Mbeka Foundation

The Joseph Mbeka Mako Foundation is a non-profit non-governmental organization created in 2015 by the children of the late Ambassador and Vice-Minister Mbeka Makosso Joseph. According to World Bank studies, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 63.9% of Congolese live below the national poverty line and 70% are unemployed, including 50% of young people under the age of 24. In order to break this vicious cycle of poverty, one of the solutions would be to provide quality training to Congolese youth and encourage them to become entrepreneurs.

This is why, in 2015, the Mbeka Foundation was created. The latter has set up a CEFA (Centre d’Education et de Formation en Alternance) based on alternating periods of theoretical training and practical training in the field, where learning takes place within a production process.

The objective is to create a self-sufficient village that will finance all its activities through the sale of its food products. Several agricultural and environmental activities are included: planting acacia trees as part of the reforestation plan, planting fruit trees, food agriculture, beekeeping and livestock.

The foundation began its activities in 2015 in the field of sustainable agriculture. In 2019, the foundation decided to add a string to its bow: beekeeping. This beekeeping project started modestly with 4 hives, and an agricultural engineer specialized in beekeeping, Cezar. In addition to taking care of the hives, Cezar is also the trainer for young Congolese who want to learn the beekeeping profession.

In 2021, the foundation is appealing for funds to expand their beekeeping operations. In an area of fruit and flowering trees, they wish to establish 100 beehives to train job seekers/interns in beekeeping. In the long term, the sale of the honey harvested will allow the foundation’s beekeeping training center to be financially self-sufficient. Following the call for funds, Semlex joined the project. This project mixing agriculture, ecology and education, Semlex could not but be seduced! This is why Semlex decided to finance the expansion project of the Mbeka foundation.

More specifically, the overall objectives of the Mbeka Foundation are to :

• To promote education and training of vulnerable groups (women and children) by facilitating access to education for children and vocational training through practice for adults;
• To contribute to the improvement of agricultural production, family welfare, sustainable management of forest resources and the reduction of poverty and economic development of the provinces of the DRC;
• To contribute to the improvement of food security for urban and rural populations in the provinces of the DRC;
• To ensure the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, the woman and the human being;
• Support to the improvement of the good management of natural resources (environmental protection);
• Organize or support care facilities for neglected children or vulnerable women to involve them in educational and life skills activities in order to contribute to the improvement of their living conditions;
• Ensure the protection of the environment to guarantee a better living environment for the child and the family (hygiene and sanitation).

We invite you to follow this fabulous foundation on their social networks by clicking here.