Congo Center Offers Model for Assisting Rape Survivors

By Philippe Lolonga

November 5, 2025 | KINDU, Congo

The Mama Lynn Center in Kindu provides insight for other sites assisting girls and women who are victims of sexual violence.

• Harper Hill Global’s Kivu correspondent traveled to Kindu to see firsthand how the Mama Lynn Center is training girls and women who have been raped.

• The center was launched under Bishop Gabriel Unda, who has just retired, and could be replicated in neighboring Kivu province.

• Bishop Antoine Kalema Tambwe pledged to continue supporting girls who have been raped.

The Mama Lynn Center in Kindu aims not only to improve the living conditions of vulnerable

women but also to teach them how to care for themselves and combat unemployment.

I traveled recently from Kivu to Kindu as a correspondent for Harper Hill Global, to report on the work of the Mama Lynn Center and also to participate in the installation of the newly elected United Methodist bishop for eastern Congo, Bishop Antoine Kalema Tambwe.

The Mama Lynn Center has trained hundreds of girls to become self-sufficient. These girls have now become useful members of society and their own families, and they also have financial independence, whereas before they were neglected by society. Many of the girls have been victims of sexual violence.

Students enrolled for the 2025-2026 academic year at the Mama Lynn vocational center in Kindu pose in front of their classroom building. Photo by Philippe Lolonga, Harper Hill Global.

Based on what I have seen in this center, it is a model that could also be replicated in Kivu, so that women in the region who have been raped can begin to support themselves with small trades, such as baking, soap making, knitting and other work.

Harper Hill Global has helped establish three sites in the Kivu area for women who have been traumatized by sexual violence. These sites have provided food, medical supplies, and trauma recovery support, and are held at local United Methodist churches, providing easy access for women who have been raped in the sites where violence has taken place.

By teaching them self-sufficiency trades, the Mama Lynn Center helps girls and women integrate into working life.

This approach can help the girls avoid turning to prostitution, according to Dr. Marie Claire Manafundu Unda, director of the learning center for raped women in Kindu, the capital of Maniema province.

Both Maniema and Kivu provinces are in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a region torn by armed conflict and where sexual violence against women is pervasive.

Bishop Gabriel Unda Yemba was honored in July by a women's association in Maniema for his work caring for women who have been raped in eastern Congo. Photo by Philippe Lolonga, Harper Hill Global.

The center was established under Bishop Gabriel Unda, with financial support from the legacy Tennessee and Memphis conferences and the California-Pacific Conference of The United Methodist Church. Last July, the bishop was honored by a women's organization working in Maniema with a diploma of merit for his work in eastern Congo.

Bishop Unda, who has retired, has been succeeded by the newly elected Bishop Kalema. Kalema took office on Sept. 1 and was officially installed by the College of Bishops of the Central Conference of Central Africa in Kindu on Sept. 28.

In his speech, Kalema called on all people of good will to join him in evangelizing the region, where violence is rampant.

Bishop Antoine Kalema Tambwe, center, sits outside his official installation on September 28 in the Bishop Gabriel Unda Yemba multipurpose hall in Lokole/Kindu. Photo by Philippe Lolonga, Harper Hill Global.

Kalema thanked the Harper Hill Global agency for its efforts to help traumatized women in Goma and Bukavu – two cities that fell to rebels early this year. Harper Hill Global has partnered with The United Methodist Church in establishing the three sites in Kivu for traumatized women.

The bishop also called for support in Kivu for women who have been raped, with an emphasis on training in literacy, sewing, baking and improved cooking, soap making, home economics and other skills.

“These various skills will enable women who are victims of sexual violence to become financially independent in society,” Kalema said.

Harper Hill Global has two additional sites to fund before year's end, reaching a total of 100 survivors with the care they need. Each site costs $4,000.

For just $30 a month, you can help a survivor with the trauma recovery, food, and job skills she needs to recover. Give now!

Lolonga is a Harper Hill Global correspondent in Kivu.

Media contact: The Rev. Neelley Hicks at (615) 260-6945 or nhicks@harperhill.global