TRAINING
BUNIA CHILDREN HOPE CENTER
Since its opening in 2004 with 600 orphans, Furaha has been operating Baraka Academy 1 at BCHC. Today, preschool, primary, and secondary students receive reading, writing, math and religious training in 24 classrooms by over 50 teachers.
Enrollment for the 2024-25school year was 1050 students, with just under half being orphans. Paying students help offset the cost of orphans and children of faculty.
Students take sewing classes with sewing machines donated by a HEARTS FOR THE CONGO partner church. Instruction in crafts and woodworking is also offered.
Graduates of the sewing program at the BCHC
PEACE CENTER
The PC is a place of refuge, prayer & counseling. It is also a space where counselors are trained to offer relief to the grieving and traumatized and where job skills are taught, including reading and writing.
Supplies for basket weaving and machines for sewing have also been purchased with HEARTS FOR THE CONGO donations.
Reading and writing teacher.
Classes for 5-7 year olds were begun in the fall of 2024. 120 students from the displaced camp are dicided into three classes.
New leaders are being trained to help with the ministry throughout the camps and on the streets of Bunia
ELSEWHERE
Money donated by HEARTS FOR THE CONGO partners enabled the purchase of Bibles in Swahili, the native language of those in the area. Recipients were overjoyed to be able to read the Bible for themselves.
HEARTS FOR THE CONGO has funded travel for Bisoke and others to attend and/or lead seminars in healing and reconcilitation, including Ekklesia training “Healing from the Wounds of Trauma” in Uganda, and seminars in Goma and Beni (see https://www.ekk.org/summer-2023).
Women have been trained in counseling for trauma healing and others are waiting to be trained so they can minister in the IDP camps. Empowerment of Women training is conducted to encourage women to find ways to support themselves.
After counseling and prayer sessions at the PC reading and writing are offered.
The Peace Center sponsored Isaak and Patick to attend the Bunia Bible College.. Isaak has been assigned to a church in Bunia and Patrick is working at the Peace Center. He is a gifted evangelsit and enjoys youth work..
The closely packed families living at the IDP camps are often from different tribes with long-standing friction among them. At the PC Bisoke and his team conduct reconciliation training and peace building with tribal leaders from the camps.