Member subscriptions have helped in Africa

"We are so grateful to your members for the support you have shown our partners in DR Congo as they seek to bring hope to a very vulnerable and marginalised group of women in Kinshasa.

We are taking this opportunity to share with you some of our partner’s work over the last few months and particularly an amazing story of transformation for a young girl currently studying with them.

By the age of 17, Genevieve had lost both her parents and had two children of her own; she lived with her grandmother, but had turned to prostitution. A local Pastor referred Genevieve to our partners and she joined their training course for tailoring. Alongside the sewing classes she had support from a social worker and to the delight of all she completely changed her lifestyle and successfully completed the course – achieving Distinction. On the day of the awards, Genevieve declared “A new story in my life starts today, I am now a dressmaker, and finished with the dirty trade of prostitution.”

Each year, our partners work with 60 – 80 girls from vulnerable circumstances. In January 2015, 35 girls joined a one month course on professional tailoring – this was a full time course and they were provided with a lunch each day. All the girls passed the final assessment, two of them with Distinction (including Genevieve) and 10 girls were given Singer Sewing machines in order to continue their skills.

Our partners hope that all the girls they work with will ultimately become economically independent, balanced members of their community and will help strengthen families. They seek to ensure that the girls experience Biblical truths and values; knowing that they are loved and valued by God and those around them. They hope that this positive learning environment will encourage the girls to attain a good level of skill in sewing and at the same time improve their health and wellbeing. So when Genevieve and her cohort moved from the general sewing training to the professional placement they worked with improved fabrics and made trousers for men, clothes for children, uniforms and African print dresses for women.

We are delighted to report that our partners have been able to secure their own plot of land near the current centre. Building work began in July and they hope to be installed by September. The new centre will have space, not only for their current operation but also for a workshop, enabling them to employ some of the girls
they have trained and to generate an income, which will support the training operation. They have been working hard to develop contacts with local companies and organisations, with the aim of obtaining contracts to produce uniforms.

This is all really good news at a time of instability in DRC. Our partners report that during January there was a week of riots in Kinshasa which put the girls’ safety at risk and interrupted the training until calm had been restored. Our partners are always grateful for your prayers, and they give thanks to God for his provision through you to enable them to continue in the work.

They are praying for the elections in 2016 to be peaceful; any conflict would result in more people being vulnerable and needing support.

We add our thanks for your support of our work in DR Congo, so that many more girls like Genevieve are given the support and training they need to turn their lives around."