TESTIMONIALS

We are excited to share an insightful panel discussion about the Ebola outbreak and the Bethesda Counseling Center. Bethesda’s director Noé Kasali and Bethesda beneficiaries participated in a symposium facilitated by Glasscock Center and Scowcraft Institute of International Affairs Texas A&M University. The Symposium, The Long-term Impacts of Pandemics: Ongoing… Read More

In January and February, we held a four-part seminar series to reflect and learn together with a host of CI friends who shared their wealth of experience in strengthening the church in Africa and beyond. Through this four-part seminar, we hope participants were equipped to meaningfully connect with their communities,… Read More



Recently, I was taking a walk with my wife and our children when we heard men yelling from the top of a truck “corona, corona, corona!” My wife being an American, is perceived as a carrier of COVID-19. This one-time incident that I faced with my family is a daily… Read More

At the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in August 2018, national and international experts were deployed in Beni to tackle the virus. Many of these people quickly started developing the narrative that people in Beni didn’t want to cooperate with the Ebola response. Bethesda carried out a survey around people’s… Read More

At the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, accepting and coping with a whole range of social and cultural changes was devastating. People could not shake hands, hug, or touch one another. However, the hardest part of the Ebola outbreak for many people was the… Read More

Developing sustainable businesses in eastern Congo is no small feat. A fragile infrastructure, ongoing insecurity, deadly outbreaks such as Ebola, and now the global pandemic makes business and even daily life in Congo hard. That is why UCBC alum, Butoto Mahinduzi, is not surprised when he is asked “Why did… Read More

Like the rest of the world, we are learning together about what gender equality means and how we all play a part in achieving it. For many women in Congo, just getting to study at a university seems like an impossible dream. But what we have learned at UCBC is that just providing education isn’t enough to support women’s equal access to jobs, influence, and achievement of their dreams. They also need to know that their community will support them enough to take risks required for growth. Both men and women are necessary to make this happen…. Read More

International Women’s Day on March 8th provides an important opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements while calling for greater equality around the world. This year’s theme, each for equal proclaims that an equal world is an enabled world. At Congo Initiative, we are committed to breaking down the barriers to gender… Read More