We Need to Have a Big Dream

“We know the pain of being an orphan,” said Stany.

Mariam’s mother was murdered when she was eight. Both of Stany’s parents were killed when he was nine. All were noncombatants in eastern D. R. Congo, victims of their country’s decades-long cycle of war and unrest. 

As young adults in 2002, Stany Muhindo and Mariam Furaha fled from violence in Congo to Uganda, and lived for several years in Kampala, the capital. Although both from Goma, a large city on the eastern border of D.R. Congo, it was in Kampala that they met and fell in love. 

They married in 2008 and came to the U.S. as refugees in 2008 and 2009, Stany first and then Mariam, accompanied by their 6-month-old son. Initially sent to Louisiana by the State Department, they soon moved to Rhode Island, where Congolese friends lived. Stany worked as a nursing assistant, drove Uber, and worked in a commercial bakery. Mariam sewed dresses for the African community and also worked at the bakery. Another son and two daughters joined the family. Christians since childhood, they began attending Christ Reformed Presbyterian Church in East Providence, R.I. (Christ RP for short), joining as members in 2013. Stany was ordained as a deacon in 2023.

Orphans Helping Orphans

In 2013, by sending funds and hiring staff remotely, Stany and Mariam were able to found a small orphanage for street children in Goma, who often resorted to child prostitution to avoid starvation. Named Watoto Kwa Babu (Swahili for “My Grandpa’s House”), the orphanage was almost completely funded by the Muhindos and by Stany’s older sister, Clementine Bahati, and her husband, Masudi Herman, who now live in Denmark. Over the years, hundreds of orphans have made Kwa Babu home. 

Stany and Mariam made significant financial sacrifices to support this work. Stany worked two jobs and the family of six rented a third floor walk-up apartment, even as refugee friends in Providence began to buy homes. Christ RP held free will offerings in support of Kwa Babu, but needs were many and finances remained tenuous. 

A Big Dream: The Hospital Begins

The orphans had many medical issues, but local hospitals were expensive. In 2017, working remotely through trusted employees, Stany and Mariam hired a doctor and nurse and set up a one-room clinic inside the orphanage to save costs. They soon realized that opening their clinic to the public might provide funding to support the orphanage, so they prayed to God and applied for a government permit for a medical clinic, usually a long and difficult process. 

To their surprise, in 2018, the government granted a certificate for, not just a clinic, but a larger medical center with more staff. When Stany received the permit, he said, “This is big now. We need to have a big dream.” Centre Médicale Maman Clémentine (French for “Mother Clementine’s Medical Center,” or CMMC) opened in 2017, in a small rented house. CMMC was named, at the Muhindos’ suggestion, in honor of Stany’s older sister, Clementine, who had taken his mother’s place in his life when his parents died, and who also worked to found Kwa Babu and the medical center, providing sacrificial support from her new home in Denmark.

For several years, the new financial model worked well. Kwa Babu orphanage was funded successfully by hospital fees, even though CMMC is the most affordable hospital in Goma. Vulnerable patients–the jobless, disabled, and orphans–are treated for free. Doctors volunteer and are paid small sums for their work, although the Muhindos hope to progress to full-time salaries. The staff of three doctors and 12 nurses are all committed Christians. A chaplain visits on weekends and prayer is held daily. CMMC has moved into a 65-bed building, which they built using a bank loan, on land owned by Stany and Clementine’s family. And the Lord blessed the Muhindos as well: they purchased a home for themselves in Providence in 2021. As Stany said, “God is good, with prayer and prayer.” 

Outside Help Trickles In

Stany and Mariam shared news about CMMC’s growth, and Christ RP began to ramp up support efforts. A church member suggested applying to Project C.U.R.E. for help, and then covered the delivery cost when Project C.U.R.E. sent a shipping container full of medical equipment. An individual family donated an ultrasound machine. Friends and former members of Christ RP also contributed generously. The church funded a second ultrasound machine, and held free will offerings for medicine and food. 

Other organizations helped as well. Clementine’s and Masudi’s church in Denmark, Horeb International Church of God, sent money. A United Nations agency once shipped children’s medicine. An organization in Denmark sent a shipment of eyeglasses. But international support was limited, and the needs kept growing. 

Stany, Mariam, and Clementine (who is a nurse) all continued to be deeply involved personally in CMMC and Kwa Babu. Stany, now an American citizen and free to travel, made three trips back to Goma, one of them to help ensure the container from Project C.U.R.E. arrived safely, and to meet with hospital staff and see operations on the ground. Mariam and Clementine continue to run monthly Zoom classes on marriage, parenting, and Christian teaching for the expectant mothers seeking help from CMMC. 

The Crisis Deepens

As CMMC’s ministry to women and babies grew, so did the need for equipment and funding. Conflict increased again, and Goma’s population increased dramatically in 2024 as the city was flooded with refugees from fighting and rape in surrounding villages. (A more detailed history of the conflict is available here, and you can read updates on CMMC and the political situation here.)

Hope for Goma Begins

In 2024, as Christ RP saw the crisis in Goma unfolding, we began to discuss how we could better help support CMMC and Kwa Babu. We had seen Stany and Mariam make huge personal sacrifices for years to uphold these ministries. We planned to help indefinitely. But we also thought there could be others unaware of this ministry–overseen by Congolese expatriate orphans, for Congolese women and children–who might want to help. Maybe we needed to get the news out about CMMC and Watoto Kwa Babu. 

So Christ RP leadership decided to create Hope for Goma, so that the international community could find out more about the work Stany, Mariam, and Clementine are doing and help support it. 

The name“Hope for Goma” was adopted because “Hope” is the state motto of Rhode Island, Stany and Mariam’s new home. From Rhode Island, they are sending hope to their beloved home city. Part of Stany and Mariam’s “big dream” is to build a second hospital, bigger and in a better location than CMMC, called Sharing Hope Hospital. 

The Future for Goma

Stany and Mariam love Goma. If you ask them about their home, they will tell you about beautiful Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s Great Lakes; volcanic Mount Nyiragongo, where coffee is grown; and Virunga National Park, where visitors can see gorillas in the wild. They will tell you how beautiful the weather is, always temperate, unlike New England winters!

But above all, they love the people of Goma. They want to see Goma at peace, “every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.” (Micah 4:4). The conflict is too big and tangled for one family to solve. But Stany and Mariam believe that God is sovereign over mining rights and militias. He sees every orphaned street child, every woman pregnant by rape, every family grieving a young man lost to tribal conflict. They are doing what they can, with what they have been given, to obey Psalm 82:2: “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” 

Hope for Goma is here to help Stany and Mariam move forward in achieving their big dream.