Our 2024 graduates are talented!
Presentation of certificates after 3 years’ training at the Mère Marie de Jésus Centre in Masina Sans Fil, Kinshasa (DRC)
On 13 June 2024, four women received their sewing certificates. After 3 years of training in Sewing : Ruth, Niclette, Thérèse and Léonie now have a trade in hand and are able to live independently.
The Mother Mary of Jesus Centre in Kinshasa: was founded by the Little Sisters of the Assumption.
The first Little Sisters arrived in Kinshasa in 2002 and set up the Mère Marie de Jésus Centre in Masina Sans Fil, a poor working-class district on the outskirts of Kinshasa.
The aim of the Centre: to provide Congolese women with an all-round education, i.e. the personal development of women, so that they can be autonomous and independent, by giving them the opportunity to have a trade: cutting and sewing.
Timetable: afternoons from 2pm to 5pm.
Course content:
- Learning to read and write
- Sewing lessons
- Training in citizenship and politics
- Social education
- Ecology, recycling
- Personal and environmental hygiene
- Solidarity: getting rid of the ‘everyone for themselves’ mentality
- Spiritual and Christian dimension: women in the Bible, who they are and their role
- Computer courses
People welcomed: there is a wide range of ages. We welcome women aged 13-14, up to 50. We accept very young women who cannot read or write.
The values that drive us:
- welcome, listening, respect, care, closeness. Women often don’t feel listened to at home. Here, they can say what’s hurting them, what’s worrying them. We are close to these women and visit their families from time to time.
- Humanity. Our aim is to help women find their rightful place, to provide them with human support; we want to restore their hope. The centre becomes their second home.
- Confidence. That they find a space for recreation and celebration.
The success of these women in learning a trade is a sign of hope in our country.
