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Girls at Mitendi sing and welcome visiting AB Women’s Ministries tour group in April 2011
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The girls are learning how to operate a restaurant and cooked a buffet meal for the visiting women’s group
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A squatter on the property lost not only his claim to the land, but his newly constructed home. Praise that God provided a new house for the center’s director for free!
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Jill and volunteers discuss a water project for Mitendi
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The girls smile and sing because they are grateful for a place like Mitendi that gives them hope for a better future
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The majority of girls at Mitendi have bamboo mats like these to sleep on
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Only a handful of girls are fortunate enough to sleep at night on a thin mattress
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The girls crochet beautiful blankets and shawls
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The girls show their skill at knitting children’s sweaters for cold Congolese evenings
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Volunteers at Mitendi show a box of yarn and knitting supplies they received
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Sewing classes at Mitendi use manual sewing machines like these. Once the mission project is fully funded they hope to have electric sewing machines.
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Missionary Jill Lowery shows some of the girls completed sewing projects
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The interior courtyard was planted with grasses to form a cross
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The exterior of the Mitendi Center as guests arrive
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It was a delicious meal of meat, potatoes and local vegetables
Thanks in large part to the generous contribution of $13,000 from American Baptist Women of New York, the Mitendi Center mission project is within striking range of reaching its 2011 fundraising goal of $15,700! Mitendi is a vital residential program for women at-risk for prostitution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Another $2,050 was given by individuals and churches around the country, bringing the total raised to $15,050. Contributions are still being sought for the remaining $650. Please click here if you’d like to help.
The Mitendi Center mission project was submitted by missionary Jill Lowery and is promoted by American Baptist International Ministries (IM). The goal is to outfit the Mitendi Center with sewing machines, fabric and yarn, knitting supplies and equipment to open a small restaurant.
Located at a crossroads just outside the capital of Kinshasa, the Mitendi Center is a safe haven for girls and young women ages 14 – 18 who are at risk for prostitution. Open 24 hours a day, this residential center offers counseling, job training in literacy, life skills and job skills, and the hope of a life free of bondage and degradation from prostitution.
The women of Congo first dreamt of creating the center in the 1908s. American Baptist Women’s Ministries made it their national project in the 1990s raising over $100,000 to buy the land and build the center. Grasses of brown and green were planted in the shape of a cross in the central courtyard, a constant reminder that God is at the center of everything they do.
War broke out in 1998, and soldiers took over the center, destroying all the furniture, plumbing, doors and windows, stripping the center bare. The women of Kinshasa managed to reopen the center in 2002 with some sewing machines, a few mattresses and benches for the classrooms.
Recently, the AB Women’s Ministries Encounter Tour of Africa stopped at the Mitendi Center while in Congo. The 15 women were greeted with the excited shouts of the girls who live at Mitendi. “They’re coming! They’re coming!”
The women on the tour were stunned by the level of need they encountered at Mitendi. “They don’t even have a bed to sleep in” said Chris Marziale, AB Tour Coordinator. “These girls are sleeping on the floor, with mattresses in terrible ondition. My heart went out to them. The volunteers and Jill Lowery are doing the best they can with the limited funds they have.”
Several of the tour participants brought supplies with them for Mitendi including a bolt of fabric, yarn, needles and thread. After seeing the conditions at Mitendi, member of the tour started buying local crafts in Congo to sell in her home church. The money will be given to Jill Lowery to buy additional supplies for Mitendi.
If you would like to send sewing and needlework supplies to Mitendi, check the 2011 Mission Service Projects book available by calling 1 800 4 JUDSON.