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Heading Back to Congo to Teach Others
By Stan Friedman
CHICAGO, IL (February 22, 2006) - While operating his own business, Timothy
Mambo was nearly murdered by government soldiers in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. They were stealing items from his store.
But the most difficult days may be ahead when he returns home to help
his impoverished people start their own enterprises.
In December, Mambo became the first Congolese to earn a Master's in
Business Administration degree at North Park University. Mambo returns
to his native country at the end of this month and plans to use his
new-found knowledge to help Congolese start micro-businesses and develop
a non-profit organization that will develop the necessary business
infrastructure.
Challenges facing Mambo when he returns include the lack of business
knowledge among poor Congolese and a nearly non-existent infrastructure.
The biggest immediate challenge, however, may be his own education,
Mambo says.
People tend to distrust Congolese who traveled to the United States and
returned. "They think that everyone in America is rich," Mambo says, and
therefore have nothing in common. It is one thing for a Westerner to
bring their knowledge, but it is another for one of their own to do the
same.
"It will be tough for him," says Bob Thornbloom, a former Evangelical
Covenant Church missionary in the Congo who continues to work with
mission projects there. He has known Mambo since he was young.
Mambo was raised at the Covenant mission in Karawa where his father, a
minister, sent him to be raised. Thornbloom says such arrangements are
common so that children can get a better education.
People Mambo knew from the Congo encouraged him to travel to Colorado
Springs, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1988, Mambo,
who speaks five languages, returned to Congo after completing the
four-year degree in three years. He returned to become the director of
development for the Congo Evangelical Covenant Church (CEUM).
Most Congolese had not learned how to develop their own businesses other
than through a barter system, Mambo says. Many obstacles prevent
businesses from becoming profitable, even if the owners understood how
to operate on a cash system that would allow them to save and expand, he
adds.
Mambo had not considered returning to the United States, but a supply
trip within his own country changed that. In 2003, he was making the
arduous trip to pick up a container of goods the Covenant had sent.
Although he had grown up in poverty, he saw it afresh. "While on my way,
God opened my eyes to see it more clearly," he says. "I started crying
really loud."
People looked at him crying and didn't understand. "They didn't see what
I saw," Mambo says. "I got down on my knees and I asked God what can I
do to help."
A series of what Mambo says were divine circumstances led him to North
Park to get his advanced degree. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do
when I got to North Park," he says. But while taking his first class,
which explored the role of community non-profits, "I got so excited," he
says.
Mambo says he hopes to start a non-profit organization that will help
fund construction of wells and schools and further the development of
health care. He also wants to build new roads and bridges that will
enable people to get their goods to a larger market. Currently, the
conditions keep the villagers effectively cut off from those markets.
"Some people, including children, they will walk 200 miles (to sell
goods)," Mambo says. "They'll sell them in an hour for $5 or $10."
Goods to sell will be made through the development of micro-enterprise
businesses. Loans are made to up to 40 people for different businesses
and each person is responsible for making sure the others are able to
pay back their loan, Mambo says.
Because the people have never saved money, they will learn how to put
some of their profits into the bank, which will allow for future
business expansion. Mambo says he will teach business principles based
on God's word.
The most important is to be a pipe through which God's blessings can
flow. "When you are born again, living water flows through you," Mambo
says. "When you take it for yourself, then you are blocking the blessing."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
