here.
Bienvenie: From Sewing Student to Successful Entrepreneur
Behind us the Mumosho Sewing Workshop hummed with activity, voices muffled, feet shuffling. Inside, sandal-clad feet rhythmically pressed pedals to power the Singer sewing machines, scissors snipped threads, irons heated with burning coals pressed out the creases in brightly patterned fabric. Outside, Bienvenie sat with perfect posture on the low stool, her gaze direct and unflinching as she told us about her life, describing how her mother did not have enough, enough food, enough money, to support her children after Bienvenie’s father died in a mining accident when she was only two. She shared her story, surrounded by the wide green leaves of banana trees, the red earth of Congo’s valley, a family’s chicken wandering by a thatched home.It was 2012, and Bienvenie was one of the students at the Mumosho Sewing Workshop, where she was in training to make her hopes a reality. Growing up with a love of fashion and fabrics, Bienvenie always dreamed of learning to sew. Her dream appeared impossible, as she watched her mother struggle to make ends meet and feed the family from her harvest of long hours on the farm. Paying for a traditional education or sewing training was unimaginable. “But the people who started this program, I don’t know what I could give them. People who are supporting this program, I don’t know what to tell them, because for me, it has been a dream to have a place where I can learn sewing, and here I am. I am very happy.”Fast-forward four years, and Bienvenie’s dream came true. Because of the people in the U.S. and around the world who support Action Kivu’s work with ABFEC in Mumosho, Bienvenie graduated with a sewing machine in the summer of 2012 and started working, making garments for clients in her community, and sewing alongside other graduates to make the school uniforms for the children Action Kivu sends to school with education assistance.An entrepreneur, Bienvenie now operates her own business, and mentors another young seamstress. “Now people in the community bring me fabrics with value and they are confident, they trust me as now I know my job of seamstress well,” she tells Amani, our founder who started the Sewing Workshop.
“Ideas at first considered outrageous or ridiculous or extreme gradually become what people think they’ve always believed. How the transformation happened is rarely remembered, in part because it’s compromising: … it recalls that power comes from the shadows and the margins, that our hope is in the dark and around the edges, not the limelight of center stage. Our hope and often our power.” ~Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the DarkYour partnership is making these ideas — dreams of equality, visions of women stitching together a better future for Congo — a reality. Consider partnering with the women and communities of Congo today! Learn more here.Read more:
Mother's Day with Mama Ernata, seamstress in Congo: If you were me, wouldn't you be happy?
“[My mother] had handed down respect for the possibilities—and the will to grasp them.” – Alice Walker
This Mother’s Day, we’d like to take you to a corner of Congo, to meet Mama Ernata. You’ll find her at her home sewing workshop, a small wood-beam-walled room that revolves around her Singer sewing machine. This is where she works, mentoring young seamstresses who sew alongside her, taking measurements from clients, sewing garments, managing time and finances in a happy, busy balance with caring for her nine children and husband.
We first introduced you to Ernata in 2012, when Cate and Rebecca (co-founders of Action Kivu, the American arm of Amani Matabaro’s local Congolese organization ABFEC) visited the Sewing Workshop in Mumosho in 2012. Since graduating the Sewing Workshop with our sewing kit, the Singer sewing machine, an iron, fabric, and all the tools needed to start her business, Ernata launched her new life. Amani and Horthense, our Program Director in Congo, caught up with Ernata last week to send us an update on her inspiring journey.“I have seen and heard many things and many people in my life but only two of these have made me feel the pride of being a human being,” Ernata says. “These two things are finally being a mother after I had waited so long, and also being a seamstress. I am the mother of three kids in addition to the seven children my husband got from his first wife who passed away.”Ernata had shared her difficult story with us when we first met her, a story that echoes that of a society where women have very little rights or value, and can be divorced without recourse for not bearing a male heir. “My first marriage, I spent two years in my household,” Ernata told us. “I didn’t have any children, and I suffered a lot from my husband. He kicked me out because I didn’t have any children. After being kicked out by my first husband, I returned home, and spent six months at home. Another man married me. After about 6 to 7 months with my second husband, I could not conceive. He also kicked me out, divorced me.”Then came another man, from a different village, whose wife had died and left him with seven kids. Ernata married for the third time, and after only three months, she conceived. “I was blessed to have one child, a boy, but it was after surgery (a cesarean delivery). After two years and three months, my only child died. I was there, living with my husband, but I was afraid. Six months had passed after my child died, and I hadn’t conceived again. I was afraid, and things had changed again, become negative, with my husband.”Though he already has seven children, he wanted another from Ernata. “And me, too,” she said. “Because if I have a child, I’m stable there.”Though her first-born died, she counts him amongst her children. And shortly after losing him, Ernata became pregnant and gave birth to a second baby boy, who is now one year and seven months old. And soon after, she gave birth to another baby, the little two-month old girl pictured here. “Her name is Ampire, which means ‘God has gifted me.’” Ernata was able to pay for her own cesarean sections and maternity fees for both new babies because of her work as a seamstress.
“The second thing which makes me a proud person of myself is simply to be a seamstress and able to take care of myself, my own children and my husband’s. Without my sewing business, I had no idea how I could be able to pay for the maternity fees. I was able to pay 60 dollars because my third pregnancy was a cesarean delivery like the first and the second ones. My husband has no job and all the income I make from my sewing activity has to be used wisely for our basic needs in the family. The month of April I was able to make only 50 dollars because of the new baby and needed to recover from surgery which is coming along quite well and I am hoping for the best!” Ernata says. (On average, when not recovering from surgery and caring for a newborn, Ernata has been able to earn $120 / month, whereas many unskilled women work for 1 dollar a day on other’s farms.)When asked what the phrase “to mother” means for her, Ernata pauses to reflect on the concept that has become so very real for her in the past four years. “It means happiness, value and respect inside myself, in front of my husband and community. I hope my daughter Ampire will become a professional seamstress.”“I am praying for my sewing business to grow and ensure I continue mentoring others, and that means become able to get a few more sewing machines, that’s the only way I feel I can give back what I have received from ABFEC / Action Kivu. The one year training I went through at ABFEC is rewarding, and means I can pay food for my family, not only clothes for my children but also to repair their clothes whenever needed, it makes me able to pay the maternity costs unlike many other women who give birth and can’t go back home with their babies until someone pays for them. I also pay school fees for my husband’s children.“The biggest challenge is that we have such a large family that depends on what I earn. Without the sewing training I went through at ABFEK, I wouldn’t have become the person I am today. Many of my sewing training classmates are far away and not living in Mumosho, but look, I was able to work, make money, save some and buy a cell phone and I am happy to be in touch with them and they are also happy!”“I have no reason to not be happy and proud,” says Ernata. “I am blessed to have become a mother and a seamstress. May God bless ABFEC / Action Kivu and everyone who contributes in a way or another to transform people’s lives. Mine has been transformed. And if you were me, wouldn’t you be happy?”
We add our gratitude to Ernata's for all our partners in this work. Your generous donations are truly changing Congo and the world, one mama, baby, and family at a time. Learn more about our work here!
Marching and Dancing for Justice: International Women's Day in Mumosho, Congo [Photos]
The women you support through Action Kivu celebrated International Women's Day on Saturday. They smiled as they marched through Mumosho; fists raised, they sang out for justice for all women, holding signs calling for men and women to stand up for equality for a just world. They proudly walked the main road, their feet kicking up red dust, their children underfoot, husbands, brothers, and sons supporting them from all sides.It was a powerful uprising, Amani tells us, where he promised the women and girls that we will not give up. We will continue to lift our voice in unison for equality and human rights! It was the first time the king of the Kabare kingdom, which is made up of several groupings including Mumosho, joined in the celebration, with the queen performing traditional dances with the woman and Amani (see below). The king added his words of encouragement for the women and for ABFEC / Action Kivu's work, stating that he supports the work we do and is behind any program uplifting women and girls.
Many of the girls and women at the Sewing Workshop made their own clothes for the event. "This pair of scissors, this tape measure, this sewing machine simply helps me entirely change my life once and for all," one student told our partner, Amani.
"We are on the journey towards changing our lives!"
Outside the Mumosho Women's Center
A woman steps in to give specific directions to Amani while the queen of Kabare awaits the next dance.
Thank you for partnering with the amazing people of Congo! To set up a monthly donation to support our programs, including the Sewing Workshop, the shared farms, the literacy program, the HIV/AIDS education, and animal husbandry, click here.Learn more about our work:Today I am mending my own life: Sewing Workshop Class of 2016To achieve their dreams: All Together Against HIV/AIDSMeet Grandma Mwayuma and see some of the children at playMeet Amani through the Enough Project’s “I Am Congo” video seriesMeet the goats in our animal husbandry program, Your Goat is My GoatNew People, New Actions, New Congo: Christmas Celebration & New Year Resolutions
To Achieve Their Dreams: All Together Against HIV/AIDS (Congo)
Chiruza couldn't keep from asking questions. A young student representing his school in the HIV/AIDS training that day in Mumosho, Congo, he stood up often, clarifying facts, challenging the status quo, making sure he had all the info to return to his classmates fully armed with an education on how to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.He was one of the many kids in the training session that day, children and teens who dream of graduating school to become lawyers, politicians, or, like Chiruza, an engineer in industrial electricity. After learning the statistics, that in sub-Saharan Africa, 1.1 million [1.0 million – 1.3 million] people died of AIDS-related causes in 2013, and that Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for almost 70% of the global total of new HIV infections, Chiruza and his new friends in the meeting were angry. Armed with information, they were ready to engage in a battle against the disease, so they and their classmates, their sisters and brothers, could achieve their dreams."The proliferation of armed groups, successive wars, and poverty at community levels in connection with the movement of military groups and young people, especially to and from mining sites, along with the lack of mass education on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are some of the root causes of why HIV /AIDS is a serious threat that kills people every day, with the potential to spread rampantly through communities without this education," Amani tells us.How can we serve our mission, Amani asks, to invest in the women, children, and communities of Congo, if they are dying from a disease we can prevent through education? All Together Against HIV/AIDS is a community-based anti-HIV/AIDS campaign by ABFEC (formerly ABFEK), Action Kivu's partner in Congo. The program consists of diversified activities centered in the community, with a focus on settings with large populations such as schools, churches, and community-based organizations in eastern DRC. Sub Saharan Africa represents almost 70% of the total new HIV infections in the world, according to UN AIDS.
Action Kivu sends a small stipend to help pay Nurse Jeanine for her work, who headed up the training along with with nurses Safi and Toto, women who volunteered their time and experience of over 10 years of work in local hospitals, with specific education in HIV/AIDS. They came concerned for a community that was unaware of a disease that continues to decimate their country and continent.
"Out of 37 million people estimated to be living with HIV, 19 million do not know their status. In other words, one out of every two people living with HIV does not know that they are HIV-positive – and therefore does not access treatment and care." (The Global Fund)
Brigitte and Chanceline - ready to educate their peers.
Both Brigitte and Chanceline live at the Mumosho Women's Center, part of the Teen Mother's Program that is supported by a grant from Jewish World Watch. Strong young women, they both survived rape, and, left alone to raise the babies resulting from that assault, found a new home and new hope through the community of women at the Center, as well as the opportunity to finish school. Brigitte became a mother before she was 14. Joining our family four years ago, and now back in school, she has one more year of Secondary school, and wants to become a lawyer, to defend and protect the rights of the oppressed, especially women and children. After attending this training, she is also now a strong voice in her school in this campaign against HIV/AIDS.The participants for the first training were selected by the school principals based on their leadership qualities and ability to pass along what they learned to their classmates. Five secondary schools in the area were represented by two students for each class, as well as two local churches. The school principals unanimously agreed to integrate this program in their weekly school activities, in which the students from the training course will be given space and time to share what they have learned with their peers at school, sessions that will be overseen by Nurse Jeanine.All Together Against HIV/AIDS is based on BCC methods - Behavior Change & Communication. Jeanine started the day with a questionnaire to learn what the community already knows about HIV/AIDS, including the definition of key terms like HIV/AIDS, PVV (a person living with HIV) and their rights, PTME (mother-to-child HIV transmission protection), ARV (treatment with the use of antiretrovirals), how HIV is transmitted, what the protection methods are. After the training session, Jeanine proctored a follow-up test, to determine that her students were set to return to their schools and churches, to educate others and spread the facts. The most popular community radio station arrived to air the event in support of the initiative: All Together Against HIV/AIDS.
"People who don’t know their status, or who are not able to access treatment and care, are at risk of developing AIDS or of passing the virus on to others – at a huge cost to themselves and to society."... Today, with access to lifesaving treatment, an HIV-positive person can expect to have the same lifespan as someone who is HIV-negative."One of the cornerstones of this lifesaving treatment is the use of antiretrovirals (ARVs). ARVs are given as a combination of drugs that can reduce the amount of HIV in the body or prevent HIV in people at substantial risk of acquiring the virus. However, ARVs are not a cure for HIV; a person living with HIV who is on treatment will need to take ARVs the rest of their life. ARVs also have another benefit: treatment reduces the chance that an HIV-positive person will pass the virus on to someone else by 97 percent.” (The Global Fund)
Learn the facts from the UN AIDS fact sheet below, and support our work to combat HIV/AIDS in Congo. Action Kivu pays a small stipend to Nurse Jeanine for her work in our community, from family planning to this HIV/AIDS awareness building. If you'd like to support her life-saving work, please consider a monthly donation by clicking here, and mark in PayPal's note to seller: NURSE.- Between 2005 and 2013 the number of AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 39%.Treatment coverage is 37% of all people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.- 67% of men and 57% of women were not receiving ART in sub-Saharan Africa in 2013.- Three out of four people on ART live in sub Saharan Africa.- There were 210,000 [180,000 – 250,000] new HIV infections among children in sub-Saharan Africa in 2013.- Since 2009, there has been a 43% decline in new HIV infections among children in the 21 priority countries of the Global Plan in Africa.-67% of men and 57% of women had no access to Antiretroviral care in 2013.As nurses Jeanine and Safi and Toto began the training, one graded the pre-test. 96% of the participants had no knowledge on the topics covered that day: general knowledge of HIV/AIDS, global and DRC HIV-related statistics, modes of transmission, prevention, care, living with and accepting people with HIV (PVV), the clinical symptoms, briefings on different techniques used for voluntary testing, and mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention.When the students took a similar test after the training session ended, 92% answered all the above, and new questions, correctly. They were very interested and kept the nurses as long as they could with more questions, before leaving with training materials to ensure they will have resources to use for passing on the education to their peers at school.As a trusted source of education and training in the community, our partner organization ABFEC plays a key role in this education process. Almost all the women who attended the anti-HIV campaign stated that it is not always easy to convince their husbands to undertake a voluntary HIV test. Through your partnership with Action Kivu, you provide the means for ABFEC to be a bridge between the community and local health facilities with capacities to provide antiretroviral medication, in addition to providing expanding education on HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmissible Diseases one day every week, as well as individual and group counseling before voluntary testing.For those who test positive, the program will provide an orientation, practical ways to avoid transmitting the disease, and be put in immediate contact with one of the two hospitals are able to provide antiretroviral medication in the area: The Nyantende and the Panzi Hospitals, both located at about 15 km from Mumosho.Nurse Jeanine is committed to tirelessly spread the word, to stop of the spread of this preventable disease. Will you join us? We currently send a stipend of $100 / month for Jeanine's critical work, and want to pay her $150 more, as well to hire an assistant for her, to help address the community needs, prepare the training sessions, and begin to provide female and male condoms. Email us at actionkivu@gmail.com with any questions, or note NURSE in your PayPal donation.Thank you for partnering with the people of Congo in this way!Amani writes: The photo with everyone with two fingers up means we are all ready to go go go go!!!!
Today I am mending my own life: Action Kivu Sewing Workshop - Class of 2016
A rare dry day in rainy season Congo, some of the girls and women of the Sewing Workshop set up outside the Mumosho Women's Center, creating more space for their day's lessons. M'Bagalwa Francine started the sewing training last spring. She pauses, pulling the bright green and fuschia fabric from her Singer machine, and holds up the dress she's working on today."When I make something like this, I make a profit of nine dollars. Being part of this program has dramatically changed my life. I was not lucky to be sent to school because my parents were very poor before they died and I was not a priority. My brother was, but unfortunately he did not also graduate from secondary school for luck of funds. Today I am mending my own life. I am expecting the graduation ceremony to [proceed] and I will start working on my own or join a sewing cooperative with two or three others from my program. Thank you for changing my life."
Your partnership with Action Kivu's programs in Congo gives girls and women like M'Bagalwa Francine the tools to mend their lives and craft a better future for themselves and their children. We are raising $15,000 for the Sewing Workshop Class of 2016, to graduate these amazing entrepreneurs this spring with their own Singer sewing machine, fabric, scissors, and thread to launch their small businesses and sewing co-ops, earning income to break the cycle of poverty that threatened to cut short their dreams.$200 will buy one graduate a sewing kit, purchased there to invest in the local economy. With your investment in these women's future, they'll be able to feed, clothe, and send their kids to school, growing a new Congo from the fertile ground of their persistence and hard work. CLICK HERE to donate today, and mark "Class of 2016" in the note to seller on PayPal to support their graduation!Watch the Class of 2015 video here to hear, in their own words, how learning a trade and earning income has already changed their lives!
Read more from our programs in Congo on our blog:Meet Cikwanine, Nadine, & Chanceline – three teen moms who are back in school!Meet Claudine, and read her story of coming “back to life”Meet Grandma Mwayuma and see some of the children at playMeet Amani through the Enough Project’s “I Am Congo” video seriesMeet the goats in our animal husbandry program, Your Goat is My GoatNew People, New Actions, New Congo: Christmas Celebration & New Year Resolutions
New People, New Actions, New Congo: Children's Christmas Celebration & New Year Resolutions
Christmas came a few days early for the kids in Mumosho, DRC, thanks to you, our family of supporters in the U.S. and around the world. Santa arrived in the form of our founder and leader, Papa Amani, as he is known to the kids, bearing bags of shoes and clothes for over 250 children, many for whom this is the only clothing they will receive for the new year.
Older students, kids who have grown up in school because of Amani’s Education Assistance program, volunteered to help. They were eager to play their part, to pay it forward by giving their time to the organization that has helped them stay in school, to find the inspiration and practical help to follow their dreams, and to encourage the dreams of the younger students, like Orelie.Currently halfway through the first year at secondary school, Orelie has a vision for Congo, and created the slogan that Amani embraced for ABFEK, our partner organization: “New People, New Actions, New Congo.” Orelie’s favorite part of school is community, “when we come together as brothers and sisters during breaks, playing and singing.”Your resolution to partner with the people of Congo is already turning Orelie’s vision into reality. Through your support, over 400 children are attending school through our Education Assistance Program for vulnerable children; 15 teen mothers and their babies have housing and vocational training after being abandoned by their families because of rape; over 90 families are part of our growing animal husbandry program; 245 women are learning to read and write through our Literacy Program; 180 women are learning sustainable farming, growing food to sell and to feed their families on our two shared farms; 236 women have learned the skill and trade of sewing, starting their own businesses, earning income to feed and send their kids to school, helping to break the cycle of extreme poverty.
Celebrating Christmas and the New Year, some of the kids swarmed the playground, legs kicking to swing high, hands gripping tightly as they spun in circles on the merry-go-round, watching to see who could roll an old tire the furthest and fastest. They stopped to eat a warm meal of rice, beans, and peas, served by the older students, including Brigitte, who joined the Teen Mothers Program three years ago after she was raped, pregnant before her 14th birthday.Shunned by her relatives and others in the village, Brigitte found compassion and love at the Mumosho Women’s Center. A strong young girl, Amani tells us, she finished the Teen Mothers Program empowerment sessions and decided to join the Education Assistance Program. Through our partner grant from Jewish World Watch, she was re-enrolled in school. Today Brigitte is in the fifth grade of secondary school, with one year to go before she graduates. Her goal is to attend university and law school, to defend and protect the oppressed, girls like herself only three years ago.
Your support is creating real transformation in individual lives of the children and women of Congo, and creating a stronger community of generosity and trust. When Brigitte volunteered to serve food to the kids, she called them her brothers and sisters, because they accepted her and loved her.Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 2016 with new hope, the children in Mumosho, Congo send you their thanks.They took turns drawing, sketching, creating. ''I am dreaming of becoming a pilot and that's why I am drawing a plane," says Borauzima Daniel. "On board this plane I am sending my best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to the Action Kivu supporters who are making a huge difference in my everyday life.'' 
Read more about the kids, women, and community we partner with in Congo:Meet Mamy in a video from our Sewing Graduation Day, 2015Meet Cikwanine, Nadine, & Chanceline – three teen moms who are back in school!Meet Claudine, and read her story of coming “back to life”Meet Grandma Mwayuma and see some of the children at playMeet Amani through the Enough Project’s “I Am Congo” video seriesMeet the goats in our animal husbandry program, Your Goat is My GoatTo partner with Action Kivu, click here!
Investing in Congo: Sowing Seeds for Women Launching Small Businesses
With your support, Action Kivu is sowing seeds in Congo: literal seeds in our Organic Food for All Program, virtual seeds of education through our Literacy Program for women and Education Assistance for children, seed money for small businesses run by women. And we are already seeing the harvest of lives transformed: women sharing stories of how they can support their families through their new sewing skills, feeding their families with vegetables grown on the farm, and starting small businesses with investments from people like you, our partners!The mother of five children, Namuto was abandoned by her abusive husband, and left to care for the kids on her own. Having heard about the vocational training programs at the Mumosho Women's Center, she arrived, hoping to join the Sewing Workshop, to learn a trade to earn income to support her family. Upon learning that the training took 8 months, Namuto instead joined our partner ABFEK's Micro Finance Program, learning financial literacy and starting a small business selling smaller food items at the market: groundnut flour used to season food, cooking oil, and palm oil. After paying back her loan, she recently joined the Small Business Seed Project sponsored by long-time Action Kivu / ABFEK supporters from Rhode Island and California.With $100 of seed money, Namuto purchased more small goods to sell, and works hard every day to ensure her children are fed daily and can go to school. Her third son is pictured helping her grind the groundnut to ensure they do not lose any customers that day.A donation to Action Kivu is an investment in the future of Congo, supporting our vocational, educational, and community building projects and helping a woman like Namuto start a small business so she can feed, clothe, and send her kids to school, transforming not only her life, but the future leaders of Congo!
When I Grow Up: Donate to Gift Shoes & Clothes for Kids in Congo
[thermometer raised=4092.40 target=4000 width=150px align=left currency=$ alt=‘Thanks for the donations!’ trailing=false]Every year, Action Kivu raises money to create a Christmas & New Year's celebration for the kids we serve in Congo. Once a year, kids who have next to nothing, who often have lost parents due to the poverty and disease and violence resulting from the long-term conflict in their country, are invited to a celebration. At the party, over 300 children are fed a meal, and receive gifts of shoes and a set of clothes, sometimes the only ones they'll get for the year. They are so happy, our partner Amani tells us, and we see it in their faces.
Donate today, and mark "New Years" or "Christmas" in the note to seller section on PayPal. $10 goes a long way: A simple gift of shoes, clothes, and a meal tells these kids that their lives matter, that their stories are heard, that people around the world are cheering for them!
Not all are so goofy posing for the camera. Rehema's face shows her determination to make her dreams a reality, and is taking her gifts of shoes, clothes, and an education very seriously. A little girl from a family of eight children, her parents could not afford to send her to school. Enrolled in classes now, thanks to ABFEK (Action Kivu's partner in Congo), Rehema plans to graduate school and use her education to help other kids like herself, working for ABFEK!
Donate today! Thank you!