DEVELOPING TIMES: A little history on the birth of Congo Initaitive

Welcome

Mission Statement
Rural Empowerment Initiatives (REI) mission is to collaborate in the reduction of poverty through investment in rural areas and training of local people.

Vision Statement
REI's vision is to treat every created being with dignity, respect and love. We strive to work with those most in need by empowering people to recognize their God given talents, enabling them to make the world a better place and providing them hope for the future.

Our Principles
REI believes that all people are created equal.
REI will develop small to medium businesses (SMEs) as one approach to reach those most in need by creating jobs that build the economy in rural areas.
REI's partner businesses will be led, managed and majority owned by local people.
REI will always seek a triple bottom line of economic, spiritual and social transformation.
REI seeks to build sustainable community-oriented business models.
REI's focus of support is to the economically disadvantaged.
REI will seek attractive market and growth opportunities.
REI will incubate pilot projects with capable management.
REI believes in collaboration. We seek partners whose strengths complement our own in an effort to build well-rounded projects of lasting economic value for the communities in which we work.
REI is inspired by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and is therefore rooted in the Christian faith.

Friday, October 26, 2007

A little history on the birth of Congo Initaitive

Congo Initiative is a start-up organization seeking to bring healing and authentic hope to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation devastated by war and by a legacy of exploitation and corruption.
In 2002, at the height the conflict, recently termed “Africa’s First World War”, Congolese theologian Dr. David Kasali (then President of the prestigious Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology),

returned to his homeland and gathered together twelve key leaders, men and women representing churches, businesses and civil society, to pray, reflect, and ask two grounding questions: “What has gone wrong?” and “What must we do in response?”
Out of this gathering emerged what can only be described as radical hope—their powerful and compelling vision for Congo Initiative. CI is the outcome of prayer, careful analysis, and consensus of dedicated Christian leaders that will bring hope and healing to that devastated and fragmented country. CI’s vision is in partnership to train and develop strong, indigenous Christian leaders to transform their communities and their nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Congo Initiative has since begun to take shape. The founding project is the Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo (UCBC- The Bilingual Christian University of Congo). UCBC will be a University that seamlessly integrates academic and service learning, instilling in students an ethic of servant-leadership. It will give students a holistic education that engages their whole person, feeding their minds and transforming their hearts. Most importantly, it will to provide an education that will compel students to continue engaging the challenges in their communities, and to actively seek healing for their nation in whatever professional capacity they engage.
UCBC will offer a variety of degree programs but the University will also serve the wider community through its five Centers: the Center for Holistic Family Development, the Center for Community Arts, the Center for Professional Development, the Center for Church Development and Partnership and the Center for Community Development. These centers will offer, among others: arts programs, seeking the rediscovery of identity and values; health programs that focus on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention; Church programs that equip religious and lay leaders to serve their communities; and business ethics programs that will seek to instill a sense of responsibility, beyond personal profit, for the land and the wider society.