Meet The Mweni’s

A family striving for better housing with #basicincome and what their story means for the African continent.

Did you know according to the African Cities Research Consortium, every day, more than 1,000 people are added to Kinshasa’s population. The Congolese capital has been the fastest-growing major city in Africa this century. It swelled from just over 6m inhabitants in 2000 to more than 14m in 2020 – an average increase of 410,000 every year !!

Though differing in percentage increase, the village of Balendelende just like Kinshasa (both found in the Democratic Republic of Congo) experiences an issue of adequate / proper housing due to various issues, often inadequate finances and or an increase in population exceeding available resources to cater to it.

ONE OF THE UN’S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IS TO ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ADEQUATE HOUSING AND THE UPGRADING OF SLUMS BY 2030.

How then does such a goal become even in the remotest areas a possibility, areas without proper access to financial institutions that would cater to an ever increasing need for proper housing, a populous that even with such access would have a majority who are ineligible for financial assistance such as mortgages.

The family of Mr & Mrs. Mobile Mweni, residents of Balendelende village are recipients of the unconditional cash transfer program ongoing in their village.
Like many other recipients, they sought out to achieve one goal and that was to secure proper housing, something that would facilitate a better life satisfaction.
The Mweni family with the purchasing power due to their #basicincome have in their possession 30 iron sheets, 25 driers and 35 rafters, all of which will be going to the construction of their household.

Unconditional cash transfers, saving groups are some of the informal or better yet unorthodox ways that families such as that of the Mweni’s have been able to tackle their housing crisis and if applied on a larger scale, it would be suffice to state that would help make the UN’s sustainable development goal of housing close to a reality on the African continent.