CEUM Leaders Being Trained in Business Development

REDWOOD CITY, CA (February 9, 2006) - The president and several other members of the Congo Covenant Church (CEUM) had no idea that as they were leaving the village of Karawa last Thursday to fly to the United States, an ABC television crew was accompanying an eight-member medical mission team en route to the same village.

Kathy and Calla Holmgren are part of a 17-day medical mission trip to train Congolese medical workers on caring for sick patients. (To read more, please see Medical Trip.) While the medical team is working in Karawa, President Sanguma and the other CEUM leaders are in Redwood City for four weeks of training in English as well as computers and business development practices.

Upon their return to Congo, the CEUM leaders will use their training to develop plans for a new agriculture distribution business. Among obstacles to be overcome is starting and operating a business that uses currency as a medium of exchange in what is largely a barter economy.

It is hoped the program will help improve living conditions in communities as people learn how to handle capital and develop a regional business operation, as well as train others to help them start their own businesses.

The training is taking place at Peninsula Covenant Church, which donated 120 computers for use in Congo several years ago. The computers were set up in four centers in the Karawa area that encouraged development of new businesses, including a music studio and an operation similar to a Kinkos copy center so that students and others would not have to walk 100 kilometers to make copies.

Last year, the four centers trained 2,700 Congolese election officials for the upcoming election in April - the nation's first democratic election in four decades.

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