CHE impacting villages in Congo

In the village of Bobanga Yange SIBA was one of the men selected by the Bodokola church conference to attend the Community Health Evangelism (CHE) training we held in February 2012. Upon returning Yange shared what he learned with the local CEUM pastor and other village leaders. He explained the CHE objectives he had learned: community ownership and participation, working with a committee of local leaders, caring for sanitation and hygiene and more. He set a date for a meeting, 25 people came, they agreed to work on a first project and went to work.

They cleaned up the area around the village’s source of water, a spring that was capped in 1983. They also opened up a second area where the water pooled and now that is where people bathe and wash their clothes. The spring area remains clean since people are no longer bathing and washing clothes there. In addition this committee has started to build a new school building and they plan to open up the path to the spring by cutting the tall grass.

We were very, very encouraged with what Yange and the village have accomplished. We found similar accomplishments in the villages of Bodokola and Botakambia where Nako and Diabe live. In each of these villages the community is working together on projects that benefit the community. They are looking to what else they can do to care for their village and others. In Botakambia a member of the Catholic Church shared that he was very encouraged with Diabe because when he returned from the CHE training he did not just share what he learned with the Covenant church. No, he shared it with the village leaders and all the churches in the village.

In Bodokola, Nako worked with a group of 25 on the mile-long path to their spring. They opened up the path by cutting back the tall

Nako explaining their work

grass and smoothed it out in some places. After that they have started a community garden. They are in discussion about how their garden proceeds can help the village.