Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to face multiple security challenges, including ongoing conflict and displacement. It has been encouraging, therefore, to hear that BUILD training has been moving forward in Kamango Diocese. Despite these challenges, one training-of-trainers cohort has completed the BUILD programme, and a new group is now starting. There have also been a number of other developments.
First, the picture shows the first fully-trained BUILD trainers of Kamango Diocese with their certificates. In practice, what this means is that the group has gone through all 150 learning units of BUILD training, covering all the groups of books in scripture, connecting them with local issues and learning to preach and teach them. They have done this despite deep uncertainty, with pictures shared on various chats not only of training meetings and church gatherings, but also of the atrocities and hardship that form part of their daily lives. They have also met in different locations, including a displacement camp. The training has happened, in part, due to the support of Bishop Daniel and the diocese, and the determination of Revd Manzi, who has been equipped by BUILD over the years to train and coordinate the work. It also speaks of the vision and generosity of a local cocoa exporter, which is investing in church and community.
Since the completion of the course, follow-on training groups have been set up, and a second cohort of trainee-trainers has already started. This new group of 25 participants consists of two archdeacons, seven clergy, one canon and fifteen lay readers. They were all selected by the diocesan staff from different archdeaconries. Furthermore, according to recent communication from Revd Manzi, there will also be follow-on training beyond full time ministers, as the diocesan synod has agreed that all lay people in the church will pass through the BUILD training to improve their leadership skills. They will be trained in their archdeaconries by the church ministers who had passed the BUILD training.
Alongside the ongoing training, there are efforts underway to translate the materials into another form of Swahili, Congo Swahili, which is a shared language for North and South Kivu as well as Ituri Province and further afield in DRC.
The call for Congo Swahili dates back a decade or more in the annals of BUILD, when Lay Canon Mercy Mungai was travelling to eastern DRC to help Revd Manzi and others with very early training efforts there. At the time, Mercy was doing some of the initial translation work of BUILD into the more standard Swahili she knows both from growing up in Kenya and from her years spent serving in Tanzania. While the Congolese participants struggled with this form of Swahili, which was a new form of the language for them, they initially decided to use the materials as they were and to learn standard Swahili, not least as a valuable part of the learning process and as a language asset for them.
However, Congolese Swahili is significantly different. It borrows some words and grammar from the French, and it has been shaped by the local cultures and their vernaculars. It is exciting to hear, therefore, that the group in eastern DRC have started translating the BUILD materials to enable them to take the training closer to the context. This will help them implement plans to share the training with neighbouring dioceses in 2026 if resources can be mobilised. It will be exciting to see how things develop.
