Women fight hunger with agriculture in Congo

Some 70% of Africans work in agriculture but nearly one-fourth of the continent’s population is undernourished.

That reality is something United Methodist women in local churches in Eastern Congo are working to change, and in a hands-on way.

Recently, women of the denomination from Bukavu cultivated a big part of a United Methodist Church-owned tract in Katana, in the Kabare Territory of South Kivu.

“As a mother, I must take every precaution to block the road to famine,” said Mbilizi Bonane, president of United Methodist Women in Bukavu.

In February 2018, the women harvested bags of maize and peanuts from a field they had cultivated. That was a great benefit to the women and their families.

Beatrice Anunga, coordinator of United Methodist Women in the Kivu Conference, agreed that women need to be leaders in using church land to fight hunger.

Self-sufficiency is a theme among United Methodists in Eastern Congo these days.

“In each local church we encourage these projects, and this will have a positive impact,” Anunga said.

Bonane noted that there are three United Methodist sites of agriculture tended by women of the area, in Katana, Bunyakiri and Mwenga.

On Oct. 8, the president of Congo, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, dedicated an agricultural laboratory at the International Institute of Agricultural Technology. It’s in Kalambo, in the same general area where women of the denomination have been farming on church land.

The laboratory will provide digital mapping of the soil as well as projects to improve cultivation of certain crops, such as beans, bananas and cassava. That has the potential to be a big help to all who are farming in the area, including the United Methodist women.

Lending support to the women in his own way has been Bishop Gabriel Unda Yemba. He said he is ready to champion any local congregation willing to take up agriculture to fight hunger and malnutrition.

Dr. Marie Claire Unda, wife of Bishop Unda, is encouraging women to till the soil or in some other way support agriculture projects by local churches.

“If we are poor or if we have malnourished children … it is because we neglect agriculture,” she said.

Kituka Lolonga is a communicator in the Kivu Conference.

News media contact: Vicki Brown, news editor, newsdesk@umcom.org or 615-742-5469. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.


Like what you're reading? Support the ministry of UM News! Your support ensures the latest denominational news, dynamic stories and informative articles will continue to connect our global community. Make a tax-deductible donation at ResourceUMC.org/GiveUMCom.

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe Now
Central Conferences
A map shows the Mid Africa Central Conference, formerly known as the Congo Central Conference. The central conference is meeting July 10-13 in Kitwe, Zambia. Delegates will elect three bishops, two to succeed retiring bishops and one added to the central conference by last year’s General Conference. Graphic by Ben Ward, UM News.

Conference gets new name, adds bishop

More than 300 delegates in the Mid Africa Central Conference, previously the Congo Central Conference, are meeting in Kitwe, Zambia, and plan to elect three new bishops.
Disaster Relief
On a muddy street in the Ngaliema district of Kinshasa, residents attempt to salvage some belongings after floods destroyed homes and businesses in their neighborhood following torrential rains on June 14. Four United Methodists were among the nearly 30 people who lost their lives in the floods. Photo by the Rev. Fiston Okito, UM News.

4 United Methodists killed in Congo floods

The floods in Kinshasa look the lives of 29 people, including four church members, and washed away the homes of about 50 United Methodist families.
Mission and Ministry
The Rev. Birgitte French (second from right) of the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference addresses a class at the Mama Lynn Center in Kindu, Congo. The center provides training to vulnerable women and girls. During a visit with other members of a United Methodist delegation from the U.S. in September, French expressed her joy at strengthening the conference’s partnership with eastern Congo. Photo by Chadrack Tambwe Londe, UM News.

Center provides hope for women in Congo

The Mama Lynn Center, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, provides training and spiritual support to women who have suffered sexual violence, helping them regain their dignity and become economically independent.

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2025 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved