Exchange visit to Mbuji-Mayi

Last week our team for the savings groups made a trip to East Kasai, for the purpose of visiting women’s groups who have active income-generating projects, and also existing savings and credit groups. We have just started the savings groups in West Kasai, but our vision is that they will start in East Kasai next year, so we wanted to explore what was available in terms of savings, and also what the needs were. We had a great time of learning together, and appreciating the hard work that many people are doing as they seek to work cooperatively to care for their families and communities. Here are just a few highlights:

This women’s group has done various projects together, including working in
people’s fields, running a mill, and making soap.

Leaders of the women’s groups in all the congregations in Mbuji-Mayi came
together to share their successes and challenges, and also to hear an
introduction to the savings group methodology.

We sat with a group from the Anglican church, who have a few existing savings groups

This parish on the edge of town called Nzaba Munya has an active women’s
group who works a field together, operates a water cistern, and is generous
in helping the widows and orphans in their neighborhood.

A woman at the Nzaba Munya parish catches overflow water from their cistern.
The cistern collects rainwater from the church roof. They sell it to the community
as an income generating project – without this source of water, people
have to walk about 3 miles to get water!

Finally, we had a long, muddy drive home. It is about 120 miles from Mbuji-Mayi to
Kananga, but it was an arduous 8 hour drive. Glad to travel, glad to be home!