Building Hope: The Heart of Community Centre in Baraka

The Baraka Victory Centre (BVC) is launching a transformative hub in Baraka, South Kivu: The Heart of Community Centre. After decades of conflict and poverty in Eastern DRC, this centre will provide the integrated services needed to restore hope and build a resilient community.

 How We Are Transforming Lives

We are addressing the critical needs of our youth and families through four powerful pillars:

  • Education & Digital Literacy: We are building a community library and a 30-unit computer lab. With only 15% of local children currently able to read a simple text, these resources for literacy and coding are vital.
  • Health & Well-being: Our facility will feature a gym, swimming pool, and cafeteria. These spaces provide more than just fitness; they offer trauma-informed sports therapy and affordable, nutritious meals for our children.
  • Economic Empowerment: A dedicated vocational training centre and business incubator will teach high-demand skills like tailoring, carpentry, and mechanics. This directly combats the high unemployment rates among young adults in our region.
  • Human Rights & Safety: The centre will serve as a “Safe Space,” offering psychosocial support for conflict-affected children and workshops to combat gender-based violence.

Why Your Support Matters

Investing in this project is an investment in the long-term stability of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  1. A Proven Necessity: Nationwide, 7.6 million children are out of school. This centre fills a desperate gap in essential educational and vocational services.
  2. A Sustainable Future: This isn’t just a one-time hand-out. Income from the gym, pool, and internet café will cover operational costs and salaries, ensuring the centre remains self-sustaining.
  3. Community Owned: We are training local staff and engaging youth volunteers. This builds local capacity, fosters civic pride, and ensures the management remains in the hands of the people of Baraka.
  4. Tangible Impact: A total investment of $539,000 USD covers everything—full infrastructure, modern equipment, and the entire first year of operations.

Join the Movement

You can help us turn this vision into a reality for the people of Baraka.

Support our mission on GofundMe: https://gofund.me/fe4285d31

Sponsored students graduate from Hope Africa University

Since we created this organization, we aim to help people in need and as one of our goals is to support education we have been able to send several students to Hope Africa University in Burundi.

With our small personal contributions more than 7 students have graduated, and you can see photos of some of them below. Please click on a photo to see the student’s name and the subject they studied.

We request your donations in order to continue supporting more young girls, boys and children from the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an area affected by war, where many lack access to education. You can donate through our Gofundme page or contact us if you would prefer to send your donation in another way.

INONDATION A UVIRA, RDC

Selon le bilan provisoire des dégâts humains et matériels,
Il y a jusqu’à présent plus de 24 morts, 45 blessés, plus de 3500 maisons détruites, 77790 personnes touchées dont 5500 ménages concernés…

Vu la nécessité d’intervenir afin d’accompagner la population d’Uvira,
Une intervention humanitaire s’avère indispensable pour venir en aide aux familles victimes des catastrophes naturelles de ce coin de la République démocratique du Congo.
L’Organisation Baraka Victory Center #BVC compte consacrer une journée caritative afin de redonner un petit sourire à nos compatriotes qui ont tout perdu.

Nous demandons à toute personne de bonne volonté, soucieuse du bien être du prochain de bien vouloir se joindre à nous avec sa contribution, minime soit-elle, afin d’apporter un soutien tant matériel que psychologique à un Grand nombre de nos compatriotes en détresse. 

Il y a plus de joie à donner qu’à recevoir, dit-on!

Pour votre contribution en ligne,
Cliquez sur lien svp:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuilding-lives-in-drcongo…

Pour votre contribution via MobileMoney, voici les numéros:
+243826664817 (M-Pesa)
+243991771562 (Airtelmoney)

Pour #BVC,
Maurice LUMONA ALIMASI «Malu NCB»,
Directeur Adjoint

Grateful!

Thank you to our friends who donated two chairs for our office. We are grateful for your support. And for those willing to support BVC’s activities, you can donate as much as you can. Even one dollar makes a difference.
Click the link below to make a donation:
Merci à nos amis pour le don de deux chaises pour notre bureau. Nous sommes reconnaissants de votre soutien. A ceux qui souhaitent soutenir nos activités, vous pouvez faire un don selon vos possibilités. Avec un dollar, tu peux faire la différence. Cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous pour faire un don:

 

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We are also thankful to everyone who is helping us with the books collection. We continue collecting the books for our next project: building a Library. Vanier Community has donated 100s of books.

For this project to continue and succeed, we really need your financial support, material help and volunteer involvement. The majority of the students in the Fizi territory and neighbourhood haven’t experienced a library in their lives.

We are requesting your help to change students and lecturers lives.

This will be the first library to be built in Fizo zone since the 1960s.

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Nous sommes également reconnaissants à tous ceux qui nous aident avec la collection de livres. Nous continuons à faire la collection des livres pour notre prochain projet sur la construction d’une bibliothèque. La communauté Vanier a fait un don de centaine des livres.

Pour que ce projet continue et réussisse, nous avons vraiment besoin de votre soutien financier, aide matérielle et votre implication bénévole. La majorité des étudiants dans la zone de Fizi et dans les zones voisines n’ont jamais fait l’expérience d’une bibliothèque.

Nous demandons votre aide pour la réalisation de ce grand projet qui changera la vie des étudiants et leurs enseignants.

 

 

 

Collection of donations/ Collection de dons

The Baraka Victory Centre team based in Ottawa, Canada is collecting clothing and shoes, bicycles, household items, electronics and stationary and other goods to donate to those in need. For more information about the collection don’t hesitate to contact us. The donation boxes are found in the Bridgehead store, beechwood location. Your help will be appreciated.

L’équipe du Centre Victoire Baraka basée à Ottawa, au Canada, est entrain de collectioner des vêtements, des chaussures, des vélos, des articles ménagers, des appareils électroniques usagés , livres en Français/ Anglais et d’autres articles à donner aux personnes dans le besoin. Les boîtes de dons se trouvent dans la cafétéria Bridgehead à Beechwood. Contactez-nous pour plus d’informations sur la collection. Votre aide sera appréciée.

Baraka Victory Centre/ Nundu Deaconess Hospital

Baraka Victory Centre / Nundu Deaconess Hospital.

Baraka Victory Centre is partnering with Nundu Deaconess Hospital. Right now, Nundu D. Hospital is in huge need of volunteers in many areas.

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Nundu Deaconess Hospital serves a large population on the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The hospital is run by Congolese physicians and has a long history of partnership with Free Methodist World Missions. The hospital campus suffered great losses due to ongoing wars in the region since 1996. Restoration is still underway.

More details on Nundu Hospital: https://gocaho.org/congo/

 Dr. Lwabanya Marx, MD (Brown University Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership (EMHL) Class of 2017) was appointment to Medical Director of Nundu Deaconess Hospital. He is reaching out for help in restoring this hospital. With the little you have, you can save someone’s life.

More information on Dr. Marx achievement from the Brown University website: https://professional.brown.edu/blog/2017/05/23/executive-student-dr-lwabanya-marx-wins-award-professional-excellence/

For information about volunteering with NDH, please don’t hesitate to contact John Dunia (in Ottawa, Canada) through BVC at bcvccongo@yahoo.com(see his blog post about his 2015 trip to DRC, including his visit to NDH, at https://jdsafariblog.com/2016/01/17/trip-to-africa-d-r-congo/) or Dr. Lwabanya Marx (Located at Nundu DRC).

 

 

 

 

Empowering Young Women

Baraka Victory Centre is supporting three young women in their university studies. They are bright, hard-working young women who have hopes of giving back to their communities after completing their studies.

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Education is a vital way for young people, especially females, to escape the cycle of poverty, gender-based violence and other humanitarian crises facing the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The girls want to bring hope and healing to a population that hasn’t known peace in over 3 generations. Justine is in her 2nd year of Information Technology; Esther is in her 1st year of social work; and Louise is in her first year of Business Administration and Economics – Money and Banking.

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Your generosity in helping these ladies better themselves, so they, in turn, can help others achieve their hopes and dreams will be greatly appreciated and will have a big impact on their lives. Your contribution will help with their tuition, textbooks, boarding/living expenses and all university supplies.

Follow this link to donate and open a door of possibilities for these three young women-

https://www.gofundme.com/help-rebuilding-lives-in-drcongo

 

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Advancing Education and Literacy:

Communities in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are severely under-resourced in the education sector. This creates obstacles to rebuilding communities and prevents communities from escaping the cycle of poverty and building a better future. Baraka Victory Centre (BVC) is taking action to respond to this need and support literacy and education in Baraka and surrounding areas.12809918_1065575686837782_93500188_o Baraka and Uvira, eastern DRC have a combined population of over 494,000. But neither Baraka nor Uvira have a public library. Schools and universities are without adequate resources and suffer from a lack of teaching materials to support the work they are doing to educate the population. Sectors other than education such a healthcare and clinical practitioners, researchers and professors, and social service workers are also impacted by the lack of resources and are limited in continuing and furthering their education and skills.

In order to respond to this need in the communities that we are present in, Baraka Victory Centre is building a community centre that will boast Baraka and Uvira’s only library.  The library will be open to the public and will offer books, textbooks and other educational materials from a variety of subjects and topics. There will also be activities for youth, a computer lab and a print centre to serve the community in ways that are unique, needed, and have great possibilities for creating a positive impact.12801215_831434740317659_3196892154818401003_n We have already received a donation of educational materials and medical textbooks, but we need your support to continue building this centre, stocking our library, and getting the other goods that we have collected, such as the computers for the computer lab shipped to Baraka.

In order to continue this great project and bring it to completion, we are in need of financial support, material help, and volunteer involvement. You are invited to donate to our container shipment fund which will enable us to transport computers, printers, and other supplies to Baraka, the link to donate can be found below. You are also invited to volunteer with our team to help us plan, build, and stock the library and community centre. Please contact our team for more information about the ways that you can get involved!

Shipping a Container – https://www.gofundme.com/help-rebuilding-lives-in-drcongo

Baraka Victory Centre is building a library!

Our most sincere thanks to the British Medical Association for the donation of textbooks and other educational materials. BVC is excited to serve and support the community of Baraka, this library is one of the many ways that BVC is engaged in Fizi Zone, DRC.
Contact our team to get involved in this great project and be sure to stay tuned, the future is bright!12801215_831434740317659_3196892154818401003_n

BVC Loves Smiles!

Last November BVC received a donation of toothbrushes from Global Grins. Below is a picture of one of our staff handing out some of the toothbrushes to school aged children in Baraka, Democratic Republic of Congo!12832321_831418720319261_8942498439473815927_n