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Bilanga

Values and purpose

Bilanga means agriculture in the Congolese language lingala and the purpose of the activity is to support marginalized farmers in mainly the provinces of Mai Ndombe, Kwilu, Congo-Central and Kinshasa in DR Congo. Our inspiration and drive comes from the Bible's exhortation to « love thy neighbor ». We stand on Christian values ​​and work on this basis to help families in Congo to remove what prevents them from lifting themselves out of poverty. We work exclusively with poverty alleviation in Congo Kinshasa. We work with those who have the will to fight to lift themselves further away from poverty with their own effort. We help where their own efforts are not enough and they need help to move forward, (such as helping them to transport the product they themselves have already grown to a market for sale). We have only minor efforts where we help vulnerable children, healthcare and local football teams with materials in addition to our main activities.

The association's goal and purpose is thus to fight poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo by promoting agricultural production in various ways and facilitating the sale of agricultural products produced inland.

Non-profit voluntary work

As all work in the association in Sweden is done on a non-profit basis and we have chosen to greatly reduce administrative costs as we think it is very important that the gifts we receive for financing the activities in Congo go directly to the actual activities on site, we can guarantee that at least 98% of all Gifts go directly to operations in the Congo. The personel working with the activities does of course receive good salaries. We are happy to send you annual reports, auditor's reports and statutes for 2007-2019 to you if you wish. As the activities are growing rapidly we are probably going to have some employed and paid personel in Sweden as well in the coming years but we can manage it for now on a voluntary, non-paid basis.

Experience within the association

Our board consists of both knowledgeable researchers and aid workers who have worked in the Congo for many years and these are well acquainted with the situation in the country and the needs that exist and how to contribute in the most efficient and sustainable way possible to improve the situation for families and in particular children and women in DR Congo.

The situation in Congo

According to the World Bank, approximately 72% of Congo's population was estimated in 2018 to live in extreme poverty.
Agriculture employs about two thirds of the country's population and the soil is generally very good and well suited for agriculture.
Despite this, agricultural production is very low and its share of export earnings has fallen gradually since independence. The war, outdated technologies and tools and lack of transport networks that make it difficult to sell in the cities are some of the main reasons for the low production. Low production is one of the main causes of rural poverty.
As many farmers can not produce and / or sell their surplus, they also no longer have access to money to pay for schooling, medicines, clothes and other basic needs. Together with our partner in Congo, Bilanga works to combat these obstacles that keep the population in poverty.

Activities / projects

At the moment, our work focuses on the Mai-Ndombe province, where in 2007 we started a project together with our partner. We have also implemented some operations in the provinces of Congo-Central, Kwilu and Kinshasa. Our work primarily aims to improve the situation / production of women, especially single women with children who are particularly vulnerable. The association's founders have extensive experience of development issues both through research and practical work. We also have extensive experience of working in Congo.