Fondation Rebuild Women's Hope

The Rebuild Women's Hope Foundation seeks to support the efforts of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo to create equity, justice, and solidarity for themselves, their families, and communities. In 2026, the Foundation will take on responsibility for the social activities that the Cooperative developed over the past decade.

The Rebuild Women’s Hope (RWH) Cooperative was founded in 2013. The Cooperative focuses on the production and sales of coffee and other agricultural crops. Under RWH Cooperative the number of women who have access to income has significantly increased, therefore, changing the financial situations of their families for generations to come. The Cooperative has provided healthcare and improved conditions for those on the island of Idjwi--this has included greater maternal health and medical care for the residents (prior to the RWH clinic, residents often needed to travel by boat for care and they were not able to receive vaccinations for yellow fever and other diseases). The Cooperative sought to reduce gender inequality through increasing women's access to income and teaching coffee farming and production. The Board of Directors for the Cooperative and that of the Foundation have been in conversation and collaboration over the past year as the latter learns the practices and hopes of the former before there is a full transfer of social enterprises.

Rebuild Women's Hope Cooperative has shown the value of such investments by creating a broad range of positive and lasting changes within the communities of Idjwi Island, including˸

- More than 15,056 women have improved their position in socio-economic life. - 300 women have been trained in the promotion of female leadership in the community. - 1,626 women have benefited from receiving training in small income-generating activities. - 250+ women were trained in restoring peace in their community. - 15% of the violence has been significantly reduce in cases of gender-based violence. - Reduction of the death rate among women and children through provision of maternal and pediatric health care which: - facilitated the birth of 621 children; - provided treatment of 4,101 out patients; and - provided in-patient care to over 2,000 suffering from various diseases such as malaria, infection, anemia etc. - The creation of new villages and significant growth of other villages driven by new economic activities – coffee farming and processing.

Considering the results achieved by RWH since 2013, and given the context of eastern DRC in particular, RWH Foundation intends tend to build upon the Cooperative's success in developing economic opportunities, strengthening communities, and improving the lives of women and their families in other communities in the eastern DRC and beyond. The Cooperative will remain in existence but it will prioritize coffee production and promotion.

Rebuild Women's Hope Foundation (RWHF) emerged in 2023 to improve the socio-economic position of women in the DRC beyond the coffee industry. In the coming year, RWH Cooperative will transfer the social enterprises to the Foundation who will expand the economic development for women through teaching various trades (e.g. coffee farming, soap making, sewing) and entrepreneurial skills. RWH Foundation was created to expand the work begun by the Cooperative--empowering women to take charge to have a significant positive impact on the life of the family and on the development and well-being of the community. The Foundation will work on a campaign to increase awareness around and combat gender-based violence. '

The past two years have included dreaming, mapping, and preparing for what we plan to launch in 2026. Since we are in the beginning stages of launching RWHF--separate from the Cooperative--we will need to build our base of funders and implement our operations plan separate from the coffee production and promotion.

RWHF will hire staff to assist with managing the social enterprises that it will receive from the Cooperative. The first steps are to hire a fundraiser and a community liaison. The fundraiser will assist with grant writing and collaborate with the Board of Directors around the allocation of resources. The community liaison will assist with managing the relationships and teams of the social enterprises; assist with outreach; and expand networking beyond coffee industry.

The Founder of Rebuild Women's Hope Cooperative and Foundation: Marcelline grew up in Bukavu on the south shore of Lake Kivu during one of the most violent periods in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The youngest of four daughters, her father abandoned the family when she was three. Inspired by her mother’s bravery in raising her and her sisters and sending them to school using the money she earned from selling coffee and pineapples, Marcelline was motivated from a young age to do something to change the situation for women and girls in eastern DRC. After studying agronomy at the Evangelical University in Africa, Marcelline founded Rebuild Women’s Hope in 2013. Today, Marcelline is the president of the Cooperative, and the Executive Director of the RWH Foundation.