The Revd Bisoke Balikenga from Diocese of Bunia in L’Eglise anglicane du Congo (Anglican Church of Congo) writes from Bunia:
News from the Peace Centre this is a short report of God’s working among us
We have more people than ever coming to the Peace Centre in Bunia. They come to us for food, for trauma counselling, for training, and for so much more. Many of those who come to the Centre are women who come to us for counselling because they have been abused by fighters, both in the civil war which rages around us, and the tribal conflicts which surround us.
One of the activities of the Peace Centre is to help traumatised people to recover from the violence and trauma which has engulfed them. We offer many kinds of assistance including a discipleship programme through which some come to know Jesus.
One couple who came to the Peace Centre were Mave[i] and her partner Andre. They were suffering the effects of war and Mave’s disability meant that churches had rejected them for over seven years. After spending time at the Peace Centre and taking part in the trauma healing programme and the discipleship programme, they have accepted Jesus into their lives again. They are now planning to marry at a service to be held in the Peace Centre. Mave is 75 years old and Andre 73 years old. They have been together for 50 years. Imagine the blessing.
Some of the women who have been abused stay with us at the Centre. Many abused women are subsequently rejected by their families and communities. Maman Malkia is one of the women with us. She has lost eight of her children only one, Furaha, surviving. Furaha was kidnapped. For over a year we at the Centre prayed for the return of Furaha. Thanks be to God; Furaha has now been reunited with her mother and they continue to live at the Centre. We are called to pray for suffering people.
Almost all the women who come to seek support from the Centre have few skills to help them with income generation, so we take the opportunity to offer courses in cookery, cake making, and using a sewing machine. As well as this many have not learnt to read and write, so we offer literacy and numeracy courses. People are very keen to learn to read and write so that they can increase their faith through reading their bible and have more confidence in their everyday life. So far 267 women have benefitted from this programme.
Another important aspect of our work peace-building, helping people to build peace in their communities. There has been so much war and violence in the North East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for so many years and so conflict and violence has become normal. It is very prevalent among different peoples in our communities. Our team of women and men have trained 50 people to run peace-building workshops in the three big camps here in Bunia for displaced people. There is more demand for these courses than we have the capacity to offer. We need to be able to train more leaders and offer this training more widely in eastern Congo.
Please pray for the Peace Centre