Editor Note: This story has been auto-translated from French without grammatical edits. We want you to read as if Kabuo is sharing directly with you.

I am KABUO KASAI, leader of one of the small groups of women of Congo of the organization Un Jour Nouveau. I am 30 years old, married and mother of 5 children.  

I came to Goma from Lubero  (in the far north) fleeing the war and the massacres in my village for a few years. The following year I had a malformed child in the head, I had been held at Heal Africa Hospital for three years to try to save the life of this child.

When I left the hospital I was welcomed into my sister-in-law who also did not have enough means to take care of us with my family (myself, my husband and my five children) in addition to hers which had 11 people. I didn't know what to do until one day a neighbor invited me to participate in a training on the "Awakening of the Women of congo" curriculum through which I discovered that I could be part of the solution to my family's multiple problems.The teachings of this curriculum helped me to discover that I am a leader and that it was enough for me to get up to look my situation in the face and think about the solution. After the training I decided to start a small group with some women of my Church to whom I taught the curriculum "awakening of the women of Congo"; Apart from the teachings, we set up a solidarity fund of microcredits between the members to allow us to take care of ourselves and our families as the misery increased. Having learned entrepreneurship always with a new day, we each created an income-generating activity and the one who needed the capital could come and take a loan in the group fund and repay with 10%interest. That's how I took my first credit of $4with which I started selling peanuts and chikwangue. At the end of the first cycle of a year we went from 500FC ($0.25) share to 2000FC ($1) per week, then from $1to $2. This was extraordinary compared to the standard of living of members at the beginning.

The fact that I started bringing home food every day  through my small activity pushed my husband to start getting  by  as he began to bother being fed by his wife. Being strong, he decided to join his friend who broke stones for the same job in order to make some money. Having learned of this, his wife encouraged him and some time later he won a contract to dig a septic tank; which brought him $400 in labor after two months of hard work. Having entrusted me with this money, I deposited it  in the group's account; This gave me the opportunity to take a large amount of crédit ($1000) with which my husband and I bought our plot in the territory of Nyiragongo not far from the city of Goma where we live with our children.

Today we are a happy family thanks to the rich teachings of "A New Day" that have changed not only our lives but also the lives of twenty women in my group. We live better, full of hope because we are the solution to our problems. 

May God bless UJN and all his partners. 

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