Building Skills, Building Independence

Masika’s Story at the Holistic Family Development Center

For Masika Rebecca Vira, the dress she is wearing is more than something she made herself. It is a reminder of what she has learned and what is possible when the right skills and opportunities come together.

Through Congo Initiative’s Holistic Family Development (HFD) Center, Masika has learned practical skills designed to help vulnerable women and youth pursue meaningful employment and greater economic independence. The program offers hands-on vocational training and mentoring, with courses tailored to the needs of the local community and the skills in demand in the local job market.

For Masika, that training has translated directly into new opportunities.

“We were taught how to become self-reliant,” she says of her experience at the center. “We have also learned some practical skills such as making quality doughnuts, producing soap, disinfectants and even fabric for clothing.”

Masika put those lessons to work right away. She made the dress she is wearing, along with three others that she sold. The income helped her meet some of her family’s needs while giving her a new source of independence.

The training has also changed the way Masika thinks about everyday expenses. Before learning to make soap, she spent about $10 a month buying it. Now, she can make her own for roughly half that cost.

“I don’t just use the soap, I sell it too,” she says. “These soaps even have healing properties. My child had skin problems and ringworm on the scalp, but after using the soap that I made, those issues disappeared.”

The pride that has come with these new abilities is coupled with lessons about saving, entrepreneurship and living in harmony with others in her community. That holistic approach is at the heart of the HFD Center.

The center’s mission is to renew Congolese families and empower them to flourish economically, socially and spiritually. It does this by combining vocational training with mentoring and, for women affected by trauma and hardship, counseling and support.

Today, Masika continues making and selling the products she learned to produce at the HFD Center. Each one represents another opportunity to support herself and her family.

“The HFD Center has helped me greatly by offering training that goes beyond just learning a trade,” she says. “May God bless the staff of this center and may they never grow tired of doing good.”

Learn more about the HFD Center here.