Caring for the Congo
Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital was established in 2007 to provide high-quality healthcare regardless of economic status and train the next generation of medical professionals.
To date, the hospital has treated 600,000 patients and has established a number of training partnerships with institutions such as the University of Kinshasa and the University of Lubumbashi. Furthermore, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation has been instrumental in helping cover treatment costs for disadvantaged patients.
Preparing Children for Tomorrow
In 2020, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation broke ground on the Samuel Mutombo Institute of Science & Entrepreneurship in the city of Mbuji-Mayi. The school will educate 840 students from pre-K to grade 12, regardless of income. Named in honor of his late father, Samuel Mutombo, Dikembe believes that education is the key to establishing generational success in the Congo.
“An investment in these deserving children is an investment in their families, communities, and country, as well as in their futures. Just like my father, I believe that educated boys and girls can grow up to become great leaders, scholars, economists, physicians, and entrepreneurs, and that one day my country will no longer be considered developing, it will be developed.”
~ Dikembe Mutombo
Reviving the Congo Coffee Industry
It’s no secret that the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in Central Africa, is resource rich; cherished land filled with copper, diamonds, and gold, and abundant with some of the world’s best Arabica and Robusta green beans.
The DRC, which once had a thriving coffee industry, has been ravaged by years of conflict and instability. Coffee production was nationalized in the 1970s and grew successfully up to the early 1990s, by which time the DRC was producing 120,000 tonnes per year.
Coffee production declined during the conflict. It’s reported that the country’s coffee output in 2010 was less than a tenth of the harvest twenty years earlier, due to political instability and related impacts on infrastructure.
A New Dawn for Congolese Coffee
Dikembe is lending his hand in an effort to help restore Congo’s reputation as a key resource of high-quality coffee. He’s teamed up with a number of large non-government organizations (NGOs) and other agencies who have been working with coffee cooperatives in the Eastern and Southern regions to improve the lives of coffee producers by providing trade and training opportunities to ensure they receive sustainable and fair wages.
Currently, well-known coffee giants and global agencies are sourcing delicious coffee beans from DRC coffee cooperatives to support the farming community. The cooperatives can serve one or more functions including but not limited to providing loans to farmers, supplying information pertinent to agricultural production, selling inputs necessary to agricultural production, bargaining on behalf of its members, providing transportation services, and marketing. They help to dramatically reduce the risks for Congolese producers, and by making connections with reputable international distributors and partners, cooperatives provide a more reliable, safer trade model than each producer acting alone.
Mutombo’s Got a Brand New Bag
With the support of the coffee farming community, Dikembe has expanded his efforts to help revitalize the DRC’s coffee industry with his latest venture – the introduction of branded specialty coffees with beans sourced directly from fertile African coffee-growing regions, including the DRC.
Coffee lovers and Dikembe fans can enjoy Mutombo #55 Coffee knowing that we proudly support projects that improve the economic sustainability of the DRC coffee farming communities where our beans are sourced.
With the help of coffee connoisseurs, tastemakers, and fans of Mutombo #55 Coffee, Dikembe is bridging the gap between the Congo and the rest of the world, one cup at a time.
