Key points:
- 12 theology students from Beni are supported for eight months thanks to a Wespath scholarship.
- The students no longer receive regular assistance from their families, many of whom have been forced to abandon their fields to flee insecurity in the region.
- The Wespath assistance allows the student pastors to buy food and provide for other basic needs while at school.
When Pastor Kanya Kamahiro Georges received his envelope containing scholarship money, he said he felt great relief and a sense of joy.
Originally from the Beni District in the Kivu Conference, Georges is a student in the Faculty of Theology at Methodist University of Kindu.
Wespath Benefits and Investments, the pension agency of The United Methodist Church, is providing financial support to 12 student pastors from Beni living in Kindu to help them make ends meet. The students receive $100 U.S. each month.
"Thanks to this scholarship, the students will be able to buy food and provide for other needs for eight months," said the Rev. Benoit Mahamudi, dean of the Faculty of Theology.
"This is the second time Wespath has supported the student pastors from Beni. Last year, 15 students received scholarships to support themselves for 10 months," he said.
Beneficiaries live far from their families whom they rely on for the provision of many personal needs, said Mahamudi.
Jean Tshomba, coordinator of the United Methodist Committee on Relief's disaster management office in East Congo, helped the students apply for the Wespath funding.
“The security situation in Beni, characterized by daily killings, has disrupted the lives of the local population,” Tshomba said.
“The unrest is often the root cause of the displacement of many inhabitants to areas which are deemed safe. Many of the displaced people abandon their fields and flock to the city center and other towns.”
As is the case with many students from Beni at the university, Kambale Kahera learned a few months ago that his family was forced to flee to the city.
"My family, which survives mainly on the sale of agriculture produce, was forced to leave the village and abandon our fields to escape the insecurity," he said.
He said the situation does not allow his family to send him money for his upkeep.
Amisi Kabala, another student pastor who received the scholarship, said that his family was forced to flee their village, abandoning the fields of cocoa, potatoes and other crops that they regularly sell for their sustenance.
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In a thank-you note, the student pastors said, “The situation in Beni is so undesirable because since the war started, we no longer have support from our families who now also need assistance.”
The Rev. Kalema Tambwe, South Kindu District superintendent, said that the assistance to the theology students was made possible due to a plea submitted by these students and other United Methodist leaders of Eastern Congo to a visiting Wespath delegation.
“The United Methodist Church is universal. We are happy to see our Wespath brothers and sisters step in today and put a smile on the faces of these students,” Tambwe said.
“These students receive bad news every day about the massacre of their family members or acquaintances as a result of the repeated killings in the Beni region,” he said. “We are calling on people of goodwill and Wespath to continue to think about these students who are in distress.”
During the handover ceremony at the Lokole Mission and in their thank-you note, the beneficiaries expressed their gratitude for the assistance.
"We, the students from Beni where our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters continue to be massacred day and night, come before you to express our joy for this commendable act that you have just done in our favor," the beneficiaries wrote in their note.
"This scholarship comes to relieve and reanimate the souls that were weakened by seeing the end of the academic year approaching while we are separated from our family members who flee every day looking for safety," they noted.
Referring to the importance and necessity of helping a person in difficulty, Tambwe evoked the words of a theologian on Christian ethics.
"Christian ethics commend us to come to help, to listen to the cries of alarm of the one who is in distress; if the church does not do something to assist, then who should we expect it from?”
Londe is a communicator and editor in Congo.
News contact: Julie Dwyer, News Editor, newsdesk@umcom.org or 615-742-5469. To read more United Methodist News, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.
