Rebuilding CBCEC’s ability to help in Goma

One of the most pressing needs of CBCEC is in rebuilding its capacity at the headquarters of the Community, in Goma.

How the need developed
The City of Goma is the capital of the Province of North Kivu and one of the hubs of business and government for the region. It was for much of its existence a pleasant resort community, due to its high elevation and its location on the shores of Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s Great Lakes.

Goma became the headquarters for CBCEC and was the site of schools, medical clinics, denominational offices and many other facilities in the centre of the city. Goma suffered serious setbacks in the mid 1990s as conflict in the area, particularly in neighboring Rwanda, brought an influx of refugees and military personnel to our area. Perhaps the biggest blow came in 2002, when the volcano Nyerigongo overlooking our city sent a flow of lava that inundated almost half of Goma, destroying many of CBCEC’s buildings, located in the centre of the city.

In the years since, we have rebuilt the church building, schools and clinics, and our staff members have crowded into a building in another part of town which was once the residence of a Baptist missionary. Because of the property’s location in the centre of Goma, on one of the main traffic circles and bordered by two major streets, we have constructed a commercial building on the property, which provides space for local retailers, who pay rent that helps support our work financially.

The current buildings are not enough to serve the tremendous needs of the people in the area.

Accordingly, in 2009, we started to look for ways to develop the site to serve the needs of our congregation and community.

We contacted the international development agency Engineering Ministries International (eMi; see www.emiworld.org), which recruits teams of qualified architects, engineers, surveyors and other such professionals to design structures for organizations in the Developing World, such as CBCEC.

A team of 12 from the United States, Canada and Korea, came to Goma in January and February 2010 in a week’s time, developed the preliminary designs for buildings, including:

Where this project is now
At present, eMi is preparing detailed plans for the buildings; from this we can prepare detailed information on the costs so that we can provide accurate information for our international partners.

How you can help

Please contact us for more information.

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