The Mama Lynn Center is the first priority of Bishop Gabriel Yemba Unda, presiding bishop of the East Congo Episcopal Area. Local leadership includes Dr. Richard Letshu, Honorable Chief Prosper Tunda, Professor Jacqueline Luhahe Lumumba, Professor Marie Claire Yandju and United Methodist Women.
Named after Lynn McAlilly, the Mama Lynn Center will be a sanctuary for women to receive care and find restoration. It will provide space for up to twenty-five to thirty women at a time to get medical attention, counseling, and faith-centered nurture to address problems related to what they have experienced and helping them recover self-respect, dignity and sense of joy.
There will be classes for positive and productive life-skills and income-generation which will include cooking, sewing, midwifery, nutrition, hygiene, Bible study, reading and writing, and recovering their children.
Family reunification will also be an important facet of the Center. Bishop Unda shared, “We will work together with the husbands whose wives were raped so they will understand that it wasn’t the fault of the women who had been raped. They were forced to do it. If their husbands work to build Mama Lynn Center, there will be harmony in the family.”