Meeting With Let Africa Live

Wema Kubisa

Wema Kubisa

Now that many people are setting intentions and resolutions for the new year, it is also important for Mwendo Congo to set its goals and priorities for 2022. To get the year off to a good start, Mwendo Congo is connecting with our partner organizations to discuss priorities and opportunities to strengthen our partnerships. On January 25, the Mwendo Congo board met with Let Africa Live (LAV) staff via Zoom.  LAV is one of our key partner organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This organization, founded and led by Congolese, continues to uphold its mission to strengthen the socio-economic reintegration of youth victims of war and armed conflict in eastern Congo through professional training and psychosocial healing. Mwendo Congo’s purpose in meeting is to ensure that our plans and goals continue to serve and benefit our partners and their beneficiaries.

During the January 25th meeting, the two organizations reflected on our seven years partnership history by affirming our past successes – sewing machines for training graduates, dormitory expansion, the new central production facility, and multiple exchanges.  We explored opportunities for future collaboration and the intersections of each organization’s strategic priorities. Three-year strategic priorities for Mwendo Congo include strengthening our relationships with DRC partners, expanding and diversifying our US network, and increasing organizational capacity.  

LAV staff shared three crucial priorities in their five-year plan:  sustaining their professional skill training of youth, improving/expanding their psychosocial support and trauma healing program, and reinforcing their efforts to combat gender-based violence. To ensure that these goals are met, LAV is eager to continue working with Mwendo Congo, create new partnerships, and find opportunities to develop permanent programming that can operate for an extended amount of time as opposed to short-term projects. Given LAV’s current infrastructure, the expertise that it has gained during its 22 years of existence, and its Congolese leadership that understands the context of their country, they are well-positioned for this next phase, with both new opportunities and areas for improvement. 

The success of this meeting was based on our mutual expression of commitment and desire to continue working together and strengthen our partnership. In our mission to cultivate a non-white supremacist partnership, Mwendo Congo will continue to engage in active and open conversations with its DRC partners to foster mutually beneficial relationships.