Who we are...Kamina Friends is a not-for-profit corporation formed in 2005. The mission of Kamina Friends is to design and implement a business development program that will assist new and existing business ventures proposed by local Kamina business men and women. By encouraging small business entrepreneurship, we hope to invigorate their local economy thereby raising the general standard of living in Kamina and the surrounding community.

Some history…Our origins date back to 2001 when we met, and began a dialogue with, Bishop Ntambo, who leads the North Katanga Conference of the United Methodist Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was during that visit to the United States that he asked for help to develop sustainable small businesses in Kamina. Members of our group have visited Kamina in the summer of 2003 and again in 2005. We are encouraged by the improvements we saw over this time as the region distances itself from an awful six-year war. We have strong relationships with local business and church leaders in Kamina and have regular communication via email or cell phone.

Our unique approach…We believe that small businesses are the key to economic sustainability. Furthermore, we recognize that local passion, local knowledge and local resources are key to successful small businesses. Thus we have developed a plan to encourage local entrepreneurs and to help remove any obstacles, perceived or real, that are currently standing in the way of their dream of starting or improving a small business. Our program will partner with the Sirolli Institiute and its Enterprise Facilitation^® process to involve a locally-hired, full-time enterprise facilitator in Kamina who will utilize the networking resources of a local Board to assist entrepreneurs. The facilitator will work to build a community of support for small business entrepreneurs, act as a coach for those with business ideas, help people develop sound business plans, provide access to training in business skills, and connect them to sources of capital to allow a climate of commerce to emerge. In general, we believe that such a bottom-up approach is superior to a top-down method of simply giving money to large, global organizations which have a vague plan or a broad mantra such as ‘end hunger’ or ‘solve poverty’. Thus we are about point-to-point contacts and seeing the results of our efforts. We are about local ownership and local accountability. We do not want to create dependency (e.g. donating a high-tech tractor but creating a dependency on expensive diesel fuel and imported replacement parts) and we want to ensure that our efforts ‘fit’ within the local culture and do not damage the local environment.

What's next?…The people of Kamina have proven their ability to establish peace, provide for their people, and establish a working community through the resources they have available. It is our hope and their desire to expand the number of sustainable small businesses in their community through the coaching provided by the enterprise facilitator. It is equally likely that this model could be replicated elsewhere in the DRC and in other third world communities. We are currently at the critical fundraising stage of our efforts.