Congo Leadership Initiative Teaches Adults to Succeed

Thirty young Congolese adults from the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa (CPK) learned high-quality leadership and entrepreneurial skills this past March-May as a direct result of funding from First Presbyterian Church. The Congo Leadership Initiative in collaboration with the CPK, a partnership which our church began to fund two years ago, has now trained three, 30- member classes of young adults, half men and half women, all from the Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa. Pictured here are some of the 30 who graduated May 28.

A fourth class will begin in the fall. Students learn principles of leadership and entrepreneurship including such skills as writing a business plan, starting a business, and management. Graduates have gone on to start a range of businesses, sometimes with micro-grants, and to assume community leadership roles. Leaders in the CPK say the classes are enormously effective, helping graduates to guide themselves and their communities out of poverty.