Project Congo

-The Goma Lady Lions or Simbas are a non profit women’s soccer club located in Goma DRC. The association was formed 12/06/2006.

-The goal of the club is to promote women’s sports and self esteem and at the same time break down inter ethnic barriers and foster a team and community spirit.

-The Simbas are an affilitate member of the Congolese Soccer Federation and participate in the Provincial Division of w soccer.omen’s

-We seek to train and engage troubled girls (single mothers, orphans, illiterate, street children, unemployed and victims of war.)

-We provide teaching for our players on HIV/AIDS and safe sexual practices.

-We fight against tribalism and ethnic conflict

-We provide vocational training in Sewing and Tailoring, Culinary Arts, Hairstyling and Agriculture with to goal of making the women self-supporting.

-Our long term goals are to promote to value of women in society, encourage women’s sports and develop self-esteem and self- reliance in our players.

-In the future we would like to be able to offer workshops and build an office/club house

-Our greatest challenge is lack of equipment and financing to realize our projects. We depend on donor support to keep the program running.

-We are currently unable to pay our coaches, buy new equipment or pay travel expenses to participate at Nationals for which we qualified.

-We currently fund two teams with a total of 33 players. We have many more girls who would like to play. -We are currently staffed with one coach, one attendant and one team medical assistant. We would like to double these positions to provide adequate attention to the players.

Our players are the number one beneficiaries of our efforts and continue to be our focus. We would like to engage other clubs, charities, donors or sponsors to help us continue our vision.

We welcome any question or proposals.

Banyene Viviane (Secretary) Ngongo Franks (president)