In 1993, ABWM launched the WINGS national mission project (Women in New Growth Situations), with a goal to raise $200,000 over 2 years. Half of the funds would go to an International Project: Mitende Women's Center, Zaire. The other half would fund national/educational projects in the U.S.
The WINGS project ended in 1995 with a total of $205,000, and half of it went to Mitendi project.
In a 1996 news release announcing the success of the WINGS project, Carol Sutton shared: "Half of the funds arised through WINGS are being sent to help the Baptist women of Zaire build a women's center at Mitendi. The women of Zaire have struggled to raise funds on their own to fulfill their visioin of a center where women can learn skills and meet Christ for a better life in the midst of terrible trial. The building now is almost completed." In another letter, Carol said the women of Zaire were seeking the produce from their gardens and making garments for sale to raise money for the center.
In May 1997, Bill and Ann Clemmer sent news of the "fall of Kinshasa" in the civil war that had raged for 7 months, during which there was looting, disorder, and displacement of thousands of people. (At this point in time, Zaire was renamed Democratic Republic of Congo.)
That same month, Ed Noyes wrote: "We visited the Women's Center at Mitendi, pushed by fears that the small group of soldiers who had tabken up residence on the hilltop nearby might have looted the roofing, doors and windows....A walk around the building showed it hadn't been touched."
But later it was. The soldiers took over the center and tossed out furniture and equipment. Displaced persons set up camp on the property.
In October of 2007, I met with the Congo Baptist women’s ministries president, Alice Ngakieme Koba, at her office in Kinshasa, the capital city of Democratic Republic of Congo. She told me about their women’s organization, which encompasses 35,000 women in the Baptist Community of Congo (CBCO), and about their projects and ministries.
Alice asked me to thank American Baptist women for financing the construction of a women’s center at Mitendi in the 1990s. Alice explained that during the recent civil war in Congo, soldiers had pillaged the women’s center, destroying everything. The now vacant buildings have no electricity, no computers, no furniture.
The women are working toward getting the center up and running again, to train and educate single mothers and empower them with marketable skills.
They want to provide computer training and teach English.
They want to help persons with AIDS and children orphaned by AIDS, maybe even opening an orphanage.
Their dreams are immense, but they feel that with God’s help and some funding support, they can do it. Alice remarked, “It is because of the women that anything gets done in Congo.” She gave me a proposal seeking funding for equipment at the Mitendi center; the project will benefit “idle and girl mothers,” referring to the teenage girls who prostitute themselves for survival or who are victims of sexual violence.
I am thrilled that New York State American Baptist Women's Ministries will be partnering with the Congo Baptist women's ministries to move forward in the with their ministry with "idle and girl mothers" at Mitendi. Thank you.
- Virginia Holmstrom, April 2010