Hand Up Congo

Meet the Rev Dr Marthe Kondemo is visiting Australia for the first time, thanks to a Royce and Jean Abbey vocational scholarship www.royceabbey.com, the Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney.

https://www.rotarygreatersydney.org/ and HandUp Congo www.handupcongo.org. The third African and first Congolese to receive this scholarship, ‘Dr Marthe’ is a 44-year-old academic and pastor. Her NSW program will give her the opportunity to learn about women’s health and livelihood initiatives that may be replicable in the Congo. She is an honours graduate in theology from Congo Protestant University (www.upc.ac.cd) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and holds PhD and Master's degrees from the University of South Africa (www.unisa.ac.za). She has been widely published, and facilitates regular workshops on such topics as 'poverty and its impact on women' as well as 'gender justice'. The mum of five lives in Mbandaka, Equateur Province, DRC, where our club planted the country’s first Rotary Peace Pole in January 2023. She has just been named General Secretary for Women and Families of the Church of Christ in Congo, representing more than 100 Protestant denominations in the vast nation of 95+ million people.

I would like to alert everyone to opportunities to meet Marthe: 

- Saturday, May 18th at Boronia Park Uniting Church (Gladesville) – see attached flyer – Marilyn Mercer is kindly going to teach a rug making workshop with proceeds going to a women’s health project in Congo.
- Saturday, May 25th at same venue – noon lunch for our members and all the nice people she will have met with by then will also be invited. This date falls when RI convention is underway in Singapore, but can’t be helped. Marthe will share the top ideas that she thinks are replicable in Congo.
  • Rotary Club Meetings she is speaking at are:
  • Gladesville (6:30 PM April 29)
  • Lane Cove (6:30 PM April 30)
  • Sydney Cove (7 AM May 24)
Members who have suggestions on who Marthe might meet with during her 3-month stay in Australia may contact Lucy Hobgood-Brown
on 0417 272 101  or     handupcongo@gmail.com.