It seems to me that there is more than one way of building and strengthening one’s faith. One person’s faith story can be very different than another; it all depends on the person’s personal experience with the LORD and other Christians. Personal experiences are forms of theology that transform a person’s life and enlighten your interpersonal relationship with the Divine. For some, it’s initiated directly through intense supernatural means. Other times, it’s been realized through natural and physical disasters and causes such as a person’s social economic misfortune for example. Yet other times it might come through shared experience among groups of different intense religious context. As much as the expressions can vary, the end results always brings one closer to God and expand one’s personal relation with the Divine must likely through faith building. The personal experiences from my June 2014 trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo implied many faith building encounters inclusively the Micro-Credit Program of the women from the Mbandaka Region.
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| Leaders of the Micro-Credit Project |
The Micro-Credit Program is about 10 years old; it
started in 2003 when political turmoil throughout the country stripped the
communities from their resources as a response of the women of Disciple
Communities to take care of their families. It did not take long for the entire
region of Mbandaka to get involve to make the Micro-Credit Program one of the
most dynamic social economic program in the life of the Congolese Church. How does the program work? I am glad you asked;
let’s talk about the women’s Micro-Credit Program for a moment.
The Micro-Credit Program is a community cooperative
program; it functions like a community bank. It started with the seed money
provided by Global Ministries, and the women took charge and develop the
program to what it has become today. Not all the churches in the region have
been involved yet, but in the churches where the program is rooted, the women
bring their own little personal funds raised from their own personal effort and
sacrifices and surrender that small fund under the authority of a small group
of women joined together under the leadership of a committee elected by the
group. The committee is composed of a president, a vice-president, a secretary,
and a treasurer. Once each person submitted her portion, the committee counts
and records everyone’s personal fund, and loan the total amount to one member
of the group to start a personal lucrative activity. Depend on the cost of the
activity chosen, they may have enough money to loan to more than one member.
The group would establish a cycle for that total amount allowed to come back
with a 10% interest, and then another person will get the total amount and do
the same thing till each member of the group has a turn; and they would start
over again and again if necessary.
You may ask where is the benefits stood in all this. I am
glad you ask; let’s work with a figure to see if I can explain it clearer; for
example, let’s say one group in a particular church has 10 persons, keep in
mind one local church usually has more than one group; each member of the group
would contribute $100 as an example. After each person brings her portion, the
total amount counted and recorded by the committee of that particular group
would be $1000.00. One member borrows the $1,000 and uses it for a productive
activity. One of the activities they get involved in for example is dress
making. Let’s say one member of the group borrows $1000 and buys fabric to make
dresses and sells them for a total amount of $3000; at the end of the cycle,
she will bring back to the group $1000 + 10% = $1100 would come back to the
group, and she has $1900 left to continue the activity she started. The group
will loan the $1000 to a different member, and the remaining $100 is used for
materials needed to administer the group and will be dispersed as interest to
the women periodically.
Do you get it? Oh, Okay! You have another question, what
is it? What else the $1900 benefit can be used for? That is a great question,
let’s try to answer it.
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| School girls in Mbandaka |
First of all, there was a time in the Democratic Republic
of Congo women were not allowed to go to school; that explains why most of the
older women are not highly educated and professionally trained for the work
force; even if they are, there are no jobs for them anyway; therefore they are
in many cases involved in little activities of selling stuffs to make a living
and support their families. Since they are poor and don’t have money to do
much, the Micro-Credit Program was developed to offer them an opportunity to
help themselves by grouping all their hands together. Once a person get the
fund from the group and worked with it, after the person return the total
amount borrowed from the hands of the whole group, whatever she has left is
her’s to do whatever she wants to do with it. However, they usually keep
working with the benefit acquired to make more money to pay tuition for their
children, provide foods and other needs of their families, and support their
local church. About ¾ of money collected from a local congregation in the
district of Mbandaka come from those women. Some of them also return to school
to get an education on their own, and try to prepare themselves for other
opportunities in the future just in case something becomes available. The
Micro-Credit Program really helps the women to get their independence and
become really valuable to the communities where they were considered previously
as nothing. In very rare cases men might be involved in the Micro-Credit as
well, but in most cases the activity is composed of women.
If you have more questions about the Micro-Credit Program
in the region of Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of Congo, I can try to answer
them for you or with you; However, the question you didn’t ask is can you be a
part of the Micro-Credit Program? The answer is “yes you can”; in fact, I
personally consider the Micro-Credit Program one of the best activities to
support. Once you contribute to it, many other programs in the life of the
Congolese Church will be supported by the women from different activities they
developed by the Micro-Credit fund you provide to their small groups. Do you
remember that saying: “Don’t give a fish, instead teach me to fish”; that is so
true about the Micro-Credit Program of the Mbandaka region.
I am hopping some of your questions about the
Micro-Credit Program have been answered; if you have more questions, the last
pilgrims the Indiana Region to the Congo can even come to you for
a conversation about the partnership between the Indiana Region and the
Mbandaka District and different activities going on within that partnership
including the Micro-Credit Program.
Reflection by Chimiste Doriscar on the Micro-Credit Project.
