Mitendi Primary School

Wednesday, February 05, 2020

The Mitendi Women’s Center opened in 1999 with the vision and dedication of the Congolese Baptist women. The Center reaches the most vulnerable at-risk women, offering them hope of a better life through education, job training, counseling and a relationship with God.

They offer a two-year residential training program for young women at risk for prostitution and unwed mothers. This program provides classes in basic education (literacy and math), life skills, small business, knitting, sewing, nutrition, restaurant work and esthetics. In a Christian context, the residents receive comprehensive care-support for body, mind and spirit-that offers hope and help through regular Bible study and worship as well as counseling.

But along side this amazing program another need arose, when the Congolese Baptist Women spearheaded an informal survey of local children to determine how many were not attending school. They stopped counting when they reached 1,000. International Ministries came alongside the women and agreed that unless someone intervened, an entire generation of children would be lost.

The Congolese Baptist Women, the pioneer leaders of the women's center, could no longer ignore the fact that so many children in the immediate neighborhood were not attending school and took action by converting the only available space they had in the Mitendi

Women's Center. In 2011, the doors opened to over 300 children-none of whom would otherwise be in school.

But the need was still there, there was still over 1000 children in the area without access to education. So they then took on an ambitious plan to build a building that would serve over 700 children. Construction started in the summer of 2017, and was completed in late August of 2019. It was not an easy road but the Congolese Baptist Women persevered and saw God answer prayer after prayer.

The plan was to have a “soft opening” in September, meaning they would move over the existing program and number of students (330) from the old building while finishing up landscaping and other small details.

The teachers were eager to settle in to the new environment with twice the number of classrooms, all of which are double the size of the old ones. They intended to wait until after the inaugural celebration in late November to advertise and begin adding to their numbers.

The Lord, however, had other plans! As soon as the doors opened in September, students came flooding in. By the end of the first month they were up to 450 students, grades pre-K through 8! In January, they started the new year with 465 students and they are still coming.

The pictures you see so far are just some of the faces of the amazing people that helped to make this dream happen and the kids that benefit from this amazing school. To follow, you see pictures from the ceremony itself dedicating the school to God. It was an amazing time to celebrate together what God has done. God has accomplished much through this ministry through their willingness to obey. They saw a need in their community and instead of just assuming it was another tragedy and nothing could be done, they decided to be the hands and feet of Jesus to care for the 'least of these'.

Now that the building is complete they are seeking to raise $36,240 annually to provide scholarships for primary school children, ongoing maintenance and teachers’ support during the school year.

If the Lord is laying it on your heart to partner in this ministry, one tangible way that you can help in by contributing toward our scholarship fund.

The school fee for each quarter is $35, but any amount is helpful. You can give using this link: https://www.internationalministries.org/congo-mitendi-primary-school-annual-fund/

Pictures from the Ceremony