Bweremana, is a town sited close to the north end of Lake Kivu, just a couple of kilometres from Minova. It’s one of five places selected by Arnold Djuma at CVPD, a Congolese NGO, to be a base for their work to monitor human rights and help reintegrate women who have suffered violence during the war.
CVPD’s work precedes ours. They help a community to recover and stabilise, to find its feet. Like other NGOS they are needed to build foundations from which the community can move forward.
Arnold told us back in May that he thinks the community in Bweremana is strong and forward looking and invited Luminosity to evaluate the possibilities for offering finance and advice in support of local business activity.
This month we started a program with five businesses in Bweremana. Each is run by a group of women who have collectively identified a need in the community and organised them-selves to meet that need. They explained their thinking to us and provided a written proposal and all are now up and running.
We have already seen in Mumosho that people have the motivation to work together and the capacity to create a profitable and sustainable business. With the help of the Mwami in Bweremana and with support from CVPD, we’re very confident that the investments in the town will also be a success and that we will be able to build an on-going relations with the community.