The volunteers will work with a grassroots women’s
NGO founded five years ago in collaboration with HandUp Congo (www.handupcongo.org), in a participatory process that aims to nurture the shared vision of extending Lotumbe’s capacity building models across the DR Congo. The NGO, called Lucie Otaenga Foundation (FLO), has mobilized both women and men in the area to explore micro credit, health care, education, agricultural and elder care initiatives. FLO has partnered with international donors in Taiwan, the USA and Australia to rehabilitate local schools, campaign for prenatal care, educate about malaria prevention and empower women’s micro enterprises.

For more details on the capacity building programs underway in Lotumbe or on how you can get involved in sharing your skills in the DRC, email lucy@claypartners.com. Robyn, Kiran and Lucy also work closely with peers through the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne Development Circles. These mentoring and networking groups are open to anyone interested in international aid and community development at the local, regional and global levels. See http://sdc.groupsite.com.


HandUp Congo co-founder and director Lucy Hobgood-Brown (centre) with FLO officers Antoinette Mapele (l) and Chantal Befeko (r) travelling in a canoe towards Lotumbe. Also pictured is Linda James, a director of HandUp Congo.

Lucy Hobgood-Brown is co-founder and co-director of HandUp Congo, a not-for-profit group working in sustainable community development in the DRC. She has been an ICA Australia member for many years.

Antoinette Mapele (r) and Chantal Befeko (l) celebrate the arrival of a pink canoe that will facilitate FLO’s medical and community store sales at riverside markets. Doctors from the rural health zone, based in Lotumbe, travel to other remote villages to provide health care while FLO members sell essential items like subsidized mosquito nets and household supplies from the canoe. The pink canoe was bought with a grant from Australian Ethical Investment and Medical Students’ Aid Project, University of New South Wales.

ICAA Sydney members Lucy Hobgood-Brown, Kiran and Robyn Hutchinson are organizing logistics for a January 2012 community development evaluation and planning trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A team of volunteers from Taipei and Sydney will join Lucy in Equatorial Province, before embarking on a 400 km motorized canoe journey down three of Congo’s mightiest rivers.

They will head for a remote riverside village called Lotumbe, birthplace of Lucy’s father and where she lived as a child. Six thousand people live in this hub, home to the area’s only hospital and K-12 schools. The community is one of 23 Disciples of Christ posts in the DRC (http://globalministries.org/news/africa/blog-congo.html).